A Survey of Damages to Bridges in Pakistan after the Major Earthquake of 8 October 2005

An earthquake measuring M_w 7.6 struck the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir on 8 October 2005. The epicenter of the earthquake was located 22 km from the city of Muzaffarabad. The earthquake resulted in the loss of more than 80,000 lives and caused extensive damage to property and infrastructure. A survey of an approximately 400-km road network was carried out, in which 90 bridges were inspected for earthquake-associated damage, out of which 14 bridges (16%) experienced damage of varying degrees, of which nine bridges (10%) either failed or became nonfunctional. The survey revealed some of the deficiencies of the construction practices in Pakistan and also highlighted the need for improvement to the country's current bridge design practices. This paper reports the prominent types of failures observed and discusses the deficiencies in current design practices. Based on the findings of the survey, various recommendations are made, with the objective of minimizing earthquake-associated damages to new and existing bridges in areas with a high seismic risk.