Wind Resistant Design Codes for Bridges in Japan

Abstract

Wind resistant design practice for highway bridges in Japan is generally in accordance with the Specifications for Highway Bridges (SHB), which applies to the bridges with the span length of less than 200 m. However, even for the bridges whose span length exceeds 200 m, the practice often is to consider SHB at any rate, with some modifications appropriate for each particular case. In particular, if the wind-induced dynamic behavior of the bridge is of any concern, the verification of safety against dynamic excitation is conducted by the use of the Wind Resistant Design Manual for Highway Bridges (WRDM), which provides with the supplementary information related to the wind-induced dynamic problems of bridges in general. In case of the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Project (HSB), however, which involved many long-span cable-supported bridges, special provisions for wind resistant design, particularly applicable to this project, were established. Since then, these provisions have been also applied to some other long-span bridges, again with some modifications appropriate for each individual case. In the following sections, each of these design codes is briefly explained.