A proposal to incorporate the first U.S. guidance on tornado-resistant design into the model 2024 International Building Code passed the International Code Council’s structural committee by a vote of 14-0, at recent model code hearings in Rochester, N.Y. Work on the tornado loads in Chapter 32 of the American Society of Civil Engineers/Structural Engineering Institute’s 2022 edition of its bible on design loads, ASCE/SEI 7-22, began in 2014. Chapter 32 provides guidance on how to resist less-powerful but more frequent twisters. It applies only to buildings located in the tornado-prone region of the U.S., which is primarily the area east of the Continental Divide in the contiguous U.S. This guidance covers buildings classified as essential, such as hospitals, or representing a substantial hazard to human life in the event of failure, such as places of public assembly and schools. The next step of the chapter’s journey toward inclusion in the 2024 IBC is the ICC’s public comment hearings, September 14 to 21 in Louisville, Ky.
Tornado Load Standard Advances Toward Inclusion in 2024 Model Building Code
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