It has been known that practically unavoidable lap splices of longitudinal reinforcement in the plastic hinge region have a bad effect on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge columns. Lap splices were usually located in the plastic hinge region of most bridge columns designed before the implementation of the new seismic design provisions of 1992 Korea Bridge Design specification. The objective of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of full-sized reinforced concrete bridge piers with lap splice of longitudinal reinforcement in the plastic hinge region, and to develop an appropriate lateral confinement concept of RC bridge columns with lap-spliced longitudinal steels in low or moderate seismicity region. Eight test specimens in the aspect ratio of 4.0 were made with three types of lap splicing, two levels of confinement steel ratios and two types of tie configurations. It was confirmed from the Quasi-Static test that displacement ductility ratios were significantly reduced for nonseismic test columns with lap spliced longitudinal steels but were satisfied the seismic requirement for limited ductile design specimens. As a conclusion, pertinent lateral confinement content was proposed for the seismic. performance of RC bridge piers with $50\%$ lap-spliced longitudinal reinforcing steels in low or moderate seismicity region.