ASCE Ports 2007 Conference
San Diego, CA
1
Evaluating the Seismic Capacity of a
Newly Designed Wharf at the Port of Oakland
Shah Vahdani,1 John Egan,2 Robert Pyke,3 Chih-Cheng Chin,4 Tom Griswold, 5
and Tom LaBasco6
1 Shah Vahdani, PE, Vice President, Fugro West, Inc.,1000 Broadway, #200,
Oakland, CA, Tel 510-267-4419, Fax 510-268-0137, svahdani@fugro.com.
2 John Egan, PE, Principal Engineer, Geomatrix Consultants, Inc., 2101 Webster
Street, 12th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612: Tel 510-663-4184, Fax 510-663-4141;
ccchin@geomatrix.com
3 Robert Pyke, Consulting Engineer, 1076 Carol Lane, #136, Lafayette, CA 94549,
Tel 925-283-6765, Fax 925-283-7614, bobpyke@attglobal.net.
4 Chin-Cheng Chin, Project Engineer, Geomatrix Consultants, Inc., 2101 Webster
Street, 12th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612: Tel 510-663-4292, Fax 510-663-4141;
jegan@geomatrix.com
5 Tom Griswold, SE, Principal, Liftech Consultants Inc., 344-20th Street, Suite 360,
Oakland, CA 94612: Tel 510-832-5606, Fax 510-832-2436; tgriswold@liftech.net
6 Tom LaBasco, PE, Port Principal Engineer, Port of Oakland, 530 Water Street,
Oakland, CA 94607, Tel 510-627-1498, Fax 510-272-9329,
tlabasco@portoakland.com
Abstract
This paper presents the findings of a seismic capacity study of the recently
designed Berth 59 wharf at the Port of Oakland (the Port), California. The study was
conducted to evaluate whether or not the wharf would collapse in a 2500 year San
Francisco Bay Area seismic event. The wharf had been designed in accordance with
the Port’s seismic design requirements and criteria explained below.
The Port’s wharf design criteria require designing for strain limits for the
forces resulting from three seismic levels. The three levels are events having 50, 20,
and 10 percent probability of exceedance in 50 years. The return periods for these
events are approximately 75 years (Level I), 225 years (Level II), and 500 years
(Level III), respectively. The wharves are expected to suffer no or little damage an