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Cali’s Newer Buildings Withstood the Earthquake Better, Engineers Find
🇨🇴 Colombia /Disasters & Emergencies

Cali’s Newer Buildings Withstood the Earthquake Better, Engineers Find

From El Tiempo · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Camacol president Guillermo Herrera led a technical meeting in Cali with structural, seismic and geotechnical experts after the Aug. 10 earthquake.
  • Experts found that buildings built under Colombia’s NSR-10 seismic standards generally performed better than older structures.
  • Damage and emergencies were concentrated in older areas, particularly among medium-rise buildings of four to six floors.

Cali’s newer buildings performed far better in the Aug. 10 earthquake than older structures that predated current design standards, according to an initial technical assessment.

Guillermo Herrera, president of the Colombian Construction Chamber, or Camacol, led a meeting in Cali with specialists from the Colombian Association of Seismic Engineering, the Colombian Society of Engineers and geotechnical experts. The group examined structural damage and coordinated response efforts after the magnitude 7.4 earthquake.

The buildings constructed under the NSR-10 standard had much better dynamic behavior than older buildings that could not be subjected to these design requirements.

— Guillermo HerreraCamacol’s president compared newer buildings with older structures after the earthquake.

The assessment found a favorable result for buildings that comply with Colombia’s current technical regulations. Herrera said the difference was especially clear between recent structures and buildings constructed decades ago, before the current standards applied.

“The buildings constructed under the NSR-10 standard had much better dynamic behavior than older buildings that could not be subjected to these design requirements,” Herrera said.

He also said buildings linked directly to formal construction companies performed well. “All the buildings, all the constructions of Camacol’s members, especially those using industrialized structural-wall systems, performed very well, and none collapsed,” he said.

All the buildings, all the constructions of Camacol’s members, especially those using industrialized structural-wall systems, performed very well, and none collapsed.

— Guillermo HerreraHerrera described the performance of buildings connected to formal construction companies.

By contrast, failures and emergencies were concentrated in older sectors. The seismic waves caused greater damage to medium-rise structures between four and six floors.

Herrera said Colombia’s seismic-resistance law, Law 400 and its technical regulation NSR-10, seeks to reduce loss of life and damage to public and private property during a destructive earthquake.

The seismic-resistance law in Colombia, NSR-10, gives us reassurance that buildings constructed under those design provisions performed very well during the earthquake.

— Guillermo HerreraHe explained the protection provided by Colombia’s seismic building rules.
About this summary

Originally published by El Tiempo in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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