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UPR with No Plan to Fix Defects that Could Make Buildings Vulnerable to Earthquakes
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Although the University of Puerto Rico’s (UPR) administration has been given notice to avoid further structural damages in its campuses in case of earthquakes, the President of the institution, Jorge Haddock, acknowledges that there is no plan or a cost estimate to fix the flaws, which due to lack of maintenance and old construction defects, make some buildings vulnerable to possible earthquakes. A group of structural engineers — who inspected the 11 campuses last January after the earthquakes — approved the use of most of its facilities, but identified at least 92 pre-existing flaws, some dating to inspections done in 2017 that should be taken care of. As of Feb. 11, the UPR had only addressed five of the identified claims, six were in the process of repair and had half-mitigated 12 of the reported flaws, according to a list the university administration gave the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish). For the rest, solutions for 37 issues were already defined and are about to be addressed, and 17 have not been tackled.
