SEISMIC ASSESSMENT AND RETROFIT OF EXISTING BRIDGES

The perception of the risk associated to the seismic vulnerability of the transportation
infrastructure, and in particular to that of bridge structures, on the part of both the relevant
authorities and the profession is a quite recent acquisition in Italy. This is possibly due to the
fact that in the last two major events that have struck the Country in the second half of the 20th
century (Friuli 1976 and Irpinia 1980) the transportation infrastructure has not suffered
significant distress. In particular, in Friuli the construction of highways was just at the
beginning. In the Apennine crossing of the A16 highway the bridges did undergo some
damage, mainly due to the inadequacy of the bearing devices, but this was promptly remedied
by the owner through the systematic adoption of the then innovative technique of seismic
isolation.