Significant drop in demand for quake tests: Expert

ISTANBUL

A considerable decline has been seen for earthquake resistance test requests for buildings across the country, which had spiked during the first couple of months after the deadly Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes, an expert has said.

Professor Dr. Hasan Yıldırım, a civil engineer in charge of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Building Materials Laboratory, stated that the number of applications, which reached about 300 per day in the period immediately after the earthquakes in February, has now dropped to only five per day.

In the first three months after the deadly earthquakes that jolted 11 southern provinces, applications for building durability test applications totaled 4,000 in Istanbul alone, however, this number quickly plummeted over the last couple weeks throughout the entire country, Yıldırım said.

“After the earthquakes, there was so much demand that we had a hard time returning to the applications quickly. Nowadays, it’s as if no one is concerned about the possible earthquakes Türkiye is expecting,” the professor added.

Noting that the staggering prices are also effective in the decrease in applications, Yıldırım said the prices vary according to the size of the structure.

The prices for these tests start at 70,000 Turkish liras and may go up to around 500,000 liras. If there are 20 buildings on a housing estate, the price is multiplied. The numbers go higher if the ground must be examined by drilling and if it requires seismic analysis."

According to the latest data of Istanbul Municipality, the number of applications for the building inspection project carried out with the rapid scanning method in possibly risky structures built before the year 2000 throughout Istanbul has also been decreasing.