Technological Advancements

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Technological Advancements

On November 7, 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was hit by winds of up to

40mph. The bridge began to twist and flutter. Some cables snapped and a

six-hundred foot section of the bridge fell into Puget Sound. ^Wind is

but one disaster, earthquakes are another^ (Jay Stuller 36). Disasters

like this one and others could have been avoided if the proper

precautions had been taken. Due to the disasters in the world the

structures of today and tomorrow are much safer. Today most of these

catastrophes are avoided because of the up to date technology, like

architecture, predicting the disasters before hand and new techniques

used by emergency rescue teams. Some major advances in today^s

buildings include such things like the material used. For instance

products like steel-reinforced concrete (refer to diagram 3-1), steel

framing, and properly braced wood frames for houses are a few examples

of how buildings are being retrofitted and new buildings are being

built towards protection from disasters. As well, the foundations of

the buildings can be built on shock absorbing ^base isolators^

containing springs or alternating layers of steel plates and rubber, to

counteract the effects of earthquakes.

In Japan architectures have been keeping mind earthquakes while

designing and building structures. Unfortunately the buildings were

mainly designed to withstand a vertical force. The Japanese buildings

were designed to withstand a certain acceleration force, but in January

1995, an earthquake hit the city Kobe devastating the buildings, which

were thought to be safe. It just shows, ^that building design criteria

are crucial to withstanding effects of earthquakes^ (Gerad Baker 12).

The normal Japanese wooden houses that had heavy roofs collapsed, and

also newer homes were demolished, as seen on diagram 3-2. This could

have been avoided by building the houses with lighter plywood frames

with crossbars that distribute force evenly rather than houses with

heavy timber walls that collapse under force. As well the materials

used to build the structures has a great deal to do with the survival

rate of buildings. The use of reinforced concrete is thought to be a

major reason why buildings stay intact. It is possible to reinforce

older buildings with extra concrete simply and effectively, which has

been done in California since 1989. Bridges, a totally different

aspect of building, but a very similar method for creating sound

structures. During the Kobe earthquake the Hanshin expressway collapsed

on its side for a stretch of 600m (pictures seen on page 5). This type

of roadway is built upon reinforced concrete pillars. There is steel

inside the pillars to increase its ability to bend and flex with the

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