Post-Earthquake Rapid Damage Assessment of Road Bridges in Glina County

In December 2020, a strong earthquake occurred in Northwestern Croatia with a magnitude of M-L = 6.3. The epicenter of this earthquake was located in the town of Petrinja, about 50 km from Zagreb, and caused severe structural damage throughout Sisak-Moslavina county. One of the biggest problems after this earthquake was the structural condition of the bridges, especially since most of them had to be used immediately for demolition, rescue, and the transport of mobile housing units in the affected areas. Teams of civil engineers were quickly formed to assess the damage and structural viability of these bridges and take necessary actions to make them operational again. This paper presents the results of the rapid post-earthquake assessment for a total of eight bridges, all located in or around the city of Glina. For the assessment, a visual inspection was performed according to a previously established methodology. Although most of the inspected bridges were found to be deteriorated due to old age and lack of maintenance, very few of them showed serious damage from the earthquake, with only one bridge requiring immediate strengthening measures and use restrictions. These measurements are also presented in this paper.

Automated summary

This paper presents the results of the rapid post-earthquake assessment for eight bridges in and around the city of Glina in northwestern Croatia. Although most of the bridges were found to be deteriorated due to age and lack of maintenance, only one bridge required immediate strengthening measures and use restrictions.