Building on experience

The Cibeles Tower in Mexico City is currently undergoing a major renovation, with mageba shock absorbers at every level protecting it against earthquakes of the kind that have damaged it in the past

The Cibeles Tower, built in 1978 with 18 levels and a height of 65 m, is located in an area of high seismic activity in Mexico City – a part of the metropolis that was most affected by the strong earthquakes of 1985 and 2017. The building survived those earthquakes quite well, but the minor damage experienced was heeded as a warning for the future. Therefore, in planning major renovation works that are currently ongoing, ways of improving the building’s seismic response were considered, based on updated seismic design regulations. Following a detailed structural analysis, it was decided to reinforce the structure with 84 viscous dampers, some at each level.

RESTON®SA shock absorbers were selected for this purpose, each designed for a load of 1,000 KN and with a movement capacity of +/-50mm. These were manufactured in mageba’s Shanghai factory, and tested at the company’s in-house seismic testing laboratory, SISMALAB. Testing was in accordance with EN 15129, and included prototype testing (pressure, low velocity, constitutive law, damping efficiency and stroke) of two dampers, as well as production quality control testing (pressure, stroke and corrosion protection) of all 84 units.

The units will be installed in the coming months, under mageba supervision. This will make it the third such tower building in Mexico City to be retrofitted with mageba seismic dampers in recent years, following after the installation of RESTON®SA shock absorbers in Telmex’s Lerma Building in 2014 and in the Executive Tower of Mexico’s Ministry of Economy in 2017. The project is thus expanding mageba’s already substantial experience in this field of application, for building owners throughout Mexico and across the Americas to benefit from in the future.

Following detailed structural analysis, the use of RESTON®SA shock absorbers was proposed, each designed for a load of 1,000 KN and with a movement capacity of +/-50 mm

The dampers were carefully packed in wooden crates for delivery to site, to protect against damage during transport to the point of installation

Each crate contains four dampers – meaning 21 crates were required for the 84 dampers in total

Lifting of a crate containing four dampers through the building’s stripped core. The dampers are expected to be installed in the coming months, under mageba supervision

Typical installation of mageba Shock Absorbers in Buildings