Could pre-engineered steel building construction have saved lives in the recent Haitian earthquake disaster?
"Most of the buildings that collapsed and buried people were made of heavy substandard concrete or cinder blocks with no lateral supports and supporting columns that were too small in diameter," the Maimi Herald quoted engineer, Eduardo Fierro, who is an expert in post-earthquake fieldwork. He went on to remark that columns were formed of substandard steel, and that the Haitian government has no building codes and no enforcement of building design. "... it was a disaster caused by the construction industry in Haiti who didn't know anything about building codes," said Ferro.
Olympia's pre-engineered steel buildings are engineered to satisfy the siesmic (earthquake), codes of the area where they will be erected. These local engineering and building codes are designed to allow metal buildings to withstand the forces that an earthquake would generate and the stresses impacting steel structures under certain seismic conditions. Olympia has the know how and experience to engineer their pre-engineered steel buildings so that the entire structural steel system works to resist the forces subjected by seismic events so that the building will remain standing and sound, while other structures may fail and collapse.
Steel building owners in seismic areas should feel safe and secure knowing they have the protection of a pre-engineered Olympia Steel building to rely on.
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