ATC Team Reports on Their Investigation of the Magnitude-8.8 Chilean Earthquake

The ATC team dispatched to Chile to investigate the effects of the February 27, 2010 magnitude-8.8 earthquake that caused widespread damage arrived in Chile on March 28, 2010 and ended its trip on April 3, 2010. The team consisted of Ramon Gilsanz (ATC Board President) of Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP, New York City, Bret Lizundia of Rutherford & Chekene, San Francisco, John Price of Curry Price Court, San Diego, and Christopher Rojahn (ATC Executive Director) of Redwood City, California. The purpose of the trip was to observe the effects of the earthquake on buildings, with the goal of developing new information that can be used to improve engineering practice and perhaps revise and update the engineering guidelines and applications, including guidance on emergency response, that ATC has developed to date.

The team visited the towns of Santiago, Rancagua, San Fernando, Nancagua, Santa Cruz, Peralillo, Poblacion, Pumanque, Lolol, Curico, Talca, Constitucion, Chanco, Pelluhue, Concepcion, Talcahuano, and Vina del Mar where they met with several engineers, observed damaged and undamaged buildings, and, in some communities, interviewed local citizens. You can read a summary of the team’s initial observations here.

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ATC Team Member Bret Lizundia inspects damage to adobe building in Chile

Welcome to the ATC Team!

Michael Valley

As a former Principal at Magnusson Klemencic Associates in Seattle, Mike Valley comes to ATC with more than 30 years of structural engineering experience in new design, evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings, applied research, and codes and standards development. Mike’s design experience includes the landmark Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, and his research and development experience includes the FEMA 356 Prestandard and Commentary for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings, FEMA P-2012 Assessing Seismic Performance of Buildings with Configuration Irregularities (ATC-123 Project), and NIST GCR 10-917-9 Applicability of Nonlinear Multiple-Degree-of-Freedom Modeling for Design (ATC-76-6 Project).

Mike also has extensive experience as an ATC consultant serving as a reviewer, a technical contributor, and Project Director on multiple ATC projects. We look forward to how Mike’s unique experiences as a successful team member will contribute to ATC projects in the future.

Michael Mahoney

Retired from federal service as a Senior Geophysicist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mike Mahoney comes to ATC with more than 30 years of experience in hazard mitigation program management and policy development, post-disaster response and recovery, and problem-focused research and development in support of FEMA’s efforts under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). He has led FEMA’s earthquake-related work with the International Code Council and has been involved with the development of national model codes and standards since 1984.

In his career at FEMA, Mike has led the development of countless major FEMA publications, including: FEMA 350 Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings and its series of companion reports (ATC-41 Project series), FEMA P-58 Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings, Methodology and Implementation (ATC-58 Project series), FEMA P-695 Quantification of Building Seismic Performance Factors (ATC-63 Project), FEMA P-2018 Seismic Evaluation of Older Concrete Buildings for Collapse Potential (ATC-78 Project), and FEMA P-2090/NIST SP-1254 Recommended Options for Improving the Built Environment for Post-Earthquake Reoccupancy and Functional Recovery Time (ATC-137 Project). With Mike’s extensive knowledge of federal government programs, and past collaboration with state and local agencies, hazard mitigation partners, and code development organizations, we look forward to how his unique experiences will help serve ATC’s client needs and objectives in the future.