🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2i1qrh$o7u@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
Susan Hough <hough@seismo.gps.caltech.edu> wrote:
>In article <CARASSO.94Jan24152839@Quaestor.Inference.COM> carasso@Inference.COM (dr. carasso) writes:
>>
>>baez@guitar.ucr.edu (john baez) writes:
>>>
>>>In fact, all but one of the collapsed overpasses was
>>>scheduled to be fixed pretty soon.  Of course, it'd be nicer if they'd
>>>ALREADY been fixed, but Caltrans had limited funds so they couldn't go
>>>as fast as one might like.  
>>
>>I think this is bullshit.  I would *love* to see a map of the freeways
>>that are reinforced and those that are "scheduled" to be.  I bet you
>>could never get that information and make it public.  I believe that
>>the city's freeways are pathetically covered against quakes.  In the
>
>I don't think this is fair.  We just had a M6.6 earthquake in the

Like Susan, I also think Roger's characterization is a bit harsh. If
the evidence builds that Caltrans did screw up, then it is justified.
But not till then.
My brother-in-law did his Ph.D. in earthquake engineering from UCSD
under Prof. Nigel Priestley, one of the foremost experts on
retrofitting structures to withstand earthquakes. In particular, his
thesis was on designing steel jackets for circular and square bridge
columns to withstand earthquakes. On his visits to LA, he would point
out specific columns that were retrofitted with steel jackets. I
suspect most of these have withstood the tremendous accelerations they
experienced recently. Specific examples I was shown of retrofits are
605 intersection with 210 and portions of the elevated 110 freeway
near Dodger Stadium. 
Also coming from India, I have to say that while a 6.6 is not
inordinately large, as earthquakes come, with the hypocenter this
close to dense population, it is a tribute to engineering and public
policy that more people did not perish.

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Siddharth Dasgupta (sdg@wag.caltech.edu) (818) 397-2725
Materials & Molecular Simulation Center, Beckman Institute, CALTECH,Pasadena
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