Update on the AISC Seismic Provisions

Between the advent of incorporating seismic design provisions into the Uniform Building Code (UBC) in the early 1950s, and the late 1980s, the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) Seismology Committee was almost completely responsible for the content of these provisions. Spurred on by the federally funded National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP), in the late 1980s and early 1990s seismic design began to be seen as more of a nationwide issue. During these years, the NEHRP program began to fund the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) to develop model building code provisions for seismic design. The BSSC established a nationally represented committee structure, with technical subcommittees addressing each of the main structural materials, including structural steel. To support this effort, the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) established a parallel committee (TC 9) and began the development of a set of seismic design provisions for steel buildings. Over the last ten years, a rational, systematic and efficient process has been instituted to incorporate the latest developments in seismic design of steel structures into building code provisions. This system relies on the coordinated efforts of AISC, BSSC, SEAOC and AWS committees. The process provides a single point of responsibility for the development of these provisions, thus eliminating duplicative effort, and more importantly, the development of competing documents that would result in minor differences that would undoubtedly result in major confusion in application by practicing engineers.