In the wake of a powerful earthquake that jolted Surigao City last Saturday and the threat posed by the West Valley fault line, the Quezon City government has ordered a mandatory retrofitting for all city-owned and barangay-owned buildings, particularly those built before the July 1990 quake, to ensure public safety.
Mayor Herbert Bautista approved City Ordinance 2549-2016 to authorize the QC engineering department to identify all potentially hazardous city and barangay-owned buildings, including wood-frame structures constructed prior to the 1990 quake.
The urgency of the seismic retrofitting on all city government-owned buildings highlights QC’s effort to ensure the structural integrity of these buildings and make sure these are disaster resilient, Bautista said.
As defined by the ordinance, seismic retrofitting refers to “structural strengthening or providing the means necessary to modify the seismic response that would otherwise be expected by an existing building during a quake.”
For essential and high-risk buildings, work must be completed and receive final approval from the city engineer within four years after the adoption of the ordinance. For medium and low risk buildings, work must be completed within six years.
A high-risk building is a non-essential structure with an occupied load of 100 or more persons, while a medium-risk building is one having an occupied load of less than 100.
A low-risk building is a structure not open to the public, which is either used as a warehouse or storage building.
“If it is determined that the cost to seismically strengthen is not financially reasonable, the city engineer may recommend demolition,” the city government statement read.
Earlier, Bautista underscored the need for administrators of all government buildings in Quezon City, especially the decades-old ones, to assess the structural integrity of their buildings to ensure these are disaster-resilient.
He cited as necessary the need for all buildings in the city to adhere to green building standards.
In 2009, the city government approved and enacted Ordinance No. SP-1917, the “Green Building Ordinance of 2009,” providing all buildings in the city must follow minimum standards of green infrastructure in their design and construction.