From - Wed Sep 19 18:15:03 2001
From: "William Welner" <wwelner@hvc.rr.com>
Newsgroups: nyc.transit
Subject: Port Authority
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 14:43:33 GMTThe Twin Towers were built by a government agency The Port Authority and was exempt from all NYC codes. Its plans were not approved by the New York City Building Department or the New York City Department. I was employed as an engineer for the Fire Dept. at that time, thus I have 1st hand knowledge.
Many questions were raised when it was planned and constructed 30 years ago about safety. I know as a fact that the firefighters in New York City were not happy 30 years ago the Twin Towers Project.
My feelings are for the fire fighters who lost their lives in this tragedy. Their welfare must be considered first in any replacement project.
The Port Authority is only subject to federal law as it created under a federal charter by congress. The governors of NY and NJ appoint members to the Port Authority Board of Directors.
There were instances when OSHA cited the Port Authority for safