A Study of the Behavior of the San Francisco Waterfront Fills Under Seismic Loading

The research study described in this report was funded by a one year contract with the United States Geological Survey, Contract No. USGS-1408- 0001-16763. The contract period extended from January, 1978 to December, 1978.

A number of people provided valuable assistance during the work and their help is appreciated. Dr. T. Leslie Youd of the Engineering Geology Branch, USGS, Menlo Park made useful suggestions and gave advice to the researchers. Also of the USGS, Messrs. Samuel Shaler and Michael Bennett conducted borings and assisted in the performance of the cone penetration tests. Dr. Lawrence Hansen and Mr. Michael Reed of Stanford University helped conduct the settlement surveys along the waterfront. Mr. Nicholas Sitar of Stanford University assisted in the laboratory tests. Mr. Blaise Cullen of the San Francisco Waste Water Program and Mr. Joseph Jeno of Davis and Moore Consulting Engineers provided copies of historical documents pertaining to the waterfront fills. Messrs. Bud Pierce, Richard Lewis and Douglas Kanaya of Granite-Yamanashi Construction Company allowed access to the test sites and assisted in carrying out the acceleration and settlement measurements. Finally, Professor H. Bolton Seed provided a copy of the hypothetical 1906 San Francisco base rock acceleration record. To all these individuals, the authors express their thanks.