Campus Earthquake Danger

UCLA dorm room damage from 1994 Northridge earthquake

There have been reports in the news media - up to this point focused on UC-Berkeley - about a study of earthquake risk to major campus buildings. The LA Times now reports both UCLA and Berkeley have buildings that pose a severe risk.

Back in the day (1970s after the 1971 quake) a report was done on the UCLA campus rating the risk for various buildings. There seemed to be paralysis in doing something about it as the campus wanted UCOP to pay for upgrades and UCOP wanted the campus to pay for them.

A group of faculty back then leaked the report to the LA Times and action followed. (You will, of course, not ask yours truly how he knows about the leaking.)

We will see how long it takes for upgrading this time now that the new study has appeared in the news media. Since Murphy Hall has been identified as one of the risky buildings, the schedule may be accelerated.

It might be noted that Berkeley Chancellor Christ has issued a statement on the report:
https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/08/28/seismic-message/
We have yet to hear from UCLA.

Earthquakes could kill people in many UCLA, UC Berkeley buildings, officials say

LA Times, Rong-Gong Lin II and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, 8-29-19

Royce Hall under repair after 1994 Northridge earthquake

Dozens of buildings at UCLA and UC Berkeley pose a serious risk to life in a strong earthquake, with at least 68 seismically deficient structures at UC Berkeley and 18 at UCLA, according to new university studies. Although no campus buildings were deemed to be in the worst category, “dangerous,” six at UC Berkeley and three at UCLA were found to have a “severe” risk to life. The remaining 62 at UC Berkeley and 15 at UCLA were said to have a “serious” risk to life, according to the first reports released this week in response to a UC Board of Regents 2017 directive calling on every campus to undertake a seismic risk assessment.

Other campuses are still compiling their reports. In general, UC campuses at particular risk of ground shaking in earthquakes include UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco.

Some of the UCLA buildings that pose a serious risk to life are the campus’ most significant — the Young and Powell libraries, which are large and highly populated; Murphy Hall, home to campus administrators; and the Luskin School of Public Affairs building, where hundreds attend humanities classes. 

UCLA, attended by 45,500 undergraduate and graduate students, is threatened by the Santa Monica fault, which runs along Santa Monica Boulevard, and the Newport-Inglewood fault, which runs from Orange County through Baldwin Hills and ends near campus. Each fault is capable of producing a quake of magnitude 7 or greater.

UC Berkeley, which serves about 42,500 undergraduate and graduate students, must contend with the Hayward fault, which runs through the campus’ eastern section and has the potential to unleash an earthquake of greater than magnitude 7.

Buildings with a severe risk to life are defined in the university studies as having a “very poor” seismic performance, where the cost to make repairs would be 40% to 100% of the cost to rebuild it from scratch. Those with a serious risk to life are deemed to have a “poor” seismic performance, and repairs would range between 20% to 50% of the cost to rebuild it...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-29/how-would-uc-berkeley-fare-in-a-big-earthquake-officials-looked-and-its-scary

Building rating scale:
https://capitalstrategies.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/uc-cr-17-0316_ratingscale.pdf

I guess it could be worse: