Strategy for Seismic Upgrading of Public School Buildings in Taiwan

  • Fu-Pei Hsiao, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan
  • Shyh-Jiann Hwang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
  • Lap-Loi Chung, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan
  • Yeong-Kae Yeh, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan
  • Wen-Yu Jean, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan
  • Wen-cheng Shen, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan
  • Tsung-chih Chiou, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
  • Te-Kuang Chow, National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan
  • Yao-Sheng Yang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
  • Yi-Feng Chao, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

School buildings of all types of construction were seriously damaged by the 921 Chi-Chi Earthquake. Seismic evaluation and retrofit of these numerous vulnerable school buildings is an important societal issue to be resolved. The National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) assisted the Ministry of Education with the arrangement of the program to accelerate the retrofit and rebuilding of elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and vocational school buildings, as part of the Economic Recovery Act. Currently, the program plans to spend 18.27 billion NTD between 2009 and 2012, and has proceeded with the seismic evaluation and retrofit of school buildings in Taiwan. In addition, NCREE established a School Project Office for this program to ensure that the work will be carried out in the most economic and effective manner. The purpose of the office is to provide administrative and technical support, and to hold training programs and workshops for school administrators and professional engineers. A three-stage strategy for screening with existing school buildings also has been proposed by NCREE for execution of this program.