SEAL BEACH : Key Building Fitted With Quake Defense

The safest spot in town during an earthquake may be a building in the Rockwell Industries complex on Seal Beach Boulevard.

Rockwell’s Building 80, which houses a telecommunications hub of critical importance to Rockwell’s operations, is being fitted with the latest in earthquake technology.

The two-year, $17-million project involves the installation of 54 seismic shock absorbers, known as “seismic isolators.”

The isolators are 1,000 pound shock-dampening pads made of layered rubber and steel. According to Dynamic Isolation Systems Inc., which builds the isolators, the pads prevent the horizontal movement of the ground from being transmitted to the building.

The pads function much like a suspension system in a car, serving to “isolate the structure from its base or foundation, greatly reducing earthquake ground motion to the building,” according to company literature. “The effect: An isolated building hit by a Richter 8.0 will respond as if it were only a 5.5 event.”

To date, 125 structures around the world and 18 in the United States have been fitted with isolators, which are usually placed between the foundation and the supporting columns of a building.

The 25 isolated structures that have gone through earthquakes so far have come through with little or no damage, according to Steve Weissberg, engineer and Dynamic Isolation Systems marketing director.

In fact, the recent San Franciso earthquake put the Sierra Point Bridge and the Stanford particle accelerator lab to the test and both sustained little damage, he said.

“There was $170 million worth of damage on the Stanford campus, and the particle accelerator came through without a scratch,” Weissberg said. “The building did just what it was supposed to do.”

Additionally, Wilson plans to have every piece of furniture and office equipment bolted down so that even if the building does move a little, work can resume immediately.

“We want to stay in business,” Wilson said. “Once this work is completed, we expect to be able to, no matter what.”