Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Stronger City Hall to Reopen in April
Quake-battered City Hall reopens next month--better and stronger than ever, according to city engineers.
City departments are scheduled to reopen on April 25, but some of the Valencia Boulevard building’s other tenants, including a bank, could move back into their offices a week earlier.
Officials said engineers had inspected each joint with ultrasound and that diagonal braces had been added to the structure for additional support.
The steel reinforcement is expected to make City Hall better at weathering earthquakes and easier to repair in the future.
“The quality of the building will be better substantially because the materials we put back into it are better,” said city engineer Tony Nisich, who estimates that the building is 25% stronger than before the Jan. 17 earthquake. “Our confidence is much higher because we spent more time doing testing and inspection.”
Nisich said it cost about $4.5 million to repair the structure.
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