Performance of highway bridge foundations during typhoon Morakot

摘要

In 2009, typhoon Morakot invaded Taiwan and had brought record high accumulatedprecipitation and long maximum rainfall intensity duration to southern Taiwan. Failures of bridge foundationscaused by debris flows, landslides, floods, and scours were all observed during this event. In this paper, threetypical cases of bridge foundation failures selected from Morakot Typhoon will first be presented in details toaccess possible failure scenarios. Both environmental and design factors contributing to the failures of bridgefoundation are discussed. Contents of this lecture is hoped to be helpful for understanding behavior of bridgefoundations under extreme natural hazards.