AASHTO LRFD Provisions for the Seismic Design of Steel Plate Girder Bridges

Recent earthquakes have exposed the vulnerability of steel plate girder superstructures to seismic forces. Damage has occurred in cross frames and their connections, shear connectors, and steel plate girders. These earthquakes have revealed the shortcomings of U.S. bridge design specifications for these types of bridges. Section 6 of the AASHTO LRFD specifications does not have any seismic design provisions for steel plate girder bridges. Recently, these specifications have adopted seismic design provisions that are proposed by the authors for steel superstructures to overcome this shortcoming. The adopted specifications are the result of analytical and experimental investigations by various researchers and work published by many seismic provisions and guide specifications. This paper summarizes the new seismic design provisions and outlines the background behind them.