Bridges

The increasing demand for safer bridges and buildings under seismic conditions in Europe has resulted in the development of the first European specifications to regulate this area. The norm EN 15129, published in 2009, covers the design, manufacturing and testing of anti-seismic devices in Europe. Among the wide variety of anti-seismic devices, seismic isolators such as elastomeric seismic protection bearings have become very popular. These devices already had existing specifications within the seismic engineering community – most notably the international standard ISO 22762, which was first published in 2005. It was therefore proposed to compare the specifications, with a focus on design requirements and testing protocols. The comparison aims to highlight similarities and differences, and is intended to be of use, for example, to any engineer who has to decide which of the two standards to specify for a project, or who is familiar with one standard and has to become acquainted with the other.