Background

The school board association reported that a county high school was damaged by an earthquake. The school was located approximately 6 miles north of the epicenter of the estimated 5.8 magnitude earthquake.

Services Provided

Rimkus was retained to assess the reported damage to the school and determine if the damage was a result of the earthquake, pre-existing damage, or pre-existing damage which was exacerbated by the earthquake. The high school consisted of several interconnected one-story and two-story structures, which were defined as the 1938 Building, Annex Building, Main Building, and Vocational Building. Our team of experts provided the following services:

• Conducted an on-site visual inspection of the county high school.
• Identified and notified school officials of high risk areas that constituted safety hazards within the structure and the associated use restrictions, as well as the methods for properly securing the area(s) and provided properly designed temporary shoring and repair plans.
• Examined previous engineering reports and repair/replacement recommendations to assess building deficiencies, substantial structural damage, building code compliance upgrades, and related issues.
• Identified the observed damages, amount of each damage type, method of failure, structural significance, and a classification within the damage categories of Earthquake Damage (EQD), Pre-Existing Damage (PX), and Pre-Existing Damage Exacerbated by the Earthquake (PXE).
• Provided repair recommendation priorities and opinions on the feasibility of repairing earthquake damage.