Safety and maintenance of infrastructure worries Japan after natural disasters

Having suffered many natural disasters in the past, the Japanese are very much concerned about the safety and maintenance of infrastructure.

In order to have a safe society, the roads, railways or bridges are required to be durable and strong even during disasters. Hence, various researches such as strength tests are being conducted in order to prevent civil engineering structures from breaking during natural disasters like heavy rains or earthquakes.

The 30MN heavy-duty versatile construction material tester is a specialised machine to study the qualities (such as loading capacity and deformability) of the road structures, especially the ones exposed to tough traffic and natural conditions, like bridges.

"The tester is used mainly for checking the strength of the bridging materials. It has a capacity of imposing approximately 3,000 tons of pressure. With its 3,000 tons of pressure capacity, stretching tests can also be performed. That is to see how strong the material is when the material is stretched with 1,000 tons of force," said Eiji Yoshida of Public Works Research Institute, CEASAR.

Large numbers of road structures were built in Japan during the high growth period between 1955 and 1974.

"The large numbers of bridges built during the high growth period are now deteriorating. For the structures that have been in use for a long time, it is necessary to find out how strong the materials are. The tests are conducted to confirm the strength of these materials," said Eiji Yoshida of Public Works Research Institute, CEASAR.

The research from Japan could also be a help in building safe and secure societies in Southeast Asia.