Old buildings need quake safety checks

Old buildings need quake safety checks

JAKARTA (JP): Senior architect Wiratman Wangsadinata said
high-rise buildings constructed before 1971 needed review to make
sure they met standard earthquake safety requirements.

The professor of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) said
yesterday that if buildings had not been designed to withstand
quakes they should be demolished for the sake of the people using
them.

He cited the old buildings standing on Jl. Gajah Mada and Jl.
Hayam Wuruk downtown, Antara reported yesterday.

He said, however, sky-scrapers built after 1970 were
relatively safe because the builders had met quake safety
requirements in their applications for building permits from the
city administration.

The city administration has a team to supervise and inspect
building plans before issuing builders permits to develop, he
said.

The team was set up in 1972 and since then the standard
requirements have had to be met in order to build high-rise
buildings or sky-scrapers. "Therefore buildings constructed
before 1971 could be prone to quake damage."

Wiratman had earlier said that all the high-rise buildings in
the capital had been designed to withstand quakes much greater
than the March 17 tremors, which were between 5.8 and 6.0 on the
Richter scale.

He said the intensity would have to be at least two and a half
times that of the recent quake to damage buildings here.

"But I could not guarantee there would be no damage if the
tremors reached 7 or 8 on the Richter scale. Such a quake could
happen at anytime," he said.

Wiratman said there was special technology available to
strengthen old buildings against quakes. "But that would be
almost as expensive as constructing new ones. The special
technology is reserved for historical buildings only." (sur)