Description of Colombage Construction
Figure 1 found on Facebook (and presumably taken by) Gwenn Goodale Mangine within 24 hours of the earthquake clearly shows a building with its upper story constructed of “colombage” (the French word for “half-timber” or known in Turkey as “hımış” and in Kashmir as “dhajji dewari”) construction. The lower floor appears to be unreinforced stone […]
Photos of Port at Port-au-Prince by Glenn Rix, Georgia Tech
There are two piers at the port. The north pier is where the crane is that many may have seen in photos. The wharf was completely destroyed by liquefaction-induced lateral spreading and is now submerged. At present, no effort is being made to restore operations at the north pier because of the extensive damage. The […]
Observations from the EERI Steel and Industrial Buildings Team
The team left the hotel at 8:00 AM towards the airport to meet with Dr. Ernesto Cruz and Dania Valdivia from Earthquake Engineering Consultants in Santiago/Chile. The airport was investigated for damage and there was none seen except that the sprinkler system was activated after the earthquake (Figure 1). Dr. Cruz led us to the […]
EERI Steel and Industrial Buildings Team Presentation
Read the Report: February 27, 2010 Chile Earthquake Reconnaissance Team Investigation Steel and Industrial Buildings Team (2.7 MB PDF)
Performance of Tall Buildings During the 2/27/2010 Chile Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake
Presentation slides here: Performance of Tall Buildings During the 2/27/2010 Chile Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake
Observations from the EERI Steel and Industrial Buildings Team
The team left Concepcion at 8:30 AM and drove towards Santiago northbound on Ruta 5. Road was in good condition although the traffic was directed to the southbound roadway due to loss of roadway in the northbound direction e.g., in Miraflores (Figure 4). North of Rancagua we observed several damaged bridges e.g. at Graneros, Libertador […]
Photos from the EERI Structural Team
3/17/10 Department store in Concepcion after looting and being set afire. Figure 1 below Midrise concrete building in Concepcion. Significant damage to concrete walls over nearly entire height of building. Lateral system features two longitudinal walls running NW/NE with transverse walls. Transverse walls heavily damaged in at least first and second stories. Figure 2, Figure […]
Observations of Port Facilities
San Antonio San Antonio has seven berths with six ship-to-shore gantry cranes. Two of these cranes were damaged due to ship collisions. Another crane was derailed, but has no significant structural damage, and was placed back on the gantry rails within a few days. Some cranes had minor damage to the mechanical systems, including salt […]
Photos of Building Damage
Festival building Figure 1. Festival Building. Figure 2. It was repaired, due to some damage suffered in 1985. Figure 3. Note longitudinal bar congestion. Figure 4. Note lack of transverse reinforcement in the boundary area. Toledo condominium Figure 1. Shear walls in the […]
Reconnaissance Observations of Buildings
Day 4 (Thursday, March 11) – Santiago Visited SIRVE, an engineering company specializing in base isolation and advanced structural/geotechnical issues. It is an offshoot of the Catholic University. Jack and I are being hosted primarily by Juan Carlos De la LLera, Rafael Riddell, and Karl Luders . They gave us a brief overview of the […]