The National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering yesterday called for new laws to encourage the reconstruction of weaker structures, following the partial collapse of four buildings during Tuesday’s earthquake in Hualien.
The magnitude 6 earthquake, which occurred at 11:50pm on Tuesday, 18.3km northeast of Hualien County Hall, had an output level of 7 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity at its strongest point and caused damage to several structures, including two bridges and multiples buildings.
The Marshal Hotel suffered the most damage and was left leaning to one side after its bottom three floors crumpled.
Photo: CNA
At yesterday’s Lunar New Year-end news conference held by the Ministry of Science and Technology, center director-general Huang Shih-chien (黃世建) said the hotel, like structures that collapsed in previous earthquakes, was built before 1999 when stricter building code regulations were introduced.
This, combined with its proximity to the closest fault line, led to its collapse, Huang said.
Often these buildings have large open spaces in their ground floors, making them more prone to collapse, he said.
This is further exacerbated by the occupation of upper floors by residents, he said, adding that pillars or additional walls should be used to provide better structural support.
One of the issues stalling the reinforcement or reconstruction of older buildings is the large number of people who have property rights in the buildings.
Legal regulations governing the reconstruction process should be simplified, he added.
“If a consensus cannot be reached to move forward with reconstruction, I suggest property owners start with incremental, structural reinforcement,” he said, adding that owners of buildings with combined commercial and residential occupation be prohibited from making upper floors of their buildings publicly available until passing earthquake-resilience assessments.
Building Safety Certification Association director-general Tai Yun-fa (戴雲發) said reinforcements would not be enough and that older buildings must be reconstructed.
The Marshal Hotel had already undergone reinforcements, but was still unable to withstand a strong earthquake, he said, adding that the problem lay with its irregular facade and arcade-style architectural design.
Comparing the hotel with the collapse of the Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan during the earthquake on Feb. 6, 2016, Tai said that the latter differed in that its layout was not well designed.
The U-shaped design of that building, along with the use of poor-quality building materials, led to its collapse, he said.
Meanwhile, Huang said the center is capable of predicting an earthquake between five and 10 seconds in advance.
High-tech industry operators, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and United Microelectronics Corp, should network their systems with the center to allow shutdown of equipment in the event of an earthquake, he said, adding this could prevent sensitive systems from damage.
The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp is already networked with the center, he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS