Preliminary findings on performance of bridges in the 2010 darfield earthquake

Abstract

On September 4, 2010 a M 7.1 earthquake occurred with an epicentre near the town of Darfield 30-40 km west of the Christchurch CBD. In the days following the earthquake inspections were carried out on highway, road City Council and pedestrian bridges in the Canterbury area. This paper details the preliminary findings based on visual inspection of about fifty five bridges. The paper comprises information supplied by consulting engineering firms which were also directly involved in the inspections soon after the earthquake.