Los Angeles County is moving toward mandatory earthquake retrofits

Los Angeles County took the first step on Tuesday toward a mandatory earthquake retrofitting order for the kinds of concrete buildings that catastrophically collapsed in the devastating earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria, killing many of the 50,000 people so far.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to require officials to prepare new rules requiring modification of county-owned “unductile” concrete buildings, as well as any buildings located in unincorporated areas. Once the new rules go into effect, building owners will have 10 years to complete the retrofits.

The responsible supervisors also ordered the creation of an inventory in unincorporated areas of all “thin-storey” apartment buildings—structures that are vulnerable to collapse in the next major earthquake.

“By doing the inventory, we will have a real understanding of the scale of the number of buildings and people that could be affected by a major earthquake,” said Superintendent Holly Mitchell, who co-authored the motion with Superintendent Hilda Solis. “This will allow us to plan proactively and save lives when – not when – significant seismic activity occurs.”

The oldest type of concrete building that officials targeted had a known defect that was discovered in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

The shortage includes improper configuration of steel reinforcing bars in the concrete frames of buildings—many built in the post-World War II building boom across California and around the world. The defect of insufficient steel reinforcement in the concrete frame allows the concrete to burst out of the columns when shaken in an earthquake, precursor to catastrophic collapse.

After being shaken by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the concrete in this shaft exploded outwards, near collapse. Concrete frameworks built before the 1980s can have the defect that the formation of steel reinforcing bars within the concrete is insufficient, leading to collapses in the earthquake.

(USGS)

In the aftermath of the 1971 earthquake, the buildings were declared non-ductile, which means they are brittle and liable to collapse in the event of an earthquake. This type of construction was considered so unsafe that it was banned for future construction by the 1980s. But most local governments have done little to require that old buildings be evaluated and strengthened if they are found to be defective.

A number of these non-ductile concrete buildings collapsed in the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, which had magnitudes of 6.6 and 6.7, respectively.

Forty-nine people died in the Veterans Administration hospital collapse in Sylmar, and three were killed when the newly built Olive View Medical Center witnessed buildings and staircases collapse, stagger, or collapse. The Kaiser Permanente office and clinic and Bullock’s store partially collapsed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

San Fernando Veterans Administration Hospital patients await evacuation to other facilities as they search through the rubble of collapsed buildings after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Sylmar on February 9, 1971. The hospital was an unstretched concrete building.

(Bruce Cox/Los Angeles Times)

The same type of non-ductile fault caused highway collapses in the Northridge earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A magnitude 7.8 quake, producing the same energy as the most powerful earthquake in Turkey, would be even more devastating in Southern California simply because a much wider area would experience intense shaking—covering an exponentially more land area than any earthquake would. California faced in more than a century.

The only two magnitude 7.8 earthquakes since California became a state occurred on the San Andreas Fault. The one that hit Northern California in 1906 devastated much of San Francisco. And the one that hit Southern California in 1857 ripped about 186 miles from the San Andreas Fault from Monterey County to Los Angeles County, producing shaking so strong that it uprooted and sank trees, producing strong shaking that lasted up to three minutes.

The strongest tremor from the 1857 earthquake has jolted a wide swath of central and southern California, according to estimates by the US Geological Survey. By contrast, the strongest tremor in the 1994 Northridge earthquake was generally confined to the San Fernando Valley.

“While there are only a few non-stretchable concrete buildings in areas that are not incorporated or owned by the county, the county must insist on the urgent need to renovate and repair vulnerable structures to prevent as much loss of life as possible in the event of significant seismic activity,” she said. Boycott movement. “The province should follow the example of surrounding jurisdictions, which have enacted strict timelines to require seismic adjustments for the most vulnerable buildings.”

USGS simulations said it is plausible that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Southern California could cause 50 non-ductile concrete buildings to collapse in whole or in part, with up to 7,500 lives lost. Non-reinforced concrete buildings have been described by the USGS as among those buildings that “pose the greatest threat to the safety of life.”

David Cooke, head of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and a structural engineer with the Gardena-based firm Structural Focus, applauded efforts to retrofit more non-ductile concrete buildings.

He said the action by the City of Los Angeles in 2015 to require non-ductile concrete buildings to be retrofitted by the 1940s resulted in “dozens and dozens of megaprojects undergoing plan and design revisions and even in construction.”

“There are a lot of old, defective concrete buildings, everywhere all over the world, and also in California,” Cook said. “We definitely need to address it.”

The collapse of one large concrete building can not only claim several lives, but destroy the economic center of an entire city for a generation or more, crippling rebuilding efforts once the shaking wears off.

Unductile concrete buildings have been responsible for the deaths of many people in major earthquakes over the decades. However, with the exception of Los Angeles and two other smaller California cities, few governments around the world have summoned the political will to address the problem.

