Retrofitting a building in stages over several years is
Answer: C
Budgets and occupancy often force the work to be spread out, and a staged scheme is designed so that each stage is complete in itself. The danger to guard against is a stage that removes capacity before the replacement is ready.
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A building that has already been retrofitted once may need attention again if
Answer: D
A change of occupancy to an essential facility, or a revision to the hazard map, can both raise the bar above what the earlier work achieved. Records of the previous retrofit are then invaluable and are worth keeping with the drawings.
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Records of a completed retrofit should be kept because
Answer: A
Hidden anchors, jacketed columns and reliance on particular infill panels are all invisible once the finishes are back, and the next intervention or alteration may unknowingly undo them. Marked-up drawings and test results are the minimum worth keeping.
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An owner who cannot afford a full structural retrofit should be advised to
Answer: B
Anchoring parapets, cladding, ceilings and heavy contents removes a large share of the injury risk for a small fraction of the cost. It is also work that does not have to be undone when the structural scheme is eventually built.
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Which of these gives the clearest early warning that an existing building is seismically deficient?
Answer: C
Correct answer: An open ground storey beneath infilled upper floors
The infills above make the upper storeys far stiffer than the open storey below, so almost the whole drift concentrates in the columns at ground level. It is visible from the street, needs no analysis to recognise, and has been responsible for a large share of the collapses in recent earthquakes.
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Retrofit and new design differ most fundamentally in that retrofit
Answer: D
Geometry, materials, reinforcement and foundations are all fixed, and the engineer's freedom is limited to what can be added or removed. That constraint is what makes the assessment stage so much more important than in new work.
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