The California Department of Transportation has awarded a $1.5 million research contract to the UCLA Natural Hazards Risk and Resiliency Research Center (NHR3) to establish the Seismic Geohazard Research Program.
The three-year project will focus on advancing seismic hazard characterization, use of recorded earthquake ground motions in performance-based bridge seismic design and improving the assessment of liquefaction hazard.
“Caltrans has been a key supporter of earthquake engineering research for a long time and we are very pleased they have selected NHR3 to coordinate the Seismic Geohazard Research Program,” said the project’s principal investigator, Yousef Bozorgnia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of NHR3. “The program’s goal is to address complex seismic hazard issues, which are essential components for any risk and reliability assessment of our state’s infrastructure.”
(Image: Yousef Bozorgnia)
The Caltrans-funded program is the latest of several major projects awarded to the NHR3 Center. The center has recently received grants funded by the California Energy Commission and California High-Speed Rail Authority. These initiatives are aimed at improving structural preparedness in the event of natural disasters.
“This research initiative awarded by Caltrans, along with other major recent research projects, establishes NHR3 as a major research hub of the seismic risk analysis of lifelines and infrastructure,” said Ali Mosleh, director of the Garrick Risk Institute and UCLA’s Evalyn Knight Professor of Engineering.
For more information about the project and its progress please visit: https://www.risksciences.ucla.edu/nhr3