Construction of Residential Protected Spaces as an integral part of urban renewal and TAMA 38
Jul 29, 2022
מאת: איציק סימון
ממ"ד קרוב ותקני משפר את ההגנה על השוהים בו עד יעבור זעם. תכלית חשובה זו מוגשמת באמצעות עידוד בעלי דירות להוסיף לדירתם ממ"ד בשטח מינימלי, באמצעות הענקת פטור מהיטל השבחה, המביאה לחיסכון כלכלי" (כב' השופט ת ד' ברק-ארז. בר"ם 21/6874).
פברואר 2022. בית המשפט העליון מפרסם פסק דין חשוב לגבי זכותן של חברות ייזום בהרצליה לפטור מהיטל השבחה בבניית ממ"דים בפרויקטים של תמ"א 38 בעיר. זאת לאחר שהוועדה המחוזית לתכנון ובנייה דחתה את בקשתן מכיוון שהממ"דים חרגו מקווי הבניין והביאו לשיפור תכנוני ביחס לכל המבנה.
לכאורה עוד אחד מאלפי פסקי דין מנהליים שנוגעים לסכסוכים בין יזמים לוועדות התכנון. בפועל, ביטוי מפי בית המשפט העליון לכך שמאחורי התחדשות עירונית ו/או תמ"א 38 לא עומדים רק מטרות של שיפור איכות החיים במרחב העירוני או חיזוק מבנים כנגד רעידות אדמה, אלא שהן מנוע חשוב להגנה על אוכלוסיית ישראל ו"אבזור" דירות ברחבי הארץ בממ"ד (מרחב מוגן דירתי).
By: Itzick Simon
"A close Residential Protected Space and standard basement improves the protection of those residing therein until the wrath passes. This important purpose is accomplished by encouraging apartment owners to add a basement of minimal area to their apartment, by granting an exemption from the improvement levy, which results in financial savings" (Honorable Justice D. Barak-Erez. Baram 21/6874).
February 2022. The Supreme Court publishes an important ruling regarding the right of development companies in Herzliya to be exempt from the improvement levy for the construction of building blocks in TAMA 38 projects in the city. This is after the District Planning and Building Committee rejected their request because the building blocks exceeded the building lines and resulted in a planning improvement in relation to the entire structure.
Ostensibly another one of thousands of administrative rulings concerning disputes between developers and planning committees. In practice, an expression from the Supreme Court that behind urban renewal and/or TAMA 38 are not only the goals of improving the quality of life in the urban space or strengthening buildings against earthquakes, but are also an important engine for protecting the Israeli population and "equipping" apartments throughout the country in a protected residential area (MAMAD).
Summary of previous chapters
Many buildings throughout the country were not built according to the Israeli earthquake standard, I.S. 413. After discussions on the subject, it was decided to address the issue systematically, when in 2005 the outline plan TAMA 38 was first published, which was intended to encourage the strengthening of buildings that do not meet the standard. In the first stage, by strengthening them only, and in the second stage, starting in 2008, also by demolishing and rebuilding them.
While the main purpose of TAMA 38 was to deal with an earthquake, in practice the projects also included the establishment of battalions. In Israel, which is frequently subject to security threats, especially rocket threats (as we have experienced quite a bit in recent years), this is no small matter.
According to data from the Israel Builders Contractors Association, as of a report published in 2021, approximately 63% of apartments in Israel still do not have a residential protected space. In absolute numbers, we are talking about almost 3 million Israelis. The cities that "lead" the list are Jerusalem (with approximately 180,000 apartments without a fire alarm system), Tel Aviv (with approximately 160,000 unprotected apartments), Haifa (more than 98,000 apartments), Petah Tikva (approximately 50,000 apartments) and Rishon LeZion (approximately 45,000 unprotected apartments).
מבנים רבים ברחבי הארץ לא נבנו לפי התקן הישראלי כנגד רעידות אדמה, ת"י 413. לאחר דיונים בנושא הוחלט לטפל בסוגיה באופן מערכתי כשבשנת 2005 פורסמה לראשונה תוכנית המתאר תמ"א 38 שנועדה לעודד חיזוק מבנים שלא עומדים בתקן. בשלב ראשון על ידי חיזוקם בלבד, ובשלב השני, החל משנת 2008, גם על ידי הריסתם ובנייתם מחדש.
בעוד שהתכלית המרכזית של תמ"א 38 הייתה להתמודד עם אירוע של רעידת אדמה, בפועל המיזמים כללו גם הקמת ממ"דים. בישראל הנתונה תדיר לאיומים ביטחוניים ובפרט לאיומים רקטיים (כפי שחווינו לא מעט בשנים האחרונות), אין זה עניין של מה בכך.
לפי נתוני התאחדות הקבלנים בוני הארץ, נכון לדו"ח שפורסם ב-2021, אין עדיין ממ"ד בכ-63% מהדירות בישראל. במספרים מוחלטים אנחנו מדברים על כמעט 3 מיליון ישראלים. הערים "שמובילות" את הרשימה הן ירושלים (עם כ-180 אלף דירות ללא ממ"ד), ת"א (עם כ-160 אלף דירות לא ממוגנות), חיפה (יותר מ-98 אלף דירות), פ"ת (כ-50 אלף דירות) וראשל"צ (כ-45 אלף דירות שאינן ממוגנות).
It is interesting to know that one of the greatest contributions of the residential protected spaces, in addition to their main purpose - protection, is that they help the structure withstand earthquakes.
The MMDs, being closed and rigid boxes built one above the other like a stable tower that descends to the foundations in the ground, also constitute stiffening walls against horizontal loads. As a result, new single-story houses built with MMDs are more resistant to earthquakes, even in relation to the standard requirements, thanks to the protected spaces themselves.
"The residential protected space play a dual role here," says Dr. Brosh, director of the building department at the Standards Institute, a lecturer in structural engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at Ariel University, and one of Israel's leading experts in the field of civil defense. "First, they help strengthen the structure, reduce the risk of collapse, and reduce residual damage. Second, and no less important, they provide shelter for those who are in buildings in places where it is not possible to immediately exit during an earthquake."
"This is also true for security incidents," adds Dr. Brosh, "arriving at the MMD increases the survival rates of those in the structure. The MMD is a protected space that is highly resistant to both blast and shrapnel. In the event of a direct hit by warheads, it reduces the damage that will be caused by the fact that the explosion will likely be outside."
A structure with a Residential Protected Space will survive better even in the event of an earthquake.
Does the requirement to add residential protected spaces as part of new construction and/or in TAMA 38 or urban renewal projects lead to an increase in prices? The answer is surprising, since the additional building code creates almost no additional costs.
"A company headquarters is just another room in the house," says Dr. Brosh. "In recent years, the Home Front Command has worked hard to adapt all the accessories and raw materials in company headquarters to everyday life, as much as possible to the prevailing nature of construction in Israel."
"In the past, before the construction of the MAMDs, the security solution was to establish a shelter for a building or several buildings. There was an obligation that was not always adhered to to leave the public shelter empty and not to store objects and movables in it. Unlike the old shelter, which was really an added cost to the building since it was built for the purpose of protection only, the MAMD is a dual-purpose room. It is both a protected residential space with all that this implies, and also a room for every purpose and purpose for daily use."
Does adding Residential Protected Spaces make the construction market more expensive?
The advantages of the emergency room over the shelter, which Dr. Brosh discusses, correspond with official documents that are published from time to time. For example, in a document prepared to examine the importance of adding emergency rooms to residential buildings in areas where senior citizens and people with disabilities live.
" The time to enter a protected space when an alarm is sounded for missile fire varies from area to area: from zero (immediate entry into a protected space) to three minutes. Therefore, a multi-story or apartment protected space has an advantage over a shelter, as access to it is faster, due to its proximity to the residential unit, and it is better suited for extended stays. These advantages are of greater importance among populations who have difficulty reaching shelters in a short time, such as senior citizens and people with disabilities ."
"This is also true in the aspects of architectural and engineering planning or raw materials," adds Dr. Brosh, "building a MAMD does not require unique materials that need to be brought in specifically. There is no work here by contractors with special expertise, as the construction is done with regular construction contractors. The planning is in standard dimensions, usually 20-30 cm, and these are dimensions that the building 'knows' well. The ceiling is the same ceiling, the floor is the same floor, and the concrete walls of the MAMD integrate with the other walls. In addition, the suppliers of the frame products and windows are also the same suppliers of additional accessories in the structure."
Advantages of the Residential Protected Space (MAMAD)
Dr. Brosh says that protected spaces constitute an important and significant pillar of national resilience. It is much more convenient and easier to reach the home emergency room than the staircase or public shelter. As a result, during an event, more Israelis will be protected and shielded when missiles fall.
"This is said even more strongly regarding young families with small children, elderly people or people with disabilities who can even sleep in protected spaces from the start and are not required to wake up when an alarm is sounded and reach a protected distance," he notes. "Like Iron Dome, which strengthened national resilience by providing a solution to rocket threats, so the MMD, with its ability to reduce losses in the home front, ultimately strengthens the entire population at the national level."
"Moreover, there are also economic implications of functional continuity. The more buildings in Israel, private and commercial in combat systems, have protected spaces, the less the Israeli economy will be damaged in difficult times. This is of course also true for schools, educational institutions, hospitals, commercial centers, and the like."
Residential protected space improves national resilience
It is gratifying to know that the residential protected space also provide increased protection against the most significant threat – nuclear weapons. Today, the protected spaces already include ventilation and filtration systems that will allow for long-term stay in the event of a nuclear event.
The concrete envelope of the protected spaces helps protect against splash, thermal radiation, fires, immediate and directed radioactive radiation, etc. It reduces the hazardous values inside the house compared to "regular" block walls.
Even against nuclear weapons?
It is important to note that there is an "intermediate" category of buildings in Israel that often falls between the lines. This is because construction with earthquake-resistant concrete structures began to be accepted in Israel in 1995, but buildings that meet the conditions of TAMA 38 are mainly those built before 1980. In other words, between 1980 and 1995, tens of thousands of apartments were built in Israel that are, although reinforced against earthquakes, lack earthquake-resistant concrete structures, and there is currently no proper plan that provides a solution for them.
How did this happen? At the end of the first Gulf War, in 1992, the Israeli government approved regulations for protected spaces that require the construction of a MAMD, MAMK (storey protected space) or MMM (institutional protected space) in all new construction. The regulations began to be implemented in practice in construction from the mid-1990s, and it is currently estimated that apartments built before 1995 do not include a MAMD.
Since the Israeli standard requiring earthquake resistance came into effect in 1975, about 15 years before the regulations requiring the construction of a building with a reinforced concrete foundation, a situation has arisen in which buildings built in the interim period, 1980-1995, do not necessarily include protected residential spaces (at least as part of the original construction), but on the other hand do not meet the conditions required for the implementation of TAMA 38.
The Knesset Research and Information Center addressed this in a recently published document on the future of TAMA 38, which states, "In addition to the danger of an earthquake, due to the geopolitical situation , it is also necessary to protect the buildings from missiles, by adding protected spaces (MAMDIM) to buildings that were built before 1995 and therefore do not have MAMDIM" (emphasis not in the original) .
Things are getting to truly alarming numbers, as it is estimated that only about 1.2% of the buildings belonging to the "problematic" group from between 1980 and 1995 were reinforced according to TAMA 38 and had additional fire protection systems added to them. Since the main driver of TAMA 38 is economic viability, and therefore the program is less common in the periphery, the data in cities under security threat are below average. For example, in Be'er Sheva, which received about 20 rockets a day during Operation "Guardian of the Walls," as of 2020 only 0.05% of the buildings in the problematic category (1980-1995) received a permit for TAMA 38, and no project has been populated.
Between the earthquake-proof standard and the regulations requiring a residential protected space
In conclusion,
Urban renewal or TAMA 38 projects bring with them real news in terms of protecting and strengthening construction in Israel. The existence of a building emergency response system in a home has a positive effect on the building's resistance to an earthquake and strengthens national resilience by enabling access to a protected space within a matter of seconds.
It is also important to continue to include the residential protected spaces in future urban renewal projects or TAMA 38, as well as to find a solution for the complex category of residential buildings that were built "between the chairs" between 1980 and 1995.
התחדשות עירונית או פרויקטים של תמ"א 38 מביאים עמם בשורה של ממש מבחינת המיגון והחיזוק של הבנייה בישראל. קיומו של ממ"ד בבית משפיע לטובה על עמידות הבניין באירוע של רעידת אדמה ומחזק את החוסן הלאומי בכך שהוא מאפשר הגעה למרחב מוגן בתוך שניות ספורות.
חשוב גם להמשיך ולכרוך את בניית הממ"דים בפרויקטים עתידיים של התחדשות עירונית או תמ"א 38, וכן למצוא פתרון לקטגוריה המורכבת של מבני המגורים שנבנו "בין הכיסאות" בשנים שבין 1980 ל-1995.
מסמכים
