Experts blame design after more schools crumble

"Schools are supposed to be the last to collapse in any disaster. But from this earthquake, we discovered that schools collapsed faster than other buildings." This comment, made recently by Tsai Rung-ken (1/22榮根), president of the Taipei Structural Engineers Association (台北市?構?THORN>師?蔆|), is an impression shared by many others in his field after the destruction brought by two major earthquakes in the past month.

The Sept. 21 tremor caused damage to or the collapse of 825 schools, and over 100 others were destroyed or damaged in the latest quake on Oct. 22. Noticeably, almost 80 percent of them were elementary and junior high schools.

The large number of destroyed and damaged schools, originally expected to be safe havens, has caused considerable concern. Schools -- which are used for sheltering evacuees during disasters -- are required by law to adopt quake-resistance standards 25 percent more stringent than those for private buildings. Ironically, however, the frequency of damage to them has been higher than to other structures.

"Current regulations are 90 percent perfect, if not 100 percent. But only 30 percent of them are enforced," Tsai said.

A survey conducted 10 years ago on schools located in earthquake-prone Chiayi and Tainan, sponsored by the National Science Council, revealed problems with school construction.

"Up to 70 percent of the schools surveyed were not up to standard," noted Hsu Mao-hsiung (3-Z雄), a professor of architecture at the National Cheng Kung University who conducted the survey.

After an inspection of the disaster areas following the Sept. 21 quake, Hsu found that many of the collapsed schools were built after 1982, when the anti-quake resistance standards were adopted.

"If the design of the buildings and the quality of the construction had been given due concern, the disaster would not have been as tragic," Hsu concluded.

While elementary and junior high classrooms, which are typically built in a long row with broad windows on both sides, are prone to collapse during an earthquake, experts say shoddy construction work made collapse more likely.

In sharp contrast to most schools that suffered damage, the Li Ming Elementary School located in the vicinity of the active fault in Chiayi County did not suffer any damage at all in the two quakes.

The school, which was rebuilt around four years ago with a special design and additional funding from the Taiwan Provincial Government, has been designated by the Ministry of Education as a model for the reconstruction of affected schools.

The cost of the construction of the school according to Hsu was 30 percent higher than average school buildings.

The limited budgets that local governments are forced to work with, therefore, has also become a problem.

Architect Lin Chih-cheng (林志|?/CHINESE>) argued that low budgets are partly to blame for poor design.

"The price is unreasonable, and architects will not bother to spend a lot of time on the design," Lin said.

Some architects have chosen to collaborate with construction companies in cutting corners, Lin said.

The corruption, which has long existed, is now getting attention by the central government after the quake pushed it into the media spotlight.

Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who has announced plans to improve the contracting process to avoid bid-rigging, ordered a thorough survey of all schools and promised to fund their reconstruction and repairs.