Benchmark problems in structural response control have served the international structural controls community as virtual test beds to compare different control algorithms since the first benchmark problem was proposed in 1996 through the sponsorship of the ASCE Structural Control Committee and Task Group on Benchmark Problems, the U.S. Panel on structural control, and International Association of Structural Control and Monitoring (IASCM). These problems offer well-developed models of structural system focusing on the response control of seismic and wind-excited buildings, seismically excited long-span cable-stayed bridges and seismically excited base-isolated buildings using prescribed earthquakes and standard set of evaluation criteria. They have been used by the entire community of researchers, educators, students and practitioners to investigate numerous control devices and algorithms. In 2004, the authors, in collaboration with Professor Ping Tan of Guangzhou University in China and Professor Jian Zhang of the University of California, Los Angeles, developed the benchmark structural control problem for a seismically excited highway bridge through the sponsorship of the ASCE committee on Structural Control and Task Group on Benchmark Problems, the U.S. Panel on structural control and International Association of Structural Control and Monitoring (IASCM). This special issue focuses on contributions to this benchmark structural control problem for a seismically excited highway bridge. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.