Non-Ductile Concrete Building Retrofit

Los Angeles Ordinance 183893 (as amended by Ordinance 184081, LAMC Division 95) requires owners of concrete buildings permitted before January 13, 1977 to evaluate and, where necessary, retrofit them. The program runs on a compliance clock measured from each building's Order to Comply: 3 years to submit a structural checklist, 10 years to submit retrofit plans, and 25 years to complete construction.

Retrofitting an occupied concrete building is a different discipline from wood-frame work. It means new shear walls and shotcrete, column jacketing, foundation strengthening, and staged construction sequencing that keeps tenants in place — executed inside buildings that were never designed for the loads being added. This is the work Lehigh Construction has performed across Downtown Los Angeles' landmark concrete buildings for more than four decades.

We work as the seismic structural subcontractor alongside your structural engineer of record — and because our principal is a California-licensed Professional Engineer as well as a licensed general contractor, we read, price, and build from structural drawings with an engineer's understanding of intent. Engineers get constructable feedback; owners get pricing grounded in how the work will actually be staged.