‘Seismic safety of NW Eugene bridges’ Jan. 30

Eugene’s emergency manager and a city transportation planner will present a webinar on the potential effects of an earthquake on Eugene bridges and overpasses. The public is invited.

“Seismic Safety of Northwest Eugene’s Bridges and Overpasses,” a 90-minute Zoom webinar, will be offered at https://tinyurl.com/SeismicSafety on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m.

Earthquakes — and floods, too — can cause bridges and overpasses to fail, especially if those structures are not seismically engineered.

In an earthquake disaster, damage to our northwest region bridges and overpasses would affect our ability to evacuate and to receive aid and supplies. Knowing the status of our infrastructure and helping to prioritize ongoing improvements to our bridges and overpasses could make a huge difference in our ability to survive and successfully recover.

This will be a great opportunity to learn about the current seismic resilience of our Northwest Eugene bridges and overpasses, about city plans to seismically retrofit these structures, and to ask related questions about emergency preparedness and readiness.

Eugene Transportation Planner Trish Sharma will share a briefing on the current condition and scheduled improvements of our bridges and overpasses. Trish specializes in the emergency preparedness aspects of transportation planning and focused on these elements in her graduate studies.
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Eugene Emergency Manager Sierra Anderson will discuss related emergency preparedness concerns, including evacuation potential and resilience to increase chances of survival and recovery. Sierra has handled major flooding events in Montana, participated in community evacuation drills in Benton County, and organized a regional search and rescue exercise here in Eugene last December.

The presentation is sponsored by “Ready NW Eugene,” the consortium of emergency preparedness committees from three Northwest Eugene neighborhoods: Santa Clara, River Road, and Bethel.

Ready NW Eugene shares preparedness information, including materials on earthquake, flood, fire, and extreme weather events. The group also participates with Eugene Springfield Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and the Eugene Emergency Communications (EmComm) Network. Past presentations are available on the group’s YouTube channel.

For more information, or to start volunteering with your Northwest neighbors, email ReadyNWEugene@gmail.com.

Image courtesy National Transportation Safety Board, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.