Quote:
Originally Posted by osirisboy
These quotes stuck out to me. “YFP will replace the hospital’s original 1966-built tower, which is deemed unsafe based on the findings of two studies conducted in 2005 and 2011.”
“As it only meets 17% of modern seismic standards, the aging tower is at risk of severe structural failure even during a modest magnitude 5.0 earthquake. The building, its equipment, and infrastructure have been deemed 79% deficient, with obsolete and failing systems.”
I mean that’s crazy! Having to go almost 25 years with an unsafe building should not be happening.
Edit* St. Paul is probably worse.
|
St Paul's is undoubtedly worse. Overall historically there was a reluctance by governments to take the seismic threat seriously enough to spend the levels of investment necessary to replace the most threatened buildings. Things became a bit more serious soon after the NDP came to power. "Changes to the 2015 National Building Code (NBC2015) reflected significantly increased assumptions for ground force motions from a Cascadia Fault subduction event off the west coast of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. Specifically, the expectations are for more intense shaking on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii (more than 2x the intensity in some regions) than previously assumed, as well as greater impacts in areas with soft soils, specifically Richmond." [
BC Seismic Mitigation Program]
Across the whole of the Province about half the schools that need replacement or major changes have been completed or are in progress. There are more that need work now, because of the NBC2015 criteria. So far $1.9bn has been spent on the schools, and another $1bn is being spent in the current 3-year capital plan. Some municipalities are sorting out their own buildings. The City of Vancouver demolished the 1970s East Wing, and added reinforcements to the VanCity Building. They're doing a lot of work on their bridges to improve seismic performance too. Burnaby have completed seismic work to the Willingdon Overpass. Metro Vancouver have studied the risks to much of their infrastructure, and have a replacement or strengthening program. But assessment and investment is patchy, and quite a few municipalities don't seem to be doing much.
The bigger unaddressed problem are all the privately owned buildings that face likely collapse. There are plenty of early towers in the West End that are at risk, for example (and plenty more elsewhere built before current standards were adopted). Older wood frame buildings might be at less risk of collapse, because they have greater flexibility than reinforced concrete. You only have to look at the recent events in Florida to realize how devastating things might be. And there are plenty of other concerns beyond residential buildings. The six 1953-built oil tanks in Burnaby owned by Trans Mountain – now a Crown corporation, for example.
Prev
Linear Mode
