*2.1. Configuration of the Rocking Bridge System*

The configuration of the resilient bridge system with the ECC-reinforced rocking pier is presented in Figure 1. The main body of the pier and two separated pile caps (i.e., the upper pile cap and the lower pile cap) are the most critical components in the resilient bridge system. Each SMA washer set consists of a group of SMA washer springs and associated nuts, anchor rebar and shim plates. The anchor rebar was casted into the concrete of the lower pile cap and passed through the upper one via a plastic tube which was embedded in the upper pile cap. The SMA washers which were assembled in appropriate styles (e.g., in parallel, in series or in combination) passed through the anchor rebar and were tightly precompressed by the nuts. This SMA-washer based rocking solution is capable of providing stable recoverability and moderate energy dissipation capacity for the bridge system when subjected to severe earthquake events. The fixed bearings were installed on the top of the bent cap but sliding bearings are installed on the top of two abutments for the girder deformation induced by temperature variance. A comprehensive experimental study on reduced scale SMA-washer based rocking piers (with normal concrete) has been recently conducted, where the details are reported elsewhere [40]. When ECC is used for the pier, extra benefits are enabled such as enhanced tension and compression strength and ductility to sustain flexural and shear deformation during seismic excitations. In this way, the residual deformation of the resilient bridge system tends to decrease and the damage to the pier will be alleviated. For the prototype bridge, six sets of the SMA washer devices are equipped in the pile. The configuration of a typical SMA washer set is shown in Figure 1b.

**Figure 1.** Configuration of the resilient bridge with ECC-reinforced rocking pier (Unit: cm). (**a**) Elevation; (**b**) Layout diagram of the SMA washer spring devices.
