To mitigate the column damage during seismic events and to reduce the recovery time after a major earthquake, a post-tensioned bridge column with a rocking interface above the foundation and externally-installed energy dissipation devices was proposed. The energy dissipation devices were specially designed to serve as fuse elements that can be easily replaced after yielding. In addition, a mechanical joint that can rotate freely in all directions was incorporated at one end of the dissipater to ensure bending was not transmitted into this device. To verify the seismic performance of the proposed system, two proposed specimens with different prestressing forces and design details in the rocking base were constructed and tested. From the experiments, it was found that the proposed post-tensioned specimens suffered minor damage after cyclic loadings. All of the damage was concentrated on the inelastic deformation that occurred at the external energy dissipaters. The ease of replacement for the external energy dissipaters was also confirmed.
