Contents: the earthquake's impact on transportation systems; findings (seismology and ground motion; transportation structures; Caltrans seismic design practices; retrofit program; other types of structures); recommendations to improve California's earthquake safety; seismology and ground motion; seismic design codes in California; the California bridge seismic retrofit program; San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge span failure; the Cypress Viaduct collapse; San Francisco freeway viaducts; repair and upgrade of the San Francisco freeway viaducts. Extensive annotated bibliography.

Prepared by the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering of ASCE. This TCLEE Monograph covers the entire range of fire following earthquake (FFE) issues, from historical fires to 20th-century fires in Kobe, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Northridge. FFE has the potential of causing catastrophic losses in the United States, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and other seismically active countries with wood houses. This comprehensive book on FFE and urban conflagrations provides state-of-the-practice insight on unique issues, such as large diameter flex hose applications by fire and water departments. Topics include: History of past fires; Computer modeling of fire spread in the post-earthquake urban environment; Concurrent damage and fire impacts for water, power gas, communication and transportation systems; Examples of reliable water systems built or designed in San Francisco, Vancouver, Berkeley, and Kyoto; Use of large diameter (5 in.) and ultralarge diameter (12 in.) flex hose for fire fighting and water restoration; and Cost-effectiveness of various FFE mitigation strategies, with a detailed benefit-cost model. Water utility engineers, fire fighting professionals, and emergency response planners will benefit from reading this book.

Winner of TransportiCA’s September Book Club Award 2018 On 17 October 1989 one the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day. The bridge was closed for a month for repairs and then reopened to traffic. But what ensued over the next 25 years is the extraordinary story that Karen Trapenberg Frick tells here. It is a cautionary tale to which any governing authority embarking on a megaproject should pay heed. She describes the process by which the bridge was eventually replaced as an exercise in shadowboxing which pitted the combined talents and shortcomings, partnerships and jealousies, ingenuity and obtuseness, generosity and parsimony of the State’s and the region’s leading elected officials, engineers, architects and other members of the governing elites against a collectively imagined future catastrophe of unknown proportions. In so doing she highlights three key questions: If safety was the reason to replace the bridge, why did it take almost 25 years to do so? How did an original estimate of $250 million in 1995 soar to $6.5 billion by 2014? And why was such a complex design chosen? Her final chapter – part epilogue, part reflection – provides recommendations to improve megaproject delivery and design.