Functional acceptance tests for the sismic isolation devices of the new San Giorgio bridge in Genoa

The New San Giorgio Bridge has been built in a very short time between April 2019 and Au- gust 2020 in order to reconnect the highway system of the western part of Italy after the trag- edy of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, bui lt in 1967 by prof. Riccardo Morandi. The new viaduct has a steel concrete composite closed section for the deck, a structural scheme of con- tinuous beam with a total of 19 spans supported by elliptical concrete box piers with a maxi- mum height of 40 m. The bridge is seismically isolated by means of friction pendulum devices and multidirectional bearings. In the transverse di rection the seismic devices, except for two piers, are a combination of friction pendulum and shear fuses. The paper describes the con- struction supervision process for the functional acceptance tests of the bearing devices with respect to the Italian National Law, NTC2018, European norms EN15129 and EN1337, and in fulfilment with the Technical Specifications issued by the Italian Railway system (RFI) and Italian State Road Association (ANAS). The pa per highlights the main issues encountered during the application of the several specifica tions for the certification and acceptance pro- cesses. A description of the different functional tests required during the construction supervi- sion process is presented as well as an overview of the different acceptance criteria of the tests results. The aim is to provide useful recommendations for technicians involved in the definition of the seismic acceptance tests for be aring devices for highway bridges in the Ital- ian and European contest.