UPDATE PROPOSAL OF THE ECUADORIAN CONSTRUCTION STANDARD: GEOTECHNICS AND FOUNDATIONS

Abstract

The Ecuadorian Construction Standard (NEC) is the instrument that regulates building construction activity, and its purpose is to guarantee good engineering practices in Ecuador. The country is located in an area of high seismicity, as evidenced by the 7.8 (Mw) earthquake that in 2016 greatly affected several towns on the Ecuadorian coast. Based on these events, the process of updating the NEC is currently being carried out and this article presents some proposals to the chapter on Geotechnics and Foundations. The most important changes that are being considered for the update are analyzed, referring to the conformation of the geotechnical model, the safety verification of the foundations (superficial and deep), soil improvement, retaining structures, construction procedure, and seismic considerations. One of the most important changes being proposed is the inclusion of the load and resistance factor design philosophy (LRFD) for verifying the failure and service states of structures in contact with any type of geomaterial. In addition, the proposal to include the determination of the dynamic parameters of the soil for purposes of site response analysis within the chapter on geotechnics and foundations, including field and laboratory tests, is analyzed, which is not established in the current version of the NEC, whose publication is from the year 2015.