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Schools

Seismic Eval For South City Schools

Engineers have completed the first phase of a seismic evaluation of buildings in the local district.

Last week the South San Francisco Unified School District board received an update on which school buildings are priorities for seismic retrofit in South City.

Project manager Joe Sutton and structural engineer Justin Fahey of San Francisco-based consultancy Thornton Tomasetti, recommended 44 buildings (they evaluated 67 out of 120 in the district) for various amounts of retrofit and 22 for further evaluation.

Apparently, , , , and each have buildings that fall into “level 3,” or highest priority for retrofit. 

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In terms of how urgent these priority areas are, Fahey said in a phone interview that, “we’re measuring against a very large earthquake with a very small percentage chance of happening in any given year. [These are] not imminent hazards.”

Sutton recommended at the board meeting that it is most cost effective to conduct retrofits such as these while other construction is already underway on the buildings. Fahey referenced improvement plans associated with Measure J bond as a possible opportunity to kill two birds with one stone in terms of cost. 

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The consultants have finished phase I of their evaluation. They have submitted a proposal for the next phase, which will include further evaluations and will include outdoor canopies and walkways at district schools.  

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