33 Year Old Man Injured After Jumping from Pedestrian Bridge on Rama II Road

[fritter1970]

I know the building standards in Thailand can be pretty dodgy, but I have often wondered if there are any condo buildings or housing estates in Chiang Mai that are built to withstand the annual earthquakes that hit Northern Thailand?

[OriginalPoster]

No, Chaing Mai gets completely flattened each year by those annual earthquakes.

[harrry]

The one in 1545 shook me up a bit

[mesquite]

Look for buildings that are over a year old and still standing. These have withstood at least one earthquake. If you find buildings that are nothing but rubble, avoid moving into these as they have failed the earthquake test.

[fritter1970]

Ooops, I think I didn't write that the way I intended.... What I mean is, are there any condo buildings or housing estates in CM that are designed to withstand a catastrophic quake in Northern Thailand?

[harrry]

I do not think any are designed for earthquakes. THey should be designed for high wind loadings which should provide some equivalence. That said I was in Skybreeze Condo during the MaeSai quake and it only swayed gently for a long period. My view is that it is probably designed better than some of the newer condos but remember earthquakes are fairly rare in CM. I believe single dwellings usually come out worst too,

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Maybe. Out of all the risks out there though, most notably traffic, the risk of a catastrophic earthquake in our lifetime kind of fades into insignificance.

But if you're worried, then don't stay in medium-tall condominiums and apartment buildings; those seem to do worse than low-rise and high-rise. (Read that somewhere)

[elektrified]

The earthquake in March of this year caused many, many cracks in the exterior and interior walls at my place in Sansai. I would hate to see the damage a major quake would do in C.M.

[elektrified]

Ooops, I think I didn't write that the way I intended.... What I mean is, are there any condo buildings or housing estates in CM that are designed to withstand a catastrophic quake in Northern Thailand?

No.

[folium]

Earthquake proofing a building today can be done fairly simply for single or multistory buildings.

The concept of semi-floating foundations have been around since the 1960's and these enable a building to ride out an earthquake.

More recently more active measures have been introduced with motion sensors activating dampeners once critical levels are approached.

Buildings are designed to withstand vertical forces of weight and gravity. A quake imposes horizontal stresses in addition and these have to be engineered out.

Proofing a building in construction adds approximately 10% to the cost in places such as California but retrofitting is far more costly.

One additional issue is liquefaction where the harmonic characteristics of the underlying ground means that it turns to virtual liquid and buildings however well engineered sink into the ground.

Also if a major quake (above 8.0 magnitude) happens at a shallow depth in the centre of an urban area engineering will have only limited impact.

For CM the probability of a major quake is extremely remote so the OP has little to worry about in that respect.

[moe666]

Smith Residence still standing after the last quake,some shaking.

[JeffreyMcCollum]

Yes, Grand Siritara, on the middle ring road between Big C hand dong road and canal road near the airport. Is a condo of 8 stories and is built for earthquakes.

They have a American Engineer working there and it is built to the highest international earthquake standards. However slightly pricy. Units start at just over 50 sq.m. and go to well over 200 sq.m. Pricing starts I think about 42,000 Bt a sq,m and up

[Beetlejuice]

Ooops, I think I didn't write that the way I intended.... What I mean is, are there any condo buildings or housing estates in CM that are designed to withstand a catastrophic quake in Northern Thailand?

I would say; NO, and I wouldn`t take anyone`s word that says there is, unless I was shown some actual offical documentation to confirm that these building were built to withstand a major quake.

But there should be no concerns because the North of Thailand mostly experiences slight earth tremors, nothing to be compared with a real earthquake.