Database Identifies Earthquake Readiness
The City of Portland has built a new database to track which buildings have been structurally reinforced to withstand earthquakes. The website includes a convenient map feature, highlighting brick buildings built before the 1960s that have yet to be retrofitted with steel reinforcements. Without these reinforcements, city officials believe, these buildings could crumble or collapse in a significant earthquake, reports the Portland Tribune.
Incorporating the ability to search by address and to view more details about selected buildings, the interactive Unreinforced Masonry Buildings (UMB) map separates buildings into four categories: unreinforced masonry, upgrade in progress, partial upgrade and full upgrade.
The database includes information about 1,800 unreinforced masonry buildings collected as a part of the Portland Unreinforced Masonry Seismic Retrofit Project, a collaboration of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services, the Bureau of Emergency Management and the Portland Development Commission.
A mandatory retrofit policy proposal that could include incentives for building owners is slated to go before city council this year. Only 13% of buildings surveyed in the last study, done in the 1990s, have been upgraded; another 8% have been demolished. [PT]
