Safety of Quake-Damaged NTT East Tower Confirmed

Hachinohe, Aomori Pref., Dec. 24 (Jiji Press)–NTT East Inc. has said there is no risk of its steel tower damaged by a powerful earthquake earlier this month collapsing in the event of another major temblor. The Japanese telecommunications carrier announced Tuesday it has confirmed that the tower, installed on the rooftop of its building in the city of Hachinohe in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori, will not collapse even if an earthquake as powerful as the Dec. 8 temblor strikes. NTT East confirmed the safety of the tower as a result of a detailed simulation conducted in cooperation with a third-party institution. The company is working to complete the ongoing repair work for the tower by the end of this month. The temblor registered upper 6, the second-highest level on Japan’s seismic intensity scale, in Hachinohe. Following the announcement by the company, the city government of Hachinohe removed its evacuation order issued Dec. 11 for 65 people from 35 households located within a 50-meter radius of the tower. The Aomori highway office of Japan’s land ministry lifted the closure of a section of National Route 45, which runs in front of the building. “We are really sorry to people who had to evacuate,” Daisuke Miyazaki, head of NTT East’s Aomori branch, said at a press conference in Hachinohe on Tuesday. Hachinohe Mayor Yuichi Kumagai said in a statement that he hopes the evacuated residents will return to their normal lives as soon as possible. One of the tower’s four supports and some bolts used to secure the steel frames were damaged by the Dec. 8 earthquake. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]