Engineering council to check public building earthquake capability

• The Engineering Council is set to audit public structures

•The project will take about 4 months to be completed

• This project is to check Ghana’s preparedness for earthquake

The Engineering Council (EC) to set to audit public buildings and structures in the country to check their capability to withstand earthquakes.



Read full articleSome of the pubic structures and buildings include the Chirstianborg Castle(Osu Castle)Jubilee House, parliament, National Theatre, courts, stadia, market and office blocks of ministries, departments and agencies.

According to a Ghanaian Times newspaper report, interchanges like the Kwame Nkrumah, Ako Adjei, footbridges and national installation (Akosombo and Bui dams) are part of the many structures that will be examined as part of the exercise that will be piloted in the Greater Accra Region.

In an interview with Ghanaians Times, the Council’s Right to Information Officer, Idrrisu Abdul Karim said the exercise will commence as soon as the government gives them the go-ahead to hit the grounds.

At a stakeholder conference held in Accra to deliberate on a committee report on the country's earthquake preparedness and response, he said although earthquakes do not kill, the collapse of structures could cause human and economic losses.

Mr Karim said the council was commissioned by the sector ministry following which the EC presented a proposal, about three months ago, detailing the nitty-gritty of the exercise.

“We were looking at the third to the fourth quarter of the year but we are now waiting for the green light to start work," he told Ghanaians Times.

Mr Karim said “a team of about 20 experts including geological engineers, earthquake engineers, seismologists, geophysics experts, architects, structural engineers, and other and other experts from the Council; Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Architecture and Engineering Services Limited had been put together for the exercise.

"Other members of the team are from institutions like Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; Ghana Statistical Service; Ghana Institution of Engineering; Institution Engineering and Technology; National Disaster Manager Organisation(NADMO); district Assembles and some MDAs,” Ghanaian times said.

Karim also added that the project will take four months to complete; three months for fieldwork and a month for data analysis.

"We are starting with Greater Accra because that is the centre of the earth tremor. It is mostly the coastal areas that experience it," Ghanaian Times quoted him.

The RTI officer said owners of private buildings would be encouraged, after the entire exercise, to get their buildings checked as well.

He declined to mention the budget for the national audit except to say it would be capital intensive. The report indicated.