Wednesday, May 21

Chinese school construction and in Israel?

Reading about the horror of collapsing school buildings in China i cannot but wonder; and what about the construction quality of the schools in Jaffa? In all of the country?
Israel is in an earthquake zone, close to the African Syrian fault line. Serious earthquakes have hit the country in the past and the question is not IF there will be a serious earthquake in Israel, but WHEN.

The next question should be and what about the construction level and safety of our public buildings? Our schools, hospitals, theatres, prisons etc. And what about our private homes? Who is responsible?

I recall reading scary reports presented by the Technion and other official agencies, about the high damage percentage we would suffer when the "big one" will hit.
I recall these reports spoke about a large percentage of homes and public buildings that might not withstand the event and crumble.

Was anything done? How do you know the quality of the building you live in? Work in, visit? When you live in public housing or a privately rented flat (like yours truly), how can you know how safe it is? Is it safe? And who is responsible for it? Some bribe taking politician? The inventor of "palkal" floors (of Versailles' wedding hall fame)? You and me? The municipality?

These things always and only happen "elsewhere", don't they?

4 comments:

roche said...

As you can see in China, The State was not a good option.

In my country we have any kind of draconian regulation for construction , makes the life hard, I just want to build.

Well there are some regulatition anti-earthquake, for example how many blocks, and how many Construction rods do you need in order to build a "safe house"

Lirun said...
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yudit said...

No, i'd like to assume a new school building has been designed and its construction process supervised to withstand earthquakes etc..
What worry me, are the many other buildings in Jaffa and all over the country, constructed in the fifties and sixties and perhaps later, which were constructed on these free-standing columns, the many palkal constructions all over the country (among them courts of law, high rise buildings, hospital wings etc.
I assume other shoddy techniques have been used as well (i myself live in a building shoddily repaired under "shikum shunot" some fifteen years ago, all the gaz balloons are in our stairwell and i very much doubt that to be safe.
I rent the flat and as a "non-owner" there is very little i can do about it.
The walls already have huge cracks. Our roof is asbestos....
It happened in China and we all know it could happen here. Is anything being done about it or are we waiting for yet another investigating committee AFTER the big one will have hit?

Lirun said...
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