Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E., Professor
University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
On October 17th 1989, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook the greater Bay Area, damaged and
collapsed a number of buildings, transportation structures and other facilities. One of the major
structures damaged, albeit in a minor way, was the eastern part of the San Francisco Oakland Bay
Bridge between Yerba Buena Island and the East Bay shore. The main damage was collapse of only
two 50-ft long segments of the roadway above a pier which resulted in closure of the bridge until the
collapsed area was replaced. The day after the collapse, the speaker, Professor Astaneh, whose area of
interest is steel buildings and bridges, started a multi-year investigation of the behavior of this bridge
when subjected to earthquakes and blasts. He will share his major findings. The studies indicate that
the project may end up being the best example of the worst bridge engineering in history marred with
incompetence, flawed design and construction concept and conflicts of interests. A bridge that could
be retrofitted safely for less than $300 million and in less than three years will cost more than $6.1
billion and be constructed in 24 years. This is the case with the Self Anchored, Single Tower new
East Spans of the Bay Bridge currently under construction. The most striking fact about the new
bridge is that from seismic and blast protection point of view it is expected to perform not better than the
the existing east span trusses during a major earthquake or a car bomb attack, both major concerns
for such an iconic and important structure with daily traffic of more than 300,000 cars.