March 29, 2010
**MEDIA ADVISORY**
American Society of Civil Engineers’ Post-Disaster Assessment Teams Will Assess Impact onLifeline Systems, as well as Structures, Coastal and Other Infrastructure
WHAT: On February 27, 2010, a magnitude-8.8 earthquake occurred off the west coast of Chile, more than 60 miles north of Concepción and just over 250 miles southwest of the capital, Santiago, killing more than 340 people and generating tsunami warnings as far away as Russia. In an effort to learn from the performance of the region’s various infrastructure systems, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will be sending three technical assessment teams to Chile in the coming weeks.
The team from ASCE’s Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute (COPRI) will look at the impact of the earthquake on the region’s seaports, near and distant to the epicenter, as well as impact of the tsunami, including inland travel, structural and non-structural damages, and sediment deposits.
The team from the Society’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) will document the performance of structures, both building and non-building, and assess whether changes to current codes and standards in the U.S. might be warranted as a result of their findings.
The Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE) team will examine the performance of infrastructure systems such as water and wastewater, transportation, electric power, ports (seaports and airports), telecommunications, liquid fuel and gas, and schools and hospitals; as well as gather information that could aid in sustainable and resilient development efforts.
WHO: COPRI Team Leader:
Billy L Edge, Ph.D., P.E., Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental, NC State University, Raleigh, N.C.
Other COPRI Team Members:
Kandiah (Arul) Arulmoli, Ph.D., P.E., G.E., D.GE., F.ASCE, Earth Mechanics, Inc., Fountain Valley, Calif.
Russell Boudreau, P.E., F.ASCE, Moffatt & Nichol, Long Beach
Miguel Carbuccia, P.E., PBS&J, Orange, Calif.
Martin Eskijian, P.E., California State Lands Commission, Marine Facilities Division, Long Beach, Calif.
Omar A. Jaradat, Ph.D., P.E., Moffatt & Nichol, Long Beach, Calif.
Marc Percher, P.E., Halcrow, Oakland, Calif.
SEI Team Leader:
John Hooper, P.E., S.E., Magnusson Klemencic & Associates, Seattle
Other SEI Team Members:
Robert Bachman, S.E., R.E. Bachman Consulting, Los Angeles
David Bonneville, P.E., S.E., Degenkolb Engineers, San Francisco
Dan Dolan, Ph.D., P.E., Washington State University, Pullman, Wash.
Ramon Gilsanz, P.E., S.E., Gilsanz Murray & Steficek LLP, New York
Ronald Hamburger, P.E., S.E., Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, San Francisco
James Harris, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., J.R. Harris & Associates, Denver
Jay Harris, Ph.D., P.E., National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Md.
John Heintz, S.E., Applied Technology Council, Redwood City, Calif.
Brian Kehoe, S.E., Wiss Janney Elstner Associates, San Francisco
Roberto Leon, Ph.D., P.E., Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Bob Pekelnicky, P.E., S.E., Degenkolb Engineers, San Francisco
Jim Rossberg, P.E., American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Va.
John Silva, P.E., S.E., Hilti Corporation, San Francisco
Greg Soules, P.E., Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Houston
John Tawresey, P.E., S.E., KPFF Consulting Engineers, Seattle
TCLEE Team Leader:
Alex Tang, P.E., L&T Consulting Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Other TCLEE Team Members:
John Eidinger, P.E., G&E Engineering System, Oakland, Calif.
Tom Cooper, P.E., T.W. Cooper Inc., Torrance, Calif.
William Fullerton, P.E., The Louis Berger Group Inc., Miami, Fla.
Roy Imbsen, P.E., Earthquake Protection Systems, Inc., Vallejo, Calif.
Leon Kempner, P.E., Bonneville Power Administration, Vancouver, Wash.
Alexis Kwasinski, P.E., University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Leonardo Duenas-Osorios, P. E., Rice University, Houston, Texas
Allison Pyrch, P.E., Shannon & Wilson Inc., Portland, Oregon
Anshel Schiff, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
Yumei Wang, P.E., Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, Portland, Oregon
WHEN & WHERE: COPRI Team: April 10 – April 17, Concepción and the surrounding coastal areas
SEI Team: April 5 – 12, Santiago and Concepción
TCLEE Team: April 8 – 17, Santiago and Concepción
WHY: As part of its disaster response procedure, ASCE forms technical teams to study infrastructure damage caused by natural or man-made disasters. Such studies are conducted so that engineers may learn from the disaster, and that those lessons learned may be documented to inform future actions.
ASCE has participated in more than a dozen assessments in the last decade, including studies of the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001; assessments following hurricanes Katrina and Ike; tsunami assessments throughout the India Ocean Basin in 2004 and at the Samoa Islands; and earthquake assessments in China, Peru, Japan, Sumatra-Andaman, Alaska, California, Italy, Algeria, Turkey, and most recently, Haiti.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 144,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.
Contact: Joan Buhrman,
703-295-6406 (w), 571-213-3812 (c)
jbuhrman@asce.org