Every two years, the Water Research Foundation hosts an earthquake preparedness conference with agencies from around the world. This year, for the first time, Metropolitan co-hosted the conference with LADWP.
John Shamma
, Engineering Services unit manager, organized the recent event and Chief Engineer
John Bednarski
opened the conference by talking about Metropolitan’s comprehensive Seismic Reliability Strategy.
“It’s a highly technical conference,” said
Shamma
, “and an opportunity for the world’s leading engineers and planners to share the latest information on how to keep water systems resilient.”
Team Manager
Winston Chai
, was the featured keynote speaker and presented information about the seismic rehabilitation of the Upper Feeder Santa Ana River Crossing. Research papers from three other Metropolitan staff,
Andrew Brainard
,
Mohsen Beikae
and
Tao Peng
, also helped shape the discussions.
Research and development in Japan and Taiwan has resulted in more resilient materials for water agencies.
“Metropolitan continues to adjust and expand its approach to seismic resilience,”
Bednarski
told the 150 attendees.
This includes seismic upgrades and emergency storage in the event the region’s imported water supplies - all of which cross the San Andreas Fault- are damaged.