The purpose of this project is to review and improve current design guidance regarding the use of storage racks in public retail facilities. This work will be performed by the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) under a specific task to the current contract to perform the 2003 update of the NEHRP Recommended Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures (Contract EMW-2001-CO-0269 between NIBS and FEMA).

Seismic design requirements for storage racks currently are included in the NEHRP Recommended Provisions and normally fall within the purview of both Technical Subcommittees 8 and 13, depending on the size and configuration of the racks. However, the current material on storage racks in the Provisions has not been updated for some time and does not reflect recent earthquake experience data.

The State of Washington now has asked for FEMA assistance in developing guidance concerning the life safety risk posed by presence of storage racks in public retail facilities and. in particular, the risk of their collapse or loss of storage load during an earthquake. The state presently is studying the possibility of developing state regulations, and this interest is being driven primarily by a recent fatality resulting from improperly maintained storage racks.

Given that FEMA has also been concerned about storage rack performance, the agency has asked the NIBS/BSSC, which is responsible for the Provisions update, to devote additional attention to this topic to lay the groundwork for providing the State of Washington with assistance and for longer term refinement of the Provisions requirements. It should be noted that one advantage of using the NEHRP Recommended Provisions process is that the Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI) is a BSSC member organization already familiar with organization and the update process.