Comments on: Cal Stadium and the Hayward fault

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:47:44 +0000

A few days ago in The Berkeley Daily Planet, Cal emeritus professor Garniss Curtis held nothing back in critiquing the plans for Memorial Stadium and other buildings in Strawberry Canyon: "absolutely do not construct any buildings." For a real geo-geek's look at the issue, go read his letter. (Curtis is the man responsible for some of the most important age dating from Olduvai Gorge, among many other professional accomplishments.)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:55:16 +0000

Today's San Francisco Chronicle has a story about a novel retrofit plan for the stadium involving a plastic underlayment for the west side that will allow the stadium to slide as the earth moves beneath it, similar in concept to base isolation techniques in other buildings (like Oakland City Hall). I commented there that the stadium is our own version of the Hetch Hetchy Dam, a tragedy as well as a benefit. We're stuck with the stadium until Cal gives up football or Hell freezes over, whichever comes first.

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:32:53 +0000

There’s some dispute as to whether or not the stadium was actually built in two halves as seismic protection. I’ve heard it suggested that the split design was meant to handle differential settling rates (the west side is mostly built on fill, while the east was dug into the hill), and this strikes me as pretty plausible, but there’s surprisingly little documentation either way.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:41:42 +0000

Once they’re shaken, that’s true.

By: Ken Clark

Ken Clark — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:31:09 +0000

I guess maybe it was perspective/opticall illusion, I was asking because some of those columns looked like they were no longer vertical, even a little bit of lean will drastically reduce their load bearing ability, thanks though:)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:28:58 +0000

The stadium is being rehabbed right now, so problems are being noticed. I should also point out that the cracked column is still good for its design purpose, which is to handle a vertical load. The big spall in the outer shell, ugly as it is, doesn’t significantly weaken the stadium. I don’t mean to suggest that the stadium will collapse—although in the extreme conditions of a big M7 quake, the damage will be worse due to these relatively small flaws.

By: Ken Clark

Ken Clark — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:16:58 +0000

how often do they send in the engineers to inspect the stadium structures?