2 Responses

1. Jeroen

   September 7th, 2009 at 9:22 AM

   1

   I did a tour around Albania last year with a physical geographer who pointed out that Albania is in a very active geological zone (the same system that runs south along the Greek coast) with very unstable top soils. Though there has not been a major earthquake in recent times, he says it’s just a matter of time before a big one strikes. He was looking at the quality of modern high-rise construction in Albania and wondering if any of these buildings will stand a major quake – he’s pretty sure many of them will not, and the result will be many deaths. Even id some are built well, the underground of some areas is very unstable and can become fluid during tremors.
   Do you know if Albania has any earthquake measures in the building code? If they are enforced is a different matter altogether of course.

2. Elvis

   September 7th, 2009 at 9:42 AM

   2

   As far as I am aware the building code does have specific measures with regard to earthquakes, however their enforcement and implementation by the construction companies can often be in doubt.

   In most areas around Tirana, construction companies are required to ensure the strength of the foundations with the insertion of large tubular columns into the ground all around the building, but as I have observed most often don’t because it costs too much to implement them and it takes weeks from the construction schedule.

   To the credit of later constructions I have observed that they have started to be more rigorous with these requirements.