Finding fault in China's tragedy

SHANGHAI, China —

Since more than 240,000 people were killed in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, China has adopted building codes that analysts say are no less stringent than those in California and Japan.

But what's on the books, and what gets followed and enforced, are sometimes two different matters, especially in poor and rural areas.

Engineers who have worked in the mountainous region of the quake's epicenter, in Wenchuan county, say a lot of unregulated construction has taken place. And that might help explain the damage caused by Monday's 7.9-magnitude temblor.

At least eight schools were flattened, including the three-story Juyuan Middle School in nearby Dujiangyan where hundreds of students were buried inside. It was unclear whether the schools collapsed because they were old, had faulty design or were constructed poorly or with cheap materials — none of which is unusual in much of China. Some schools might have been built before current seismic codes were enacted.

Many buildings in remote areas are low-rise structures that have drawn little attention from inspectors. These buildings in particular don't have substantial piers, experts said, and walls are made of brick.

"Bigger cities are following and complying more seriously" with building codes, said James Yeh, the Shanghai manager for St. Louis-based Gateway Engineering & Construction. China's current seismic regulations contain detailed requirements for practically every type of structure, from one-story playhouses to multilevel apartments made of mud, wood and stone.

The nation's building codes don't have earthquake mandates for schools. Instead, structures are grouped into four classes, with each adhering to a certain intensity of seismic reinforcement. Class 1 facilities include airports and nuclear reactors. Class 2 includes some hospitals, low-rise kindergarten buildings and elementary schools with large enrollments. Most schools and apartment complexes fall into class 3, requiring ordinary seismic requirements.

"Schools should have more safety investments because students are more vulnerable," said Gao Jianguo, a researcher with China Earthquake Administration, a government institute in Beijing. Apart from the code, money is a problem, he said. "Unfortunately, right now, the education fund is not enough, and many areas have more students but only a few old schools," he said.

Over the past decade, China's economic growth has spread inland, resulting in a burst of construction activity. But as the heavy damage illustrates, the gap between China's countryside and urban centers remains huge, both in terms of income and safety practices.

The floors of many buildings in rural areas are prefabricated slabs that often are reused when a building is knocked down, one longtime construction engineer said.

"These would be free-floating during an earthquake as gravity keeps them in place, and as the walls sitting on them collapse, it would only get worse," he said.

Gao, the Beijing geologist, said a large number of houses that collapsed probably were put up by farmers themselves.

"Many worked their entire lives to build these houses," he said. "When construction materials became more expensive, many of them wouldn't consider earthquake resistance."

In larger cities, regulators have pushed most builders to adhere to strict standards.

William Gormley, a former China manager at Pratt & Whitney's joint venture in Chengdu, remembers what happened before Pratt began construction on its plant in 1996. Officials required the company to double the size of the piers, he said, and dig deeper into the ground.

"All the plans were preapproved before we did the first shovel of dirt," said Gormley, who still works in Chengdu as a consultant. Some ceiling tiles fell in Monday's quake, he said, but the 88,000-square-foot facility held up well.

Many other U.S. companies have operations in Chengdu, including Intel, Motorola and Microsoft. Microsoft and Motorola reported minor damage to their facilities.

In Dujiangyan, blocks of apartment buildings were flattened. To the east, in Beichuan county, officials said 80 percent of buildings were toppled.

Gormley, an engineer by training, remembers visiting those remote areas to the north to cool off and to fish during Chengdu's hot summers.

"There are lots of unregulated buildings, many two and three stories with masonry construction, lots of brick," he said. "You don't find out how many until a tragedy like this happens."