Functional Recovery and Rehabilitation For New and Existing Infrastructure

The rehabilitation of existing structures and the incorporation of functional recovery principles for new structures are themes of great relevance for structural engineers in the USA today. Sustainability and community resilience paradigms require that building owners carefully assess conditions of existing infrastructure before deciding on whether to rehabilitate or replace the structure. Once that decision is made, another important criterion is whether the structure needs to comply with functional recovery performance goals. The limit state of functional recovery is required in the USA for new government buildings by a series of executive orders and presidential policy directives issued over the last 10 years. Recently, the Building Seismic Safety Council sponsored a workshop for federal agencies interested in these two topics. The conclusions of those workshops indicate that while most agencies are eager to adopt new guidelines, the agencies have little guidance or experience to help them satisfy these new requirements. In addition, it is unclear how new technologies and materials, manpower and training shortages, and cost issues will impact implementation. This paper reports on the background, code framework, and possible solutions to these issues.