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Commission approves technical guidance for voluntary seismic retrofits of concrete buildings
Summary
The commission unanimously approved an administrative bulletin providing technical guidance (Appendix A6) that engineers and design professionals can use to meet the voluntary retrofit standards established for concrete buildings in the city's concrete building safety program.
The Building Inspection Commission on July 16 approved publication of an administrative bulletin that provides technical guidance for voluntary seismic retrofit standards for certain concrete buildings, drawn from Appendix A6 of the building code. The approval was unanimous.
The bulletin was presented by Laurel Matthews of the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning, who said the guidance defines seven common structural deficiencies that most often cause collapse in concrete buildings and describes an option (called Option A) where owners address any of those deficiencies and then design a retrofit for a lower seismic force level than would be required under a triggered retrofit. The bulletin supplements the code appendix and is intended to give engineers and design professionals the technical detail needed to implement the voluntary standards.
Staff said the bulletin was reviewed by DBI, the Code Advisory Committee (structural subcommittee) and other technical reviewers. The voluntary program offers building owners an incentive: meeting the voluntary standard in Appendix A6 can provide an exemption from future mandatory retrofit requirements for a defined period, per the ordinance that established the program.
The commission received no public comment on the item and voted to approve the bulletin; Commissioners Williams and Newman sponsored the motion and second. DBI staff said the bulletin will be published to assist owners and engineers considering voluntary retrofits under the concrete building safety program.
Ending: The commission approved the administrative bulletin unanimously and the guidance will be published to support voluntary retrofit work and the existing Appendix A6 code provisions.
