Groningen, East Groningen in particular, is suffering the consequences of gas extraction: damage to residences and other buildings, and risks of personal injury or worse. Bouwen met Staal’s Technical Committee for Earthquake Resistant Design (TC 13) is helping to reducing the consequences of earthquakes to buildings, inventory, and users to the minimum acceptable level.

Established in April 2014, TC 13 has all the necessary structural engineering knowledge to support structural designers improve earthquake resistance in existing residences and utility buildings, and earthquake resistant design and detailing of new construction.

TC 13 is working on practical recommendations and guidelines regarding:

• the steel reinforcement of existing masonry structures. Given the situation in Groningen, this field of work has the highest priority;
• the improvement of earthquake resistance in existing steel structures; and
• the earthquake resistant design of new steel structures.

The guidelines and recommendations are mainly intended for engineering firms, active in structural advice, design and detailing. They are incorporated in:

• handy digital publications and tools, and
• courses, seminars, or other informational meetings held by Bouwen met Staal or associated organizations.

As the sounding board for the NEN, TC helped drafting the NPR 9998: Design and assessment of earthquake resistant buildings in case of construction, reconstruction, and disapproval. TC will perform the same function for the development of the National Annex to Eurocode 8 (NEN-EN 1998): Design and calculation of structures for earthquake resistance.

TC 13 members are:

• N. (Niels) Arendsen (member), Hilti;
• Prof. F.S.K. (Frans) Bijlaard
 (member), TU Delft, CiTG;
• A. (Ab) van den Bos (member), TNO Diana;
• MSc R.H.J. (Rick) Bruins (member), Ingenieursbureau Wassenaar;
• MSc F. (Fred) van Dam (member), VDK Engineering;
• Ph.D. A.F. (Ralph) Hamerlinck
 (secretary and administrator), Bouwen met Staal
;
• MSc H. (Harm) Hoorn (member), Zonneveld Ingenieurs;
• MSc A. (André) Koster (member), Grontmij;
• MSc H. (Hendrik) Land (member), CIBIS Bouwadviseurs;
• Prof. J. (Johan) Maljaars (member), TNO;
• J. (Jan) Popma (member), Fischer
• MSc D.J. (Dirk Jan) Peters (chair), 
Royal HaskoningDHV
;
• MSc R.H.G. (Rudy) Roijakkers (member), ABT Antwerpen;
• M. (Meint) Smith (member), Arcadis Nederland;
• MSc P. (Paul) Teeuwen (member), Witteveen + Bos;
• MSc R.TH. (Theo) van Wageningen (member), Ingenieursbureau Dijkhuis;
• MSc R. (Rinse) Wiersum (member), W2N Engineers;
• Prof. S. (Simon) Wijte (member), Adviesbureau Hageman