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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ACTIVITY: SEISMIC SAFETY ALTERNATIVES
A Value Study Team (VST) was formed to conduct a value study on
August 21-25, 1995. The purpose of this team was to identify various
approaches to implement Executive Order 12941 (EO) "Seismic
Safety of Existing and Federally Owned or Leased Buildings" and its
related guidance developed by the Interagency Committee on
Seismic Safety in Construction (ICSSC) The team used standard
value methodology in its operations to attain their recommendations.
The value study team identified three to four different alternatives to
perform each sub-activity required by the EO. The sub-activities
include (1) inventory of the Department of Interior (Interior) owned
and leased buildings, (2) screening and review of building
data/information for identification of high and exceptionally high-risk
buildings, and (3) evaluation and cost estimation of mitigating
unacceptable seismic risks in those buildings. More than 10 sub-
activity alternatives were placed into a matrix for decision use. Each
alternative proposal results in a different level of seismic risk
protection. (Items identified with an A provide the highest level of
understanding of potential risk. Items with a C or D designation
provide the lowest level.) Using these sub-activity alternatives, a
preferred method was identified and proposed.
Several proposals are developed that provide alternative levels of
implementation of the EO and the related guidelines. The proposals
allow for identification and evaluation of Interior buildings that are
classified by FEMA and/or bureau specific standards to be
exceptionally high-risk buildings. The location of a building in a high-
risk seismic zone, its type of construction, and occupancy category
cumulatively contribute to the determination of exceptionally high
risk buildings. The Department of the Interior currently owns
approximately 42,000 buildings. This number is an estimate because
individual bureau building inventories vary significantly in quality,
quantity, and centralization, also buildings are continually being
added to inventories, transferred within the agency, demolished, or
modified.
To fully comply with the EO, Interior would need to develop new
database information, add seismically related fields of information
into existing databases, submit a seismically related building
inventory database to the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), and follow FEMA guidance documents completely in
generating the seismic risk identification information for Interior
owned and leased buildings. The VST estimated the cost to fully
meet the EO to be as much as $12,000,000. Although not
recommended by the VST as a preferred course of action, the
minimum VST identified seismic safety EO implementation cost was
to use internal selection by bureau managers, using no databases or
formal evaluation procedures and was estimated to cost about
$134,000. The VST did not recommend this course of action due to
the fact that without verified building information, the risk of building
failure and loss of life in high-risk seismic zones is very significant.
Further, the majority of Interior owned buildings are located in the
Western United States and a large percentage of those buildings are