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Axios San Francisco
San Francisco works toward seismically retrofitting some concrete buildings
By Megan Rose Dickey,
2024-04-17
Amid collective anxiety about when the " Big One " will hit, San Francisco city officials are working to seismically retrofit the concrete buildings at risk of collapsing during a major earthquake .
Why it matters: Certain types of concrete buildings — ones that are inflexible or lack steel reinforcements — can be vulnerable to cracking and collapsing during a major quake, according to city officials .
Driving the news: Mayor London Breed on Tuesday directed San Francisco's Office of Resiliency and Capital Planning to draft legislation creating a screening process for concrete buildings to determine if they would be at risk during a quake.
So far, San Francisco has a preliminary list of about 3,400 concrete buildings that could be at risk, the San Francisco Chronicle reports .
But the city can't know for sure without speaking to building owners and doing proper inspections, Laurel Matthews, an earthquake resilience analyst for the city office told the Chronicle.
Breed has also directed the Department of Building Inspection to create retrofit criteria for concrete buildings within the city's building code.
What they're saying: "San Francisco is always working to prepare for its next earthquake because for us it's not a matter of if, but when," Breed said in a press release.
Context: These efforts are part of the city's Earthquake Safety Implementation Program, a 30-year plan to improve seismic safety.
In 2013, San Francisco introduced a program that has led to seismic retrofits of more than 4,500 multi-family residential buildings in the city, according to the mayor's office.
Threat level: There is at least a 95% chance of a damaging earthquake occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area within the next 100 years, the United States Geological Survey said in January.
USGS defines that level of intensity as "felt by all, many frightened" with some heavy furniture moved, some instances of fallen plaster and slight damage.
The USGS has alo determined that the Bay Area has a 72% chance of having a 6.7-magnitude or greater earthquake by 2043.
Flashback: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was a magnitude-6.9 quake that caused extensive damage to parts of the Bay Area, resulting in dozens of deaths, thousands of injuries and billions of dollars in damage.
The most powerful earthquake in Northern California's recorded history was in 1906, and ranged from a magnitude 7.7 to 8.3, according to USGS.
What's next: The resilency office and building inspection department must complete their respective tasks by Oct. 16, per the mayor's directive.
But the entire process — from draft legislation to completion of seismic retrofits — is expected to be a lengthy one, the Chronicle reports, noting how past retrofits took seven years.
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