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Lymon C. Reese & Associates Projects in Structural Engineering |
Project Location: Tijuana, State of Baja California Norte, México
Client: TelNor S.A. de C.V.; México City
Dates: 1994-1995
The “Central Tijuana-Centro” building houses telecommunications equipment and antennas in charge of long-distance calls that are made from Tijuana to the interior cities of the Republic of México and to foreign locations.
The main structure is a five-story (68,000 ft2, 80-ft height) steel frame building with unreinforced masonry infill wall panels. Overall structural stability during design-level earthquakes according to the 1994 Uniform Building Code were reviewed. Typical beam-column joint connection details between steel elements were checked against the most current (Emergency Technical Bulletin No. 2 from November 1994) American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) guidelines that appeared after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California. A large percentage of similar steel buildings with welded moment frame connections suffered structural damages during the mentioned earthquake and a few university research projects provided design, repair and strengthening guidelines.