STATNAMIC Case History

STATNAMIC CASE HISTORY

S9508: Kobe, Japan. The earthquake of January 17, 1995, whose epicentre was only 20 km from Kobe, caused billions of dollars of damage to buildings, bridges, transportation systems, and port facilities.More than 5,200 people died and over 34,000 were injured. Close to 300,000 were left homeless by the quake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale and Kobe's first earthquake in 80 years.The maximum recorded horizontal peak ground acceleration in Kobe was 0.8g. Reconstruction and refitting began almost immediately.

On September 5, 1995, Berminghammer Foundation Equipment assisted Makoto Tsuzuki of Fugro Japan in testing two foundations to determine if they could be used in the reconstruction.The 1500 mm diameter, 23.4 m drilled shafts were constructed in 1970 for an access ramp to the Hanshin Expressway, which had been destroyed in the earthquake. Hanshin E.H.P.C. of Ashiya, Japan was the general contractor. Testing was supervised by Mr. Nishimura.

The Kobe site was less than 5 metres from the adjacent roadway (carrying traffic from the destroyed Hanshin Expressway). Both tests were completed without disruption to traffic as a nearby traffic light provided a window of about 40 seconds to conduct each test.

Both tests were a complete success, showing elastic behaviour up to the maximum load of 6.1 MN (690 tons) or 2 times the working load. Further plans include testing other foundations on parts of the damaged expressway.

For more information on STATNAMIC tests, please contact Berminghammer.