This paper proposes a probabilistic approach for the pre‐event assessment of seismic resilience of bridges, including uncertainties associated with expected damage, restoration process, and rebuilding/rehabilitation costs. A fragility analysis performs the probabilistic evaluation of the level of damage (none, slight, moderate, extensive, and complete) induced on bridges by a seismic event. Then, a probabilistic six‐parameter sinusoidal‐based function describes the bridge functionality over time. Depending on the level of regional seismic hazard, the level of performance that decision makers plan to achieve, the allowable economic impact, and the available budget for post‐event rehabilitation activities, a wide spectrum of scenarios are provided. Possible restoration strategies accounting for the desired level of resilience and direct and indirect costs are investigated by performing a Monte Carlo simulation based on Latin hypercube sampling. Sensitivity analyses show how the recovery parameters affect the resilience assessment and seismic impact. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to an existing highway bridge located along a segment of I‐15, between the cities of Corona and Murrieta, in California. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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This paper presents a rational framework for the quantitative assessment of life-cycle risk of bridges within a transportation network. Bridge vulnerability is evaluated with respect to seismic and abnormal traffic hazards. The effects induced by seismic hazard are investigated by means of fragility analysis. Random earthquakes are generated using Latin Hypercube sampling technique, and probabilities of exceeding specific structural damage states are computed for each specific seismic scenario. Traffic hazard is assessed considering Weibull distributed time-to-failure of the bridge superstructure. Epistemic and aleatory uncertainties are accounted for in order to provide a rational assessment of life-cycle risk. Consequence analysis includes different levels of bridge serviceability (fully serviceable, partly serviceable, closed, and collapsed), and monetary values are used to evaluate direct and indirect consequences. Seismic risk, traffic-induced risk, and total risk are evaluated for a group of existing bridges located north of the San Diego metropolitan area.

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