PEER Cited as "Primary Earthquake Engineering Arm of the State of California" by the CSSC
The California Seismic Safety Commission has completed its review of PEER and released its report (CSSC 07-04) on the web at http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub/PEER_Review_Years_7-9.pdf. This is the fourth report issued since 1997. CSSC findings indicate that:
- - PEER's efforts have produced cost-effective products that benefit the State of California consistent with the goals and initiatives of the California Earthquake Loss Reduction Plan;
- - PEER continues to meet its goals, and has been instrumental in affecting State laws and regulations.
Specific PEER accomplishments cited in the report include:
- - Trained students and professionals to use state-of-the art technologies to reduce earthquake vulnerability of buildings and infrastructure;
- - Influenced important changes in national standards for the design of concrete structures that increase safety and reduce construction and retrofit costs;
- - Produced guidelines for assessing and mitigating the effects of liquefaction and earthquake induced landslides;
- - Improved retrofit techniques for bridges resulting in greater safety and lower construction costs;
- - Partnered with electric utility companies in California to guide PEER's development of applied research that enhances standards for substation, transmission and distribution systems;
- - Developed improved ground motion estimates for seismic conditions appropriate to large regions of California. These new estimates will soon be widely used in the design and safety evaluations of facilities of all types when they are incorporated into the next edition of the National Seismic Hazard Maps and future State regulations.