The collapse of two non-ductile concrete buildings in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2011 earthquake caused the vast majority of deaths in that earthquake. Of the 185 people who died, 115 died from the CTV building collapse, and 18 from the Pyne Gould Corp. building collapse.

Eighteen people died in the collapse of the Pyne Gould Corporation building during an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011. It was an unductile concrete building.

(Hannah Johnston/Getty Images)

Structural engineers who saw extensive damage from collapsed buildings in Mexico City during the 2017 earthquake said they were also of ductile concrete. An investigation by a non-profit organization found that corruption and insufficient attention to existing building regulations also played a role.

County supervisors have also ordered officials to take an inventory of so-called soft-storey apartment buildings in unpooled areas as well as those owned by the county. Such soft-storey apartment buildings are also deadly – the building that caused the greatest loss of life in the 1994 earthquake came with the collapse of the Northridge Meadows apartment complex, in which 16 people died.

The movement stopped short of calling for a mandatory retrofit program for thin-floor apartments. But other local governments in the past have sometimes required an inventory first as a prelude to a mandatory retrofit order.

Supervisors warned that failure to dispose of vulnerable thin-floor apartments could result in a disproportionate number of deaths in black and Latino areas.

Soft floor flats, also known as dingbats, have flimsy columns on the ground floor that support car docks and can snap in the event of an earthquake. County leaders say these soft-story structures are more likely to be found in lower-income communities.

Crushed cars in a soft-storey apartment building that collapsed during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

(Roland Otero/Los Angeles Times)

“It’s no secret that older buildings tend to be concentrated in lower-income communities of color,” Solis said. To that end, we must meet the moment by being justly prepared.

Supervisors also asked county officials to identify programs to support homeowners at the cost of seismic retrofits, including an interest-free loan program and subsidies for low-income homeowners.

Max Sherman, lobbyist at Apartment Assn. From Greater Los Angeles, he asked the board to limit its actions to non-clad concrete buildings and any buildings owned by the county, but not privately owned apartments. He said creating an inventory of potentially vulnerable apartments with soft floors would likely cause apartment owners to see a significant increase in insurance premiums.

Upgrades to thin-floor apartments will be very costly for landlords who are still reeling from months of lost rent from eviction moratoriums and rent freezes during the pandemic, Sherman said. He said their members “barely survive” and warned of “catastrophic financial pressures” if the council moved forward.

“While seismic retrofitting serves a vital need, it is important to realize that these projects are very expensive,” he said. “We ask the county not to start this process with housing providers who continue to experience financial hardship.”

Soft floor apartments can collapse because the thin poles holding the chairs can break when shaken.

(Raul Ranoa/Los Angeles Times)

urged Matthew Buck of the California Apartment Assn. , which represents rental property owners across the state, county leaders on Tuesday sought feedback from landlords about the revised schedules.

Buck noted that the city of Los Angeles has given owners 25 years to complete the retrofit of non-ductile concrete buildings, while the county has proposed a 10-year deadline.

“Our members certainly understand the importance of safety,” Buck said. “Real consideration must be given to the cost of retrofitting.”

Santa Monica has an estimated 70 non-ductile concrete buildings and has given owners a 10-year deadline for retrofits, which expires in 2027.

West Hollywood has purchased an estimated 27 unstressed concrete buildings, and an additional 40 have concrete or steel frame. West Hollywood has given 20 years to make modifications to concrete buildings once the city notifies the owner, though the deadlines have been extended due to the pandemic.

A 2013 Times investigation detailed how the city of Los Angeles has known about the fatal flaw of non-stretchable concrete buildings for decades but has done little to address it. After that report, then-mayor Eric Garcetti brought in seismologist Lucy Jones as a science advisor to help address Los Angeles’ risk in a massive earthquake, meeting dozens of times with realtors, businesses, and other groups.

The result of that year’s process led to Garcetti’s proposal, and City Council approval, of a landmark law requiring Los Angeles property owners to retrofit inflexible concrete and soft-story buildings.

There are more than 1,300 non-ductile concrete buildings currently designated by the City of Los Angeles, and approximately 13,000 two-story buildings within the city limits. More progress has been made on soft storey buildings, with more than 8,000 buildings already retrofitted.

After Los Angeles city officials acted, Santa Monica and West Hollywood enacted ordinances mandating retrofitting of inflexible concrete buildings and soft decks. While a number of California cities have ordered soft-story buildings to be retrofitted, many have not, and only Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood have issued orders for non-ductile concrete buildings.

Other California cities that have retrofit orders in place for soft-storey buildings include Culver City, Beverly Hills, and Pasadena. In Northern California, such laws exist in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and Fremont as well.

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