The International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction
Publications / 2000 Proceedings of the 17th ISARC, Taipei, Taiwan
Worker Hazard Management of Building Demotition
The Ji-Ji earthquake was the most damaging earthquake that Taiwan has ever suffered over the past century. In addition to mountain collapses, landslides, fault slippage, bridge ruptures, and roadway buckling, tens of thousands of buildings were also crushed by the powerful force of the earthquake. In the Ji-Ji earthquake, the most serious damaged infrastructures were building structures. Generally speaking, there were four major reasons that contributed to the damages of the large number of buildings--the strong intensity of the earthquake, the poor architectural design of the buildings, the poor structural design of the buildings, and the poor quality control during the buildings? constructions. After the earthquake, due to the urgent needs to rescue survivors, there was not enough time to implement safety measures for demolition related activities. However, we can not ignore the possibility of occupational injuries and endanger the rescue workers. Therefore, we investigate the workplace safety issues related to the emergency rescue operations after the earthquake. It is hoped that this information can be used by the authorities to implement better operating procedures if similar disasters strike again. Consequently, both the rapid demolition of buildings and the protection of participating workers can be accomplished. This will greatly reduce the mortality rates in the future earthquake-related rescue and demolition operations.