The building code needs to be reviewed

THE damage by the earthquake, especially to government buildings, is a clear indication that some contractors did not comply with the building code.
The 7.5 earthquake that struck central Highlands last month saw some buildings crumble and collapse while others were extensively damaged.
The Southern Highlands government last week invited engineers from Parohu EPC Contractors to cassess the damage to infrastructure and do an independent report on the system of mechanism failure, the causes of that and the loss of value to the provincial government and the cost to rebuild them.
The group’s findings showed that most of the buildings constructed by the Works Department withstood the earthquake, meaning the structures were earthquake-resistant.
Then how come other new buildings crumbled under the force of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake?
Apart from the fact that this earthquake was the strongest in about a 100 years, and that the area had never experienced one like that before, all buildings
built recently should have been built to world standard and earthquake proof, similar to the buildings built by the Works Department.
Reports say that while no structure can be entirely immune to damage from earthquakes, the goal of earthquake-resistant construction is to erect structures that fare better during seismic activity than their conventional counterparts
According to building codes, earthquake-resistant structures are intended to withstand the largest earthquake of a certain probability that is likely to occur at their location.
This means the loss of life should be minimised by preventing the collapse of buildings for rare earthquakes while the loss of the functionality should be limited for more frequent ones.
One wonders if it’s possible to build an earthquake-proof building? The answer is yes and no.
There are, of course, engineering techniques that can be used to create a very sound structure that will endure a modest or even strong quake.
The most dangerous building construction, from an earthquake point of view, is unreinforced brick or concrete block.
Generally, this type of construction has walls that are made of bricks stacked on top of each other and held together with mortar.
The roof is laid across the top. The weight of the roof is carried straight down through the wall to the foundation.
When this type of construction is subject to a lateral force from an earthquake the walls tip over or crumble and the roof falls in like a house of cards.
From all that, we know that one of the most important physical traits of earthquake-safe buildings and structures is flexibility.
A rigid structure will crumble and collapse during the movement caused by an earthquake.
Softer soils and surrounding earth that contains a high amount of moisture are more prone to induce greater amounts of structural damage during an earthquake.
This is partly due to the properties of resonance as energy passes through the soil during the shocks of the quake.
The damage to infrastructure emphasises the need to review the Building Code to strengthen the resilience of PNG’s Infrastructure.
This code should be reviewed and policed.