Common faulty repairs and strengthening of RC buildings after the earthquakes of February, 2023 in Türkiye

ABSTRACT Türkiye, located within the highly active Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt, has experienced numerous major earthquakes over the past century, often resulting in substantial loss of life and property damage due to recurring structural deficiencies. Inspections following such events have consistently revealed similar shortcomings in the repair and strengthening of reinforced concrete buildings. The post-earthquake interventions carried out after the earthquakes of February 6, 2023, demonstrated serious flaws, largely attributed to insufficient professional training, lack of field experience, and inadequate adherence to technical specifications. Given the complexity of seismic strengthening, aligning repair and strengthening practices with established engineering principles and enforcing strict quality control during both design and implementation phases is critical to ensuring structural safety. This study is grounded in comprehensive field investigations conducted across several cities affected by the February 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye. Typical faults and regulatory non-compliances observed during repair and strengthening activities were systematically documented. The paper identifies the most prevalent errors and proposes effective technical solutions to enhance the reliability of future seismic strengthening efforts.