Gulf Construction Online - Gulf’s building codes in focus after tremors

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People evacuated offices following tremors felt in Dubai when a major earthquake struck Iran.

Gulf’s building codes in focus after tremors

01 May 2013

GOVERNMENTS across the GCC are closely looking at their building codes and high-rise safety norms following aftershocks experienced due to the earthquakes that struck Iran last month.

Countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are reviewing safety standards, particularly of high-rise structures, and contemplating new building codes that will ensure an increased capacity to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes.

The Central Municipal Council (CMC) in Doha, Qatar, has called on authorities to work out new guidelines for the construction sector. Jassim bin Abdullah Al Malki, CMC’s vice chairman and head of its services committee said new standards and specifications must be put in place to increase resistance of high-rise buildings against natural calamities, especially earthquakes.

“This should be made part of the Qatar Construction Code,” he said. “The CMC had discussed this issue five years ago and submitted its proposals to the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning.”

Al Malki said the West Bay area housing scores of skyscrapers should be given special attention while preparing the new guidelines.

In Saudi Arabia, the Deputy Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Habib Zainul Abideen, was quoted by the Arab News as saying the kingdom’s current building code “was not sufficient to resist earthquakes and tremors”, while the Eastern Province launched a plan to construct emergency shelters to tackle any quake aftermath.

The shelters, to be managed by the Civil Defence will be constructed in four locations chosen by the province’s municipality.

Saudi Aramco has released one million sq m area of land on the Dammam-Riyadh Road for this purpose while Minister of Municipality and Rural Affairs Prince Mansour Bin Miteb has granted a 90,000-sq-m area in Abqaiq and a 40,000-sq-m area in the Noayriyah governorate to build the shelters in addition to two other areas, 100,000 sq m each, in Hafr Al Batin.

Bahrain, meanwhile, reviewed the safety of high-rise buildings at a recent conference titled Safety Design in Buildings, though experts stressed buildings in the country are strong enough to withstand any tremors due to their high wind-resistant structure.

Bahrain is not prone to earthquakes as it is a Zone Zero area but its location at the centre of the Arabian Plate means it can be affected by tremors in Iran, Pakistan, Yemen and Oman.

“Bahrain is Zone Zero or earthquake free. Although countries like the UK have minor tremors and are Zone One, buildings here have no need for a dynamic response system,” said Works Ministry project manager Terry Gostling, who spoke at the conference. “Dynamic response systems, which are built to counteract the force of earthquakes, are only built in Zone Two or Three areas like Japan.”

Brian Kleiver, a local architect who also spoke at the conference, said architects would not make any structural changes to future buildings as they would not be needed in Bahrain. However, other earthquake-resistant measures could be easily taken, he said.

“All high-rise buildings move and because Bahrain is an island, one of the main things to keep in mind during design is that there will be substantial wind load on the building. The loading is greater from wind than the possibility of earthquake movement,” he added.

In the UAE, however, officials said the emirates’ building codes, which are designed to ensure buildings withstand earthquakes of 5.5 to 6 on the Richter scale, are “perfectly fine”.

The 7.8 magnitude quake that struck last month (April 17) was the second in a week. It originated in Iran and spread tremors across the region, killing at least 35 people in southwestern Pakistan and injuring 27 in Iran.

The earlier earthquake that struck near Iran’s nuclear plant in Bushehr killed around 40 people and left hundreds injured.