Society saves $6 for every dollar spent through federal grants funded to the private sector for damage reduction in the event of river flooding, storm surge, fire at the wildland-urban interface, and strong winds and earthquakes, says NIBS.
On Jan. 9, the American Society of Civil Engineers approved for publication its first manual of practice for performance-based structural fire engineering.
If structural engineers have their way, building codes will take a historic leap forward in the next few years to allow higher-strength 80-ksi reinforcing steel, instead of 60 ksi, in reinforced concrete shear walls.
Projects sited in areas with the worst soil—in high-risk seismic zones and subject to liquefaction—would require more than one geotechnical engineer on the peer-review team.
The city and county Dept. of Building Inspection issued interim guidelines and procedures for structural, geotechnical and seismic-hazard engineering design review for new buildings 240 ft or taller.
Based on 2016 tests of a composite cross-laminated timber-and-concrete floor system, architect-engineer Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has released guidance on how to analyze composite timber floors and predict their behavior in wood frames.
Earlier this month, just over two years after Los Angeles passed a law requiring seismic retrofits of older, nonductile concrete buildings, the city’s Dept. of Building and Safety began sending compliance orders to owners.