The earthquake engineering complex at the University of Nevada just unveiled a new soil box system - the largest facility of its kind in the U.S.
The 24-foot square, 25-foot tall integrated shake-table/soil-box system is a collaboration between the University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The large device will evaluate the way structures, like buildings and bridges, interact with surrounding soil during an earthquake.
Those behind the project tell us it's going help improve computer modeling -- which will ultimately increase public safety.
“Yes, it's new. Yes, we make mistakes but that's what it’s like pushing the state-of-the-art. And the consequences of that is that we will save lives down the road, we will change our building codes, we'll change the way nuclear codes are built, we will indeed do a better job at public safety,” says Ian Buckle, UNR Professor and Principal Investigator for Project.
Developers say this has been a project five years in the works.
COVID and supply chain issues halted progress, so it's been a long time in the making.
