Japan a leader in engineering earthquake-proof structures, helping to limit damage
Washington Post – March 11
…Designing extra flexibility into the tallest buildings is essential for earthquake-proofing, said John W. van de Lindt, a civil engineering professor at the University of Alabama. Video filmed during the aftershocks that hit Tokyo on Friday shows high-rises doing exactly that — wavering dramatically without snapping. “You will get shelves tipping over and copy machines running across the floor,” said van de Lindt, but structural damage will be minimal, even when the top of the building lurches 10 feet or more in each direction. “It’s like a yardstick when you bend it — it snaps back without any damage.”…Although the high-rises of Japan may be in good shape, experts worry that traditionally built houses fared much worse. “My strong feeling is that there are collapsed wooden buildings in the hills and rural areas over there that we don’t know about yet,” said van de Lindt, who has tested V-shaped braces and other relatively simple techniques for strengthening wood structures in Japan. Some 2,200 people died in wood-and-tile homes during the Kobe earthquake, van de Lindt said. That toll prompted the Japanese government to launch an intensive research and retrofitting program — called “Dai-Dai-Toku,” or, roughly translated, “very, very special” — to prevent a similar catastrophe. It remains unclear how those efforts performed Friday, but van de Lindt and other National Science Foundation-funded researchers will find out soon…
FOX News – March 13
Gorgas House tells the story of UA
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 21
The Gorgas House, a two-story cottage on the University of Alabama’s campus, sometimes falls victim to being overlooked. Built in 1829, two years before UA’s official founding, it is the only building to be part of the entire history of the university…Robert Clouse says the house is an important part of UA’s history. “We think it serves as an excellent venue to help tell the story of the university as well as the story of the people who lived here in the house.”
Local ice cream shop holds 5K to raise money for wheelchair basketball teams
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 21
Cold Stone Creamery is hosting an eat-n-run 5K to benefit the University of Alabama’s wheelchair basketball teams. The 5K race will start at Cold Stone and the Strip. Runners will make a lap around campus then return to Cold Stone for a cup of frozen yogurt, then they’ll have to run another lap around campus. Athletes from the men and women’s wheelchair basketball teams will be there to help…