Structural Concrete for the Americas

Phoenix, Arizona, USA, October 25-26, 2002

STRUCTURAL CONCRETE CODE AND PRACTICE IN

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Vctor F. Pizano-Thomen,* Antonio Guerra, Hctor OReilly INTRODUCTION History The Dominican Republic has had building regulations since the mid-nineteenth century, first in the civil code of that time. Law No. 142 of 1931 promulgated after Hurricane San Zenn established the need for a construction license. Law No. 675 derogated it in 1944 and was a complete law of construction and public ornate. THE CODE DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION PROCESS Existing Codes Law No. 687 of July 27, 1982, created a System of Regulations of Engineering and Architecture, under which buildings require previous approval of the design by the Public Works Ministry. Structural calculations should then comply with technical regulations published by a Regulations and Systems Department of the ministry. however, In case an internationally recognized standard or regulation is used, it should be mentioned and be approved previously by the Ministry. The Seismic Recommendations also permit the use of ACI 318, CEB, and AISC. There are no formal or practical objections, up to now, for the application of recognized international or foreign country standards. The project plans and specifications are revised and approved for construction by a special Office of Plans Submittal that then grants a Construction License. In practice, a large proportion of building projects are built without a building permit and no control on the design. New Code At present, after Hurricane Georges caused ample damage, some international funding is being used to update all construction codes and standards. A team of qualified professionals was chosen through an international competition last year to write up a new set of codes and

Prefabricados, C. por A., Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic A Guerra & Asoc., Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Dominican Society of Seismology and Seismic Engineering, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic A workshop sponsored by ACI-International 16

Structural Concrete for the Americas

Phoenix, Arizona, USA, October 25-26, 2002

standards. This work is being done using a set of terms of references established by the Regulations and Systems Department of the Public Works Ministry. The main requirements and extent of the terms of reference for this work are the following: 1 A detailed revision of the existing literature in the country on regulations, codes, and standards. 2 A detailed study of minimum loads and load combinations for analysis and design of buildings. This should include live, dead, wind, and especially seismic loads. 3 Nine regulations including those for analysis and design of reinforced concrete, masonry, wood and steel structures, and geotechnical studies. These will form the structural analysis and design unit of the building code, which must be a consensus version with professional entities and its members. 4 The code will also include units on electrical, sanitary, mechanical, and firesafety building installations. 5 Publications and training for the use of the new code. It is hoped that a modern code will result, and one of the main tasks will be to publish it and instruct professionals in its correct application. IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ACI 318 CODE AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CODE As mentioned earlier, the new code is being written at this moment, so it does not serve any purpose to discuss the old previous code differences with the ACI 318 code. We will mention some important practices used in the Dominican Republic that will have to be addressed by the new code and show some photographs of actual building at this moment to point out unacceptable uses. If we do not consider irregular construction made with discarded materials, most building construction in the Dominican Republic, including one-family dwellings, are built of concrete block walls with reinforced concrete slab roofs, beams, and columns. This can be extended to the highest buildings constructed at this moment, which reach some 30 stories. Precast concrete is widely used for office and warehouse buildings, and a common practice is cast-in-place frames with precast floors of double tees or hollow core elements. Some frame precasting is also used, and presently, hybrid frames and post-tensioned cores are being introduced. Foundations are mainly spread footings, with larger buildings using RC mats. Some cases use precast prestressed concrete driven piles and, in few cases, small cast-in-place piles. Large diameter piers are almost never used. Small bridges also use this type of foundation and generally c.i.p. piers and abutments with precast (plant or in-situ) prestressed beams. This is also the practice for large overpass and
A workshop sponsored by ACI-International 17

Structural Concrete for the Americas

Phoenix, Arizona, USA, October 25-26, 2002

pedestrian bridge construction. Two large cable-stayed prestressed concrete bridges are finished or in the last stages of construction. Other important structural concrete construction is highway structures and water storage tanks, which are c.i.p. or precast circular strand post-tensioned walls, and c.i.p. dome or precast roof structures. An important proportion of c.i.p. concrete, even for small buildings, is ready-mixed concrete pumped to cast the slabs. Most use plasticizer and retardant admixtures to obtain strengths of around 3500 psi. Precast plants use mostly 5000 psi concrete. Job-site vibration of concrete is almost non-existent as is curing of concrete. Steel reinforcing bars are locally made, Grade 40 or 60, with bending done at the site with no control of radius. Prestressing strand is imported. Code enforcing is either very weak or non-existent, and the lack of attention to details is an important problem. Some points that merit attention and differ from ACI 318 are the following: 1 Design of two-way slabs is carried out using coefficients from theory of elasticity. No use is made of the equivalent frame method. 2 Minimum slab reinforcing of 0.002 is used instead of with minimum flexure reinforcing of 14/fy. 3 Galvanized, not black steel wire, is used for tying bars. 4 Seismic structural analysis is carried out using special frame ductility and damping coefficients, and then the reinforcing steel detailing is done for normal frames or for moderate seismic zones. 5 Bar hooks and anchorage is normally not detailed in construction plans. 6 Weak first stories, sometimes without shear wall cores, are frequently used. 7 Gaps in load paths and integrity reinforcement are frequently apparent. 8 Infill concrete block walls are not isolated from structural elements and are usually cavity construction with incomplete mortar filling. 9 Strong column/weak beam requirements are seldom met. 10 Column ties do not have 135-degree hooks, and tie spacing is not strictly enforced.

A workshop sponsored by ACI-International 18