Says Dr. Yuri Rivkov from the Department of Building Engineering at the Ariel University Center in Samaria following the severe earthquake that occurred last night in central Italy
Yesterday, at 03:32 Central European Summer Time (04:32 Israel time), an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit the L'Aquila area, about 95 kilometers from Rome, and at a depth of about five kilometers. As of the closing time of this news, the number of dead has reached 200, many are still buried under the ruins of their homes and are identified as missing, among them an Israeli student studying medicine in the city.
Dr. Yuri Rivkov from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Ariel University Center in Samaria and a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering says in an interview to the website that he was able to distinguish from the photos that came from the area of the noise in Italy, that the houses that were destroyed are the ones where the contractors saved on iron: I saw a photo of a car covered in debris, and almost every The fragments are made of concrete and there is no trace of the steel that was supposed to be there, especially in the joints of the walls.
This is an area located on an active fault, so it is prone to earthquakes. Italy actually takes the issue seriously. There is almost no university that does not have a seismic engineering department, they are known and famous for modern construction methods and also for strengthening ancient buildings. But it is a fact that the church collapsed and other old buildings that were there were probably enough for her to strengthen them. "I am sure that if an earthquake of this magnitude had occurred in a populated area in the third world, there would have been a thousand times more deaths and the place would have been completely destroyed. "
As an expert in the field of construction in Israel, Dr. Rivkov said: I do not want there to be such an earthquake in Israel. I'm afraid that with such power there would have been a lot of demolitions, a lot of collapses, especially in the old buildings such as the tenements of the XNUMXs. There is no law that requires the tenants to check what the situation is after decades that the building they live in exists, and the fact is that even if they check, they don't always check properly. and not taking the right steps. Fact is, recently tenants wanted to improve the resistance of a building to future earthquakes in Tel Aviv, and it collapsed.
"There are modern methods of strengthening to improve the response of buildings that our engineers don't like so much because it is not profitable for contractors to use the modern methods precisely because they are cheap. It is better for the contractor to do work that costs 10 times more because the margin on cheap work is low."
This problem is widespread all over the world, not only here, that's why no standard in any country has forced to establish systems for base isolation and artificial restraint of buildings. Nevertheless, these technologies are applied in hundreds of thousands of buildings around the world, including the USA, Japan, including Italy, Russia. It is a fact that it works. There is a building, for example, in San Francisco where they installed a base isolation system and this was the way to upgrade it and renovate it and increase its resistance to future earthquakes."
Rivkov wonders why there is a link between strengthening the buildings and preparing them for earthquakes and building more housing units. Why not renovate houses without this involving additional actions that would delay the execution? Dr. Rivkov wonders.
What is your conclusion?
Dr. Rivkov: "The conclusion is that we should be more open to new proposals, to check the durability of the houses we live in. Do not follow the cheapest offer in the test but the offer that brings us to the highest durability. We need to use known methods, not just methods from 50 years ago."
"We need to vaccinate the structure, like you do a flu vaccine." He concludes.
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The state would do well if it held a tender in which it would check X contractors and entrepreneurs, it would arrive at 5-10 recommended both in terms of ability to perform and in terms of reliability, and with them the tenants would be able to implement the project.
Today there is no other project that has been carried out, there is no contractor with experience in dealing with such a project and no one is willing to be a guinea pig and get stuck with a contractor who will go bankrupt, or have the building collapse.
I have a question for you and I hope you will answer it
I'm moving to a building that is on top of shops in the city of Lod, it has no columns except for two columns in the parking lot... I wanted to ask you if it helps the building's durability that it's on top of shops... and in your opinion, what are the chances of this building collapsing
Thanks
my father
Dr. Rivkov's article is correct in principle but not perfect. In Israel there is a program called, to the best of my recollection, Tama 38 concerning the strengthening of buildings against earthquakes. This program also provides financing solutions for the issue, since in the old buildings mostly apartments live without means of financing and the state is not able to finance the huge costs in order This size (about 40% of the total number of buildings in Israel) therefore, renovation and additional construction rights were granted such as building elevators. Building an additional floor on the ground floor or on the roof of the building. This floor is the right of the tenants and can be handed over as payment to the contractor/company that strengthens the building and everything is done only after approval The authorized authorities including the inspection of the plans by the construction committee and the granting of construction approval according to the standard.
The Achilles' heel of the plan is a lack of money both on the part of the hard-to-find apartments and on the part of the contractor/building company.
That's all well and good, but he doesn't specify what needs to be done to reduce the chances of damage. Who to contact, what to ask for?
This is how the man defines his role, which also includes the name of the institution where he teaches and researches.
I have enough problems on my mind before I start getting into semantics.
Some semantics regarding the college in Ariel:
The term "university center" is meaningless and is not recognized by any body except one (himself, of course). It is an invention of Judea and Samaria College in Ariel, which lobbied hard for it to become a university a few years ago. When it failed, it decided in a typical step to put a stop to the decision The Council for Higher Education and calling itself a "university center" which sounds more prestigious than "just" a college. However, the term has no practical meaning: in Israel there are universities and there are colleges, and that's it. And Ariel is a college like any other college.
It is indeed good, the rich should fall together with everyone.