- Author
-
Yokel, F. Y.
- Title
- Earthquake Resistant Construction of Electrical Transmission and Telecommunication Facilities Serving the Federal Government.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NISTIR 89-4213; FEMA-202; Earthquake Hazard Reduction 56,
February 1990,
47 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
earthquakes
|
central telephone offices
|
earthquake engineering
|
electrical power transmission
|
electrical substations
|
lifelines
|
seisemic design standards
|
telecommunications
|
seismic design
- Abstract
- The vulnerability of electrical transmission and telecommunication facilities to damage in past earthquakes, as well as available standards and technologies to protect these facilities against earthquake damage are reviewed. An overview is presented of measures taken by various Federal agencies to protect electrical transmission and telecommunication facilities against earthquake hazards. It is concluded that while most new facilities which are owned and operated by Federal agencies are presently designed to provide some, though not necessarily adequate, earthquake resistance, there generally is no effort to retrofit existing facilities. No evidence was found of requirements to protect electrical transmission and communication facilities which have major contractural obligations to serve the Federal Government and only limited seismic design requirements are stipulated for electrical transmission systems constructed with Federal funding. It is recommended that Federal guidelines be developed for minimum levels of seismic design of electrical transmission and telecommunication systems.