Local News
Masonry safety to be studied
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
The city is seeking possible new requirements for the city's un-reinforced masonry buildings estimated to number up to 1,000, most of which have not been seismically retrofitted.
A study summarizes the experience of several California cities that instituted a similar requirement over the past two decades. Those cities offered 10 years or more for building owners to meet the new requirements.
In the Nisqually earthquake of 2001, a relatively mild seismic event, two-thirds of the buildings in Seattle that were closed due to earthquake damage were un-reinforced masonry structures. Currently, Seattle requires seismic retrofits when a building is undergoing substantial alterations or substantially increasing the number of occupants in the building.
In the coming months a technical committee will begin assessing what seismic standard would be required if the new mandatory fix is adopted. Seattle would be the first city outside California to have such a requirement, should the fix be approved. Scientific information in recent years has raised the projected risk of significant damage from earthquakes in Seattle.
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