Media Advisory 07-003
And the Bridge Came Tumbling Down
8.0 magnitude indoor quake to test massive bridge
February 7, 2007
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
Researchers studying the effects of earthquakes will use an array of three enormous shake tables to rend a 110-foot-long test bridge. Part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), the University of Nevada, Reno, facility will be the first in the world to test a four-span bridge of this scale. The ultimate forces will reach twice the strength of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
| Who: | Project Director M. Saiid Saiidi, University of Nevada, Reno, and visitors from NEES affiliates across the country |
| What: | Test of bridge span under extreme earthquake forces. The heavily instrumented structure will be recording data to help engineers understand the impact of earthquake forces on bridges and other construction. |
| Where: | The University of Nevada, Reno, campus in the James E. Rogers and Louis Wiener Jr. Large-Scale Structures Laboratory. |
| When: | Thursday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. local time |
The bridge model can be viewed anytime at: http://tpm.ce.unr.edu/perl/portal.pl?section=local_video.
The actual tests on Feb. 15 may be seen at: http://nees.ce.unr.edu/telepresence/
More information on NEES is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nees/index.jsp
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Joshua A. Chamot, NSF, (703) 292-7730, email: jchamot@nsf.gov
Sue Putnam, University of Nevada, Reno, (775) 784-1169, email: sueputnam@unr.edu
Program Contacts
Joy M. Pauschke, NSF, (703) 292-7024, email: jpauschk@nsf.gov
Principal Investigators
M. Saiid Saiidi, University of Nevada, Reno, (775) 784-4839, email: saiidi@unr.edu
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