QUAKE-PROOFING:A professor said that the central and local governments have failed to live up to their duties to inspect buildings and monitor construction

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The government has failed to learn a lesson from the 921 Earthquake that hit Taiwan in 1999, and has allowed poorly constructed buildings to continue to exist, an expert said on Sunday, calling on the authorities to make drastic changes to prevent further quake disasters.

The Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan should not have collapsed during the magnitude 6.4 quake on Feb. 6, National Taiwan University professor Chern Jenn-chuan (陳振川) said at the opening of a Taipei forum on the quake resistance capacity of buildings in Taiwan.

He accused the government of shirking its responsibility.

Chern, who teaches in the university’s Department of Civil Engineering, served as head of the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission from 2012 to 2013.

After the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, academics discovered that mixed-purpose buildings — ones that contain residences and commercial properties — and which are located on street corners are the most vulnerable to collapse in such disasters, Chern said.     [FULL  STORY]