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October 14, 2008

Session 2B: Megacity Infrastructure and Engineering the Future
The design of critical infrastructure related to roads, ports and public projects needs special attention in large cities. This session looks at how engineering can render our infrastructure systems, including transportation networks, ports, and bridges more resilient to earthquake, and avoid cascading effects of catastrophic proportion in megacities.

Moderator: Dr. Jean-Pierre Bardet, Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering, USC
Michael R. Christensen, Port of Los Angeles, Presentation
John Wallace, NEES, Presentation
Erdal Safak, Istanbul, Turkey, Presentation

Steve McCabe Presentation

The Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) consists of 15 equipment sites for study of the built environment under earthquake excitation. Funded by NSF, the sites provide state-of-the-art experimental facilities, shared by researchers, to study structural, geotechnical and hydrodynamic problems to improve system performance and mitigate damage. The Network and its impact on research, public policy, education and Engineering practice will be discussed.

Critical Urban Infrastructure

by Thomas D. O'Rourke

Protecting America’s Largest Port from Seismic Impacts

by Dr. Jean-Pierre Bardet

The Port of Los Angeles is America’s busiest container port and, together with the Port of Long Beach, forms the gateway for almost half of the containerized goods coming into the United States.  An interruption of this supply chain stemming from a seismic event could impact the local, regional, and national economies to the tune of Billions of dollars per day.  Port infrastructure, including wharves, cranes, bridges, marine terminal landfills, highways, and railroads are potentially vulnerable.  And new geologic information, including discovery of a new fault under the center of the harbor, points to increased seismic risks.  Port engineers have spent nearly a decade reviewing seismic standards and engineering designs to develop a strategic approach that applies new designs and dedicates the appropriate level of effort and resources to limiting the damage of a major seismic event on critical Port infrastructure, thereby reducing the impact to the nation’s economy.  These efforts have incorporated “lessons learned” including impacts from the 1995 Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, Japan, on their port’s infrastructure which is very similar to our own.  This presentation summarizes these designs, seismic standards and strategies.