The passage of a Washington State bill providing planning and construction funds to protect K-12 public schools against earthquake destruction came as welcome news last year. The bill’s passage followed the completion of the School Seismic Safety Project (SSSP), which provided geological and engineering assessments of 561 school buildings, and rated 93 percent of those buildings with just 1 out of 5 stars for structural safety using national seismic evaluation criteria.
The SSSP assessed approximately 14 percent of the state's more than 4,000 school buildings for grades K-12 from across the state. The school selection criteria included a higher proportion of buildings constructed prior to the adoption of modern seismic standards in 1998, and those that are located in tsunami inundation zones, as identified by the Washington Geological Survey. Overall, 63 percent of the assessed buildings were found to have a "high" or "very high" seismic risk, compared with “moderate” or “lower” risks.
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