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 Santa Maria power plant at Coronel about 20 miles south of Concepcion. The power plant is coal fired 350 MW facilities under construction by Colbun, a large Chilean company. At the time of the earthquake, construction was estimated at 50%-60% of completion (Figure 5). We explored the entire site through an eight hour visit from the water intakes and outfalls (Figure 7) about a mile east on the coast, to the generator rooms and transformers. Overall, damage was slight and confined to situations where: a) due to construction scheduling the structure/equipment was poorly braced or not completed (Figure 3), b) excessive settlement occurred in foundations or structures supported by piles (Figure 6), c) equipment that was undergoing alignment prior to final installation (Figure 2), and d) non structural damage to office areas (Figure 4). 

After visiting the power plant we visited the port of Coronel. The port was undamaged with only minor subsidence on wharves (Figure 9). Cranes located on the unique base isolated wharf where undamaged (Figure 8) (See earlier report by Dr. E. Miranda).

Figure 1.	Figure 2.	Figure 3.
Figure 4.	Figure 5.	Figure 6.
Figure 7.	Figure 8.	Figure 9.