Washington State is a high seismicity state. The seismic design of highway bridges has gone through significant changes in the past 50 years. It changed from no code requirements, to using equivalent static approach, to adopting the state-of-the-art AASHTO Seismic Design Specifications. The SEISAB and GTSTRUDL computer programs are used to model bridges for dynamic analysis. Washington State Department of Transportation supports research and studies on seismic zonation, seismic response spectra, long duration earthquakes, soil-structure interaction, and subduction zone earthquakes. The results of research and studies become part of the quality improvement process in design, analysis, and structural detailing.

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