Applied Technology Council A Nonprofit Corporation Advancing Engineering Applications for Hazard Mitigation California - Washington, DC Area

City of Los Angeles seeks candidate single-family wood-frame dwellings for atc-50 seismic evaluation pilot study

The City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety, has announced a Federally funded program whereby 500 single-family wood-frame dwellings in the City will be evaluated for their seismic capacity in a pilot study using procedures being developed by the Applied Technology Council (ATC). The pilot study is scheduled to begin in early 2000 and is being conducted as part of the ATC-50 project, under which ATC is tasked with producing (1) a standardized method for assessing and rating the potential earthquake performance of single-family, wood-frame homes, and (2) economical and effective strengthening measures to reduce a home's vulnerability to costly seismic damage. The project is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program award from the California Office of Emergency Services.

Five hundred homes are needed to verify the seismic assessment rating system. Fifty of them will be selected for structural retrofitting. All evaluations and retrofit work for the selected buildings will be paid for through the FEMA funded grant and will be performed at no cost to the home owner. Any noted seismic weakness is confidential and will be disclosed only to the property owner if so desired. Information collected will be used in developing the statistical data to validate the program. The seismic assessments will be carried out by private structural engineers licensed with the State of California. They will spend between 3 to 4 hours looking for certain specified structural features. No invasive work or dismantling of walls or portions of buildings will occur.

Strengthening work on the 50 homes selected for retrofitting will require removal and replacement of selected portions of the structure's finish. As a result, the structural performance of the building can be expected to improve during a major earthquake.

If you are interested in having your home considered as part of the validation study, you may assist the City of Los Angeles by completing the ATC-50 Dwelling Candidate Form and submitting it to ATC.

For more information, please see the ATC-50 Information Sheet.

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