Italy wobbles

It isn’t too much of a surprise that many medieval buildings fell over in this week’s earthquake in L’Aquila, 6.3 on the Reichter scale. What is surprising is the number of modern buildings that were also affected. The worst example as L’Aquila’s 15 year old hospital, which was declared structurally unstable – not good at the time it was most needed. Roman architect Paolo Rocchi says that it should have survived the earthquake if it as built to code – that it didn’t might be evidence of substandard materials having been used.

Red Orbit News 08.04.09

Sky News:

The ABC has information on important buildings damaged in the quake. The 1289 Santa Maria di Collemaggio was reportedly badly affected, though its facade still stands.

UPDATE:
Inspecting the broken columns of an apartment building with an Age correspondent, a distressed structural engineer said, “See this reinforced concrete? It has not been made to standard. Look, it has crumbled, powder. These steel struts, they have slipped under duress, they should hold the concrete under compressive or tensile forces. That is what they are designed to do … see the closure of these horizontal struts? They have not been closed to regulation. This is Italy, this is a scandal, it never changes.”
Scandal among the ruins

Posted by Peter on 10.04.09 in heritage and structural engineers