Valleywide : Workshops to Stress Need for Retrofitting

A network of community-based organizations and government emergency services agencies is sponsoring a series of seismic retrofitting workshops throughout Southern California beginning in September.

Information for the workshops--geared toward contractors, framers and building officials--was gathered through analysis of the damage wreaked by the ’94 Northridge quake.

Material for the sessions was developed with the expertise of structural engineers, architects and contractors.

The courses are organized by Emergency Network Los Angeles, a group of community-based organizations established by Mayor Richard Riordan following the Northridge quake.

In addition to ENLA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and representatives from the Building Industry Assn. are sponsoring the workshops.

Kimberly Hall, a representative of ENLA, said the goal is to inform both building industry members and homeowners of the importance of preparing structures for seismic stresses.

“From studies and analysis . . . it was determined that, during the Northridge earthquake, if more homes had been better prepared through retrofitting they might have sustained far less damage,” Hall wrote in a letter she sent to building and safety inspectors.

The workshops are designed specifically to give builders who work with wood-frame structures knowledge of seismic retrofit installation and materials.

Participants will receive a course notebook with illustrations, examples, directions and a certificate at the completion of the workshop.

Speakers will include architects, senior training officers from the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department and a construction litigation attorney. The first one-day workshop, which costs $95 per person (preregistered), will be held in Torrance on Sept. 16.

The next workshop will be held in Woodland Hills on Sept. 23. Two more workshops will be held in October, in the San Gabriel Valley and Ventura County.

For information, call ENLA at (213) 896-9185.