Are residential houses in Chisinau earthquake-resistant? It is one of the big questions that the residents of the capital ask themselves, following the latest events in Turkey and Syria, where thousands of residential blocks were destroyed and a lot of people suffered.
Unfortunately, there is no definite answer, whether or not the buildings in Chisinau are seismically resistant, because there are many factors that can contribute to the de facto assessment of the technical condition of the housing blocks.
Which houses are more seismically resistant, the new ones or the old ones?
About the old houses
All the blocks built during the Soviet period as well as the new ones built recently were designed to withstand, according to the project, an earthquake of 6-7 degrees on the Richter scale. It's just that we need to analyze certain details more thoroughly.
The old blocks were designed and built to have a maximum service life of 50-70 years. Unfortunately, many of the old blocks have already exceeded this exploitation period. These have lost their resistance but are also morally outdated with an unattractive aesthetic appearance.
Most of the old blocks need strengthening and modernization works of both the foundation / walls and the engineering networks to increase the term of exploitation.
About the new houses
The construction companies are obliged to build the new blocks respecting all the standards indicated in the construction projects so that they can withstand the earthquake. The Technical Supervision Agency is responsible for checking the quality of the constructions executed at each stage of construction, starting with the consolidation of the land and the quality of the foundation to the quality of the monolithic concrete shell and masonry.
Unfortunately, many new blocks of flats are designed and built on land that once did not meet building requirements. These lands, which in the Soviet period did not meet the requirements, are now exploited to the maximum by construction companies. Such lands need additional consolidation works to meet the necessary norms and standards.
Although there are now new construction technologies, which were not available in the Soviet period, we must admit that certain construction companies could save in the construction process on certain details in order to increase their profits, reducing the quality of the executed works .
Technical inventory and passporting of housing blocks
For the safety of citizens, but also for better clarity in the field of construction, a database accessible to the general public, indicating the technical condition of each residential block in Chisinau, is necessary.
Although there is a Regulation on the technical inventory and passporting of blocks approved by the Government, there is no accessible online database where citizens could find out information about the condition of residential blocks, which is the degree of wear and tear of the buildings, which are the necessary consolidation / modernization works, etc.
The technical inventory of apartment blocks would help the end consumer to make a much more calculated final decision, whether or not to invest his life savings in procuring an apartment in a particular apartment block.
The authorities, for their part, will have a clarity of the de facto state of the blocks that require an urgent consolidation intervention. They will be able to design programs and strategies to modernize the old buildings, so that gradually they are either modernized or rebuilt as we see the civilized countries of the West doing.
