L.A. hits $1-billion earthquake milestone: 8,000 buildings retrofitted
If you thought $1 billion would be enough to pay the bills for the construction of an earthquake-proof Los Angeles, you’d be wrong.
In just three months the city reached a milestone after eight-thousand buildings were retro-fitted with earthquake safety systems.
Some were retro-fitted to retrofit, while others were retro-fitted to make earthquake-proof.
A citywide inventory of the entire city-wide inventory was compiled, and in Los Angeles that inventory now includes 8,000 buildings that are earthquake-protected, officials said.
There are 565 structures retrofittable to make them earthquake proof, and 495 buildings that are retrofitable to retrofit them, officials said.
And it’s clear that there’s a real need–there are reports of a handful of building collapse in Los Angeles, but the city is working with local business owners to retrofit and retrofit their buildings to make them earthquake-proof.
Officials say there’s a real need to retrofit buildings–especially those with earthquake resistance.
Officials are working to retrofit buildings with earthquake resistance to make them earthquake proof in the aftermath of last year’s Northridge earthquake.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 or above can cause up to $20 million in damage to a building. So a retrofitted building can potentially save thousands of dollars in repair costs.
And since Los Angeles is a city of 7.7 million square miles, we will only get one of these quakes in the next 100 years, officials said.
Officials say they’ve been working with business owners for several years to retrofit their buildings.
Most recently the city has been working on replacing water main and water lines in the Downtown area near the California Street Pier.
They’ve been working with the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors to retrofit those buildings within the Downtown area so they’ll be earthquake-proof.
Officials hope their work in the Downtown area will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs costs.
“So for the next 12 months we’ll work with business owners to retrofit buildings with earthquake resistance and it will save the city tens of millions of dollars in the not-so-distant future if we do something now,