Public Works Research Institute
JAPANESE

What is the "CAESAR"?

Organization

Organization Organization

CAESAR develops technologies and research on matters concerning the maintenance of bridges and prevention and mitigation of earthquake damage to civil structures, as well as concrete structures that include superstructures and substructures of bridges. It is a comprehensive organization formed by technicians and researchers specialized in a holistic maintenance system that integrates the repair, soundness prediction evaluation, inspection technology, design and construction, and seismic design of bridges. In addition, if the road administrator requests support for an urgent issue that requires an intensive and high-level technical collaboration, we can flexibly form a temporary specialized unit to work on it on a full-time basis.

If a research concerns the properties of materials that contain earth, painting, or is mainly related to cold weather-specific phenomena, we follow CAESAR’s plans and coordination and try to solve the issue through collaborative research with concurrent members from the Tsukuba Central Research Institute and the Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region, as well as cooperation with related fields.

Core research function in the Safety Management of Road Bridges

The Center for Advanced Engineering Structural Assessment and Research (CAESAR) is one of the five research units of Japan’s Public Works Research Institute (PWRI). The PWRI, which was founded with the inauguration of a road-material test center in the Civil Engineering Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior in 1921, has now a history of 90 years as a national research institution, an independent administrative corporation, and a National Research and Development Agency. Throughout its history, CAESAR has established itself as the core research function in the formulation of technological standards for the construction of structures, technology development, and disaster prevention measures.

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Collapse of a highway viaduct of Route 3, Kobe route, of the Hanshin Expressway during the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake

Besides exposure to heavy traffic demand and severe natural environment, Japan’s infrastructures are starting to age, urging the development of technologies to evaluate the performance of structures to maintain and renew them accordingly. Therefore, the PWRI reorganized and developed the research units and founded CAESAR on April 1, 2008, as an integrated research institution concerned with construction technologies dedicated to the safety management of road bridges.

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Fracture of the truss member of Kisogawa-ohashi Bridge
Collapse of a highway viaduct of Route 3, Kobe route, of the Hanshin Expressway during the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu
Center for Advanced Engineering Structural Assessment and Research (CAESAR) is one of the four research institutes and centers of Japan's Public Works Research Institute (PWRI).

＜CAESAR’s Role＞

  1. Technical support for Administrators
    Technical support for Administrators can be described as providing diagnosis and prescription for the structures having several technical issues, in response to the requests from road administrators. These difficult issues may include damages or deformations caused by aging, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, as well as design and construction problems. In addition, the data of each case are compiled as a knowledge base and offered to the site in the form of electronic information or a manual.
  2. Research and Development
    The researcher themes include improvement in the efficiency and reliability of maintenance cycles, as well as technologies aimed at renewing or building new social infrastructures to prolong their useful life and maintain them more efficiently. We also develop earthquake-resistant technologies to enhance the resilience of infrastructure facilities. The results obtained are reflected in the formulation of guidelines of periodic inspection and specifications of road bridges.
  3. Dissemination and exchange of information
    As an example of a "Dissemination and exchange of information," we hold free events such as lectures and meetings where the participants can gather and exchange the most recent technology-related information.

Contact Us

Public Works Research Institute
Center for Advanced Engineering Structural Assessment and Research (CAESAR)
1-6 Minamihara, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan 305-8516
e-mail: caesar@pwri.go.jp