Safety Assessment Program (SAP) Training

Safety Assessment Program (SAP) Certification Training

Learning Units:  6 Health|Safety|Welfare

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) Safety Assessment Program (SAP) provides experienced professionals who can quickly evaluate damaged structures; identifying those that are safe for occupancy to which people can return, while marking those that are unsafe or have restricted use. It accepts civil, structural, geotechnical, and architect licenses from any state, along with many International Code Council (ICC) building inspector certifications.

This class will train credentialed persons (architects, civil & structural engineers, and building inspectors) to be SAP Evaluators to work in the field posting buildings and infrastructure for safety or usability on behalf of local governments.  An ID badge will be issued to credentialed persons.  Non-credentialed persons may also attend and receive a class certificate.

OVERVIEW:

Disasters create terrible consequences, forcing people out of their homes into temporary shelters and closing down communities. While productive individuals sit idle in shelters, or even move away, local building inspectors struggle to evaluate building safety in hundreds or thousands of damaged structures.

Experience in dealing with earthquakes reveals that the number of total inspections due to non-structural damage can be more than three times the number of re-tagged and yellow-tagged buildings. Threats also exist from other natural and man-made disasters, including floods, hurricanes, and explosions. Most building departments do not have the ability to perform multitudes of such inspections in a short period of time, so a strong need exists to have a cadre of trained professionals available to assist local governments, along with a program to manage this cadre.

INSTRUCTOR:

Dean J. Vlahos, FAIA, NCARB, CCCA, LEED –  President, Dean J. Vlahos FAIA & Associates, Forensic Architecture, Planning & Design

Architectural Expert Consultant to the legal profession in preparation for Expert Testimony for Mediation, Arbitration and Litigation involving Architect’s Standard of Care, Construction Industry Inter-relationships, Building Envelope Design and Analysis and Construction Technology. Through his pioneering research, material testing and investigations on landmark projects, Dean is established as a leading national authority on forensics, building envelope design and construction, building codes, complex construction technology, system analysis and construction industry inter-relationships. President of Dean J. Vlahos FAIA & Associates, he has worked on more than 800 cases throughout the country as a Construction Defect Expert. . In 2010 Mr. Vlahos was elevated into the College of Fellows.

During the past 40 years of architectural practice, Dean has been responsible for all project phases including: Design, Project Management, Construction Administration Services and Quality Control Document Review. He successfully completed a wide range of highly sophisticated building types including: institutional, commercial, correctional, hospitals, schools, laboratories, museums, auditoriums, single and multiple family facilities, bomb squad training facilities, totaling more than 15 million square feet of building program space, at an approximate construction value in excess of $20 billion. Scope of work contains more than 100 high-rise structures, including steel moment frame and poured in-place concrete buildings along with poured in-place underground and base isolated facilities.

Mr. Vlahos is a certified disaster volunteer and trainer for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES).