18 OF THE 24 MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS SHOULD BE PULLED DOWN.

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 16:26

Our interview with head of the RA eastern service of seismic safety
Boris Petrosyan.

– Mr. Petrosyan, how many earthquakes recently occurred in the region
were perceptible in Artsakh and how large were they?

– It must be noted that recently the number of earthquakes in our
region has increased. They were not too large and the epicenters were
beyond the borders of Artsakh, mainly in the Islamic Republic of Iran
and in Azerbaijan, and we had 4-to-5-point earthquake waves here.

Recently seismicity intensification has been noticed in Iran.

– It is well known that Karabakh is in a seismically active zone, that
is why the seismic stability of the structures being built here is
very important. I wonder how seismically stable are today’s structures?

– In 1997 the eastern service of seismic safety presented to the NKR
government the seismic areas map of the NKR and the adjacent regions
which clearly showed how large earthquakes may occur in different
regions of the Republic. It means when constructing buildings they
should take into account the seismicity of the area according to
the mapping. For example the structures in Stepanakert should be
seismically stable for at least 8-point, in Shoushi and Martouni for
9-point earthquakes. The most dangerous zone in Artsakh is Shahoumyan
region, more precisely, the northern part of the region.

It should be noted that the structures built during the years of the
Soviet Union are able to resist up to 7-point earthquakes. The thing
is that then the buildings were constructed according to the same
adopted standard and the peculiarities and seismicity of the area were
not taken into account. In the recent months on the proposal of the
Ministry of Municipal Engineering we have examined the multi-storey
buildings in Stepanakert. The investigations showed that 18 of the
24 multi-storey buildings should be pulled down for the new ones to
be built, the others are to be repaired and reinforced.

Nowadays while constructing the buildings the seismicity of the area
is taken into account. Today the constructions used in Japan where
they have no victims even in case of 11-point earthquakes are being
applied in engineering all over the world as well as in Armenia.

– What would you say about private houses? How safe are they?

– The investigations on part of private houses have started quite
recently and there are no final results yet.

– It’s no secret that when building shops and other projects in the
basements of the buildings some construction or wrecking activities
are carried out. Don’t these activities shatter the reinforcement of
the buildings?

– The shops in the basements of the buildings damage the seismic
stability of the building when some illegal changes are made there.

These illegal activities have got to large scales especially during the
recent 6 years and we are carrying out a serious struggle against them.

Interviewer Mariam Sargsyan

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress