Tbilisi is replete with quake-prone buildings
“A new tendency of adding levels to so-called Kruschev apartments has become a popular trend in Georgia, and obviously, a logical question pops up here: can such outrageous risks be justified? As it has already been stressed, Kruschev apartment blocks are no longer suitable to live in. Why are they still standing? What is the government going to do with them in the future?”- One of our readers asks us.
We tried to get an answer to our question at Tbilisi City Hall. According to them, a plan to deal with this issue has not been drawn up yet. Though, adding levels to Kruschev blocks is possible only if the owner is permitted to do so. However, some Georgians do this without permission; such instances are being regulated by special monitoring services, however.
Joni Gigineishvili, engineer: “additions built on top of Kruschev blocks are of very low standard. However, it should also be noted that Kruschev era buildings are more solid than their counterparts built in the 1980-90s. Still, I can boldly say that Tbilisi tops other cities with its quake-prone buildings.
By rights, Kruschev apartments were designed to weather only 30-40 years of use; thus, today they are dilapidated and unsuitable to live in, and building additions on top of them is something totally inadmissible. Therefore, we’d better demolish Kruschev blocks and replace them with new, modern houses.
Unfortunately, our people spend colossal money on improving old buildings since they cannot afford to construct new ones.
- These buildings cannot be modified indefinitely, can they?
-Right. Under SU, a building was suitable to live in for no more than 100 years. Some quake-prone buildings have been modified; however, many of them are vulnerable to demolition today, especially in Old Tbilisi and the Saburtalo district.
- Have certain building standards been observed while constructing new buildings in the city?
- Local architects generally avoid liability; they don’t even care that one day these buildings may collapse and claim the lives of many innocent people.
As Guram Gedevanishvili, head of Municipal Laboratory of Analysis and Research Group states, in a city like Tbilisi, building additions on top of already existing structures that are suitable to live in is not dangerous; however, he does not justify our people’s eagerness to construct them and states that such reckless decisions result in ruined buildings; “the demolition of the Rustavi-TV2 building is a clear testimony to this,”- claims Guram Gedevanishvili.
