Sunday, Sep 01, 2013
Sharjah: In light of recent tremors in the region, Sharjah Municipality has announced it will be updating its earthquake code to ensure that new buildings in the emirate can withstand earthquakes of a higher magnitude.
With the aim of ensuring the safety of residents, new projects in Sharjah will have to follow a new set of regulations so they are able to resist tremors up to a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale.
“The update was made to keep up with international building codes and to add more safety to the designs of projects,” Gaith Al Shamsi, Head of the Building Permission Department told Gulf News.
Considering the recent tremors that have taken place in the UAE during the past year, the raise in standards will include updating Sharjah’s earthquake code from A2 which covers buildings that are between five to ten floors, and should withstand tremors up to 5.5 on the Richter scale to B2, which covers buildings that are above ten floors, and should withstand tremors up to 6 on the Richter scale.
“The circular has been distributed to all public engineering consultancy companies in Sharjah, which includes the requirements and specifications of the structural design of sector loads related to earthquakes and wind speed,” added Al Shamsi.
Also apart from the new standards, static analysis will be carried out on buildings which have a ground floor plus five storeys and buildings with a ground floor and nine storeys, whereas dynamic analysis will be carried out on all buildings despite their size and height, said Al Shamsi.
“The new seismic code will be applied to the structural design of buildings in Sharjah in accordance to the Universal Building Code (UBC) and the International Building Code (IBC),” he added.
The decision to update the earthquake code was made based on scientific and engineering studies carried out by the Building Licensing Department at Sharjah Municipality.
By Jumana Khamis Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
