State of the art of typologies of piers and abutments of existing Chilean road bridges, considering the risk of scour

Chilean bridges have partially or totally failed due to the scour/undermining of their abutments and piers in the last decade. For this reason, in the last 5 years, the Ministry of Public Works, in reference to its current regulations (Manual de Carreteras Code), in association with Chilean universities, has begun a study on the scour/undermining behavior of bridges in Chile. Within the current maintenance and asset management programs implemented on vulnerability and extreme events, in order to provide an adequate intervention decision, it is necessary to have an adequate cadaster and knowledge of the existing structures, with special focus on the older ones,.

In this framework, this paper presents the evolution of the design of scour control elements in existing Chilean bridges of the 20th century (study of over 300 cases), allowing them to be compared with current design criteria. To this end, detailed design solutions for piers, abutments and bridge foundations from the 1920s to 2000s are presented, analyzing their vulnerability regarding current design conditions.

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