June 2013

PUC Reviews Ballots

The Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) Provisions Update Committee (PUC) met June 4-5 in California to review the third round of PUC ballots and the first round of BSSC membership organization ballots on proposals to update the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program’s (NEHRP) 2009 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures. Consisting of some of the nation’s top seismic design experts, the PUC is responsible for overseeing the process to develop the 2014 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions.

Eleven Issue Teams and three Study Groups come up with the proposals for additions, revisions or deletions to relevant chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers standard, ASCE 7-10: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures. The PUC members then ballot the proposals, provide comments on the ballots and resolve comments at meetings. In the five-year cycle for developing the NEHRP Provisions, five rounds of ballots, A, B, C, D and E, have been scheduled. Following PUC’s voting, the BSSC Board members then consider the ballots, which, if accepted, go on to the 50 BSSC organizational members for ballot. Three of these ballots are scheduled. Proposals that are accepted in this ballot become part of the 2014 Provisions.

During this month’s meeting, the PUC went over comments for Membership Ballot No. 1 and PUC Ballot C. In turn, the BSSC membership voted to pass each of the five proposals in Membership Ballot No. 1. These proposals will now be finalized by their authors for inclusion in the 2014 NEHRP Provisions. In addition, six of the nine proposals in PUC Ballot C passed. Those six will be included in Membership Ballot No. 2, which is due to be developed by mid-October. The three that did not pass will be revised and re-balloted in PUC Ballot D, to be developed in mid-July. Comments from PUC Ballot D will be reviewed at a PUC meeting scheduled for September 24 and 25. The BSSC Board of Direction will review the PUC’s actions in a web teleconference following the meeting.