Council Adds Quake Rules to the L.A. Building Code

The Los Angeles City Council passed a handful of amendments Friday to the city’s building code based on lessons learned from the Northridge earthquake.

The rules, which apply chiefly to new buildings, include a requirement for steel-bar reinforcements in all foundations, including those of single-family homes.

“This is to prevent all the cracking and repairs to foundations in the last earthquake,” said Tim McCormick of the city’s building and safety department.

Existing buildings are not required to conform to the new rules.

Their adoption is expected to have the effect of creating a standard, opening the door for banks and insurance companies to require compliance as conditions for loans or insurance policies, building officials said.

The amendments also call for ceiling panels to be tied so they don’t drop during quakes, and for additional testing of soils in areas susceptible to liquefaction.

In addition, the ordinance requires the installation of seismic monitoring devices in new high-rise buildings. The devices are for data collection, not building safety. If an earthquake hits, they will allow inspectors to assess not only damages, but also the forces that caused them--information that could be key to developing new codes in the future, McCormick said.

The amendments, which passed 13 to 0, are among the last of a series of new requirements stemming from the work of structural engineers who studied Northridge earthquake damage.

A final set of new codes affecting new apartment buildings is expected to be considered by the council next week.