On the Brink - Advanced seismic analysis and design keep a crucial 15-story building near the Hayward Fault from becoming history.
June 2008 - Modern Steel Construction Magazine - On the Brink
Advanced seismic analysis and design keep a crucial 15-story building near the Hayward Fault from becoming history.
Just five miles from California’s Hayward Fault stands the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) District 4 headquarters, a 15-story steel moment frame structure that houses the San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation operations, including its emergency response team.
The structure was built two years after the destructive 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Its integrity was not questioned until three years after Caltrans’ operations moved in, when the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged numerous steel moment frame buildings in the Los Angeles area. As a consequence, seismic retrofitting became mandatory. A team under the direction of Degenkolb Engineers, and including The Crosby Group, employed extensive state-of-the-art analysis techniques to design and test a retrofit scheme that will protect the building.