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Earthquake Here?
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For more information: Steve Sabin Corporate Marketing Manager Bently Nevada Corporation 1617 Water Street Minden, NV 89423 Phone: (775) 782-3611 Fax: (775) 782-9337 E-mail: steve.sabin@bently.com |
MINDEN, NEVADA, 15 August 1999 - Don Bently isn't an alarmist. He’s a realist. He’s also as close as you're likely to come to a modern day Renaissance man with interest in a number of diverse areas. One of those areas is earthquakes. "Unfortunately, people have short memories," notes Bently. "The earthquake tragedy in Turkey is fresh in our minds now, but in a few weeks most of us will have forgotten about it, unaware of the risks that exist locally." What does Bently have to support this concern? Consider this: the Carson Valley is considered a Zone 3 seismic region, second only to Zone 4 regions, such as the Bay Area. However, scientists aren't the only ones paying attention. Bently is as well. That’s why his Bently Nevada Corporation’s new 250,000 square foot headquarters, currently under construction, significantly exceeds local building codes for withstanding an earthquake. Bently has personally insisted the building be designed to his standards in this respect. When the over 900 local employees of Bently Nevada move in to the new facility, slated to begin in December of this year, they can breath easy, knowing their workplace is built with the possibility of a quake in mind. The building’s steel frame uses bolted construction techniques (see sidebar) that allow the building’s joints to slip and "give" in the event of a quake, rather than the steel members themselves, as would be the case with conventional welded joints. How good is it? The building is engineered to withstand a seismic event of 8.0 on the Richter scale; it exceeds the requirements of even a Zone 4 building (we're Zone 3 in the Carson Valley) by 25%. To put that in perspective, that’s 4 times more severe than the 7.4 quake that rocked Izmit, Turkey, on Tuesday. Says the building’s structural engineer of record, Vance Gabbart of Reno’s Gabbart & Woods, "The Bently headquarters is built to the same standards as would be required of an essential facility, such as a hospital, in the middle of San Francisco." In addition to the building’s construction details, the new facility also provides sufficient back-up electrical generating capacity to run the entire operation indefinitely. If that wasn't enough, Bently also modified original plans to locate the building on lower-lying land, to a location on his Buckeye Ranch property that is approximately 30 feet higher than the surrounding land. His reason: to ensure that the entire operation is well above the 500-year flood plain. Notes Rich Chapman, Bently Nevada General Manager and Executive Vice-President, "I hope we never see a disaster here, but if we do, it’s nice to know that we've taken the necessary precautions for our people, and to ensure we can keep the business operation up and running." The massive new headquarters, however, isn't where Bently’s concern stops. Built in 1915, the historic H.S. Dangberg building in Minden is another of Bently’s properties. In 1997, the Company vacated this facility, then used as personal office space for Bently and several other departments, to renovate it; again, the renovation was driven entirely by Bently’s concern that it simply wasn't engineered to withstand a quake. "It was simply one brick piled atop another," observes Bently, "and a slab concrete roof that would have fallen like a piano in an earthquake." To that end, Bently gutted the entire building and rebuilt it to meet Zone 4 criteria plus a 25% safety margin. It’s now a two-story facility that is both safe and aesthetically pleasing. Ever mindful of recycling, Bently even ensured that the original bricks were re-used. Among other things, it allowed the building to maintain its historic charm, resulting in a recent award from Douglas County for "Excellence in Project Design and Historic Preservation." While for most people, an ongoing role as Chief Executive Officer of a $200 million per year specialized electronics and engineering company would be enough; not Bently. He’s also extremely active in two other Carson Valley agricultural companies he owns, Bently Agrowdynamics and Bently Biodynamics. Part of the 30,000 acres in holdings these companies comprise includes the reservoir at Mud Lake, located south of Gardnerville on the historic Springmeyer Ranch. Originally built by area pioneer Fred Dressler, the reservoir was created by constructing a clay-filled dam. Bently is currently working with Stone & Webster engineering with plans to construct an entirely new concrete dam that again meets Bently’s stringent criteria of Zone 4 plus 25%. Several other additions and renovations around Bently’s numerous holdings have all been treated similarly – Zone 4 plus 25%. "I've always said ‘Safety First’ in this company," reflects Bently, "and I mean it." That’s typical of the Valley’s most legendary and noteworthy business leader – you know where he stands; and, if you're planning on being in any of his new or renovated construction projects, you can have the same assurance. You'll know where you stand – on firm ground. Construction Techniques After the 1994 quake in Northridge, California, a new construction technology - known as Bolted Ductile Moment Frames (BDMF) - was developed. Conventional methods for steel frame construction use welded joints. While the joints themselves are strong, they don't "give." Instead, they transfer the energy from an earthquake directly to the steel members themselves. The steel is intended to yield, absorbing the energy. The building itself won't collapse, but it's virtually unusable after that. It's a safe, but ultimately expensive approach, since a significant quake may mean the building has to be rebuilt afterwards to replace the now-yielded steel supports. Bolted Ductile Moment Frames, as the name implies, use bolts - rather than welds - to connect one steel member to another. The bolting is specifically designed to allow slippage and movement of members during a quake. It absorbs energy without yielding the steel itself. Bently Nevada's new 250,000 square foot headquarters is currently nearing completion and uses BDMF technology throughout. In addition, the building's General contractor, Lusardi Construction Company of San Diego, California, made certain all foundation work on the new facility allowed the steel members to be aligned within a quarter inch. That meant the bolting could go into place without bending or stressing the steel beams when it came time to place them. Finally, 10% of all bolts in the new building's joints are independently inspected to ensure they are bolted and torqued properly. If any connection is found to be a problem, all bolts in the joint are re-done and re-inspected. It's an approach that significantly exceeds the building code requirements of the area, but typical of Bently's personal insistence on safety, quality, and attention to detail. |
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