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March 7, 2001 Accelerating the seismic retrofitting of the King County Courthouse is a priority. Metropolitan King County Council Budget and Fiscal Management Committee Chair Rob McKenna says doing that without major disruptions in the lives of the people who work in and use the facility means looking for creative solutions. “We need to search for ways to get this done because we were lucky in the fact that the damage to the interior of the courthouse, while very visible, was cosmetic. We’ve had our warning, I’m not ready to take a chance on being this lucky again.” The Budget and Fiscal Management Committee received a briefing today from the Department of Construction Facilities Management on the fiscal impact last week’s temblor had on county owned and leases facilities. The report said the 87-year-old courthouse rode out the quake in relatively good condition, but efforts that started in 1997 to make the building seismically safe must be accelerated. Options presented to the committee included delaying components of the retrofit that are not seismic related, making earthquake safety a priority. McKenna says doing this means being willing to look at ways to get crews working inside the courthouse as soon as possible. He noted that officials from the King County Superior Court have said it might be possible to temporarily relocate up to five additional courtrooms outside of the courthouse in order to accelerate the seismic retrofit. That will allow an entire floor of the building to be retrofitted at one time instead of completing the work a half-floor at a time. To further accelerate the retrofit, McKenna says the County also needs to look at ways to reduce traffic in the courthouse, such as consolidating hours of personnel working inside the building. “If there are people willing to work flexible schedules, such as performing work in a 4-days on, 3-days off pattern, it reduces the number of people inside the courthouse, thereby opening up spaces that work crews can get to.” The committee also received an update from officials of Harborview Medical Center regarding the condition of the hospital. They noted the damage at the facility occurred in areas that were the focus of the county bond measure to seismically retrofit the region’s major trauma center. While there was damage, the hospital was able to continue operation without disruptions. “The damage was where engineers predicted it would happen, so the bond to make the upgrades were needed,” says McKenna. “The fact the hospital stood up to the region’s most serious quake in a half-century shows the voters that approved the measure their money was well spent.” – End – |