Earthquake Retrofit for Older Masonry Buildings

Damaging earthquakes are less frequent in Australia when compared to weather related events, but when they occur close to communities they can cause significant damage and injury. This community risk to life, property, social fabric, valued community heritage and the local economy is significant and is gaining recognition. Some state and local governments are seeking to raise awareness of earthquake risk with property owners and are targeting grants schemes to promote cost shared investment in retrofit activity. Where property owners do take the initiative to address structural deficiencies they need the assistance of design professionals and a skilled construction industry to undertake retrofit with due address of heritage considerations. If you work in either domain, this document will assist you. This document is aimed to be a resource for you when discussing retrofit needs and options with clients and translating their retrofit objectives to detailed design, documentation and implementation. The primary focus is the most vulnerable building construction type in Australia, older unreinforced masonry, but the principles are informative to address other high risk building types. The objective is cost-effective retrofit measures with minimised disruption to occupants that can address a significant portion of the earthquake risk to the building owner and the community more broadly. It presents information that explains the nature of earthquake hazard in Australia, the risk it presents and the vulnerability factors that contribute to it. It further describes the common failure modes that can be highlighted to clients and a range of measures that can be employed to preclude these. It also links to other resources that can be drawn upon in developing tailored design solutions that the construction industry can readily implement.