CUREe-CALTECH WOODFRAME PROJECT

CUREe-CALTECH WOODFRAME PROJECT RECEIVES OVER $5 MILLION IN FEDERAL FUNDS

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) have announced a grant of $5.2 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for a three-year multi-university project to reduce damage and losses to woodframe construction in future earthquakes. The project concept originated following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, in which approximately half of the property losses were incurred by damage to woodframe construction. Professor John Hall of Caltech will be the Project Manager; the multi-university, consulting engineering, and other tasks in the project are carried out under subcontract to California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREe). The project's official title is "Earthquake Hazard Reduction of Woodframe Construction."

Approved and funded under FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), which is administered by OES, the grant will fund laboratory testing and analysis of woodframe buildings and studies of their damage in the Northridge Earthquake. Primary goals of the project include improving building codes and standards, making insurance ratings and loss estimates more accurate, and training building designers, building inspectors and contractors. Combined with non-federal matching funds, the total project budget will be $6.9 million.

"We are pleased to announce this unique partnership among academic institutions, professional engineering organizations and government," OES Director Richard Andrews said. "This combined effort is necessary to fully understand ways to achieve safer woodframe building performance during earthquakes."

"This project is a great example of drawing together a number of different resources to find ways to build disaster-resistant communities. Everyone involved in this project shares the goal of reducing or eliminating long-term risks to people and property from natural disasters," said Christina Lopez, Federal Coordinating Officer for FEMA.

"In this project, we are concerned with the need to provide adequate earthquake resistance in new construction and to reduce the risks associated with existing structures, such as the thousands of multi-residential wood buildings constructed over poorly braced parking garages," Project Manager and Caltech Professor John Hall said.

"The woodframe building's earthquake problems have been overlooked and under-researched," according to Robert Reitherman, Executive Director of California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREe), which will direct the project's multi-university tasks. "Our goal is to make the engineering more scientific and the construction more efficient."

Research will be conducted at laboratories or by faculty of several universities in addition to Caltech. CUREe's other member universities are Stanford University, University of Southern California, and the University of California campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles and San Diego. Consulting engineers will also be involved in studies of the performance of wood buildings. The Structural Engineers Association of California will advise the project, along with representatives of the insurance, construction, and wood products industries; building officials; Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center; and others.

The project has five elements:

1. Testing and Analysis: Associate Project Manager Prof. Frieder Seible, UCSD; Assistant Associate Project Manager Prof. Chia-Ming Uang, UCSD.

2. Field Investigations: Associate Project Manager Prof. G. G. Schierle, USC.

3. Building Codes and Standards: John Coil, Structural Engineer, Coil & Welsh; Assistant Associate Project Manager Kelly Cobeen, GFDS Engineers; Assistant Associate Project Manager James Russell, Codes Consultant.

4. Economic Aspects: L. Thomas Tobin, Tobin Associates.

5. Education and Outreach, Jill Andrews, Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC).

The Senior Advisor to the project and the representative of the CUREe Board of Directors is Gregg Brandow, President, Brandow & Johnston Associates, Structural Engineers.

Individuals who would like to be kept informed about the CUREe-Caltech Woodframe Project, including receipt of a project newsletter and announcements of Requests for Proposals that may be issued, should send the following information to CUREe.

name affiliation address telephone fax e-mail.

Mail, fax, or e-mail this information with a request to be put on the Woodframe mailing list to:

California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering 1301 S. 46th Street Richmond, CA 94804 fax: 510-231-5664 e-mail: curee@nisee.ce.berkeley.edu