Alina Oprea • 1 March, 2023 at 5:50 PM
The Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration announced new regulations on seismic strengthening. The regulations amending the law in force regarding the reduction of the seismic risk of buildings provide for their consolidation with the consent of the majority of the owners. The same provision applies to owners who are not members of owners' associations.
Until now, the unanimous agreement of all the owners was needed, which prevented the consolidation of some buildings, says the Minister of Development, Attila Cseke.
In order to prioritize seismic strengthening investments, the new regulations also aim to speed up the rapid visual assessment of buildings to get an overview of buildings' seismic vulnerability.
Deadlines are established for the rapid visual assessment of buildings, which will be followed, if necessary, by expertise.
"Thus, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, high schools, nurseries and all buildings that are educational institutions will be visually evaluated urgently. This procedure must be started by 1 January 2024 at the latest and completed by 1 June next year at the latest. The other public buildings have the same deadlines. In the case of housing blocks, the deadline for the start of the rapid assessment is January 1, 2025, and it must be completed by June 1, 2026", states the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration.
At the same time, the new regulations prohibit the renting of apartments in buildings with high seismic risk (RsI) until after their consolidation, and crowded events will not be able to be organized, under certain conditions, in such buildings: if there are more than 50 people in a room, each returning a space of less than 4 m2.
The Minister said that the establishment of these bans is done temporarily, until the building is consolidated, in compliance with the Romanian Constitution, regarding the restriction of the exercise of some fundamental rights or freedoms, under the conditions that the state is obliged to take all social and legislative measures to ensure an effective guarantee of the rights to life and physical integrity.
Also, in the context of the recent earthquakes in the Oltenia area, which was not considered an area with high seismic risk, it was considered necessary to expand the criteria for enrollment in the National Building Consolidation Program. Thus, the peak value of the ground acceleration for earthquake design a(g), according to the zoning map of the territory of Romania in the Seismic Design Code P100-1, greater than or equal to 0.20 g, is reduced to the value of 0.15 Mr.
Thus, they will be able to apply for financing for the consolidation of buildings with seismic risk and the localities that until now have not been considered at risk, such as, for example, those in Gorj county.
The draft normative act is to be submitted to the Parliament for debate and adoption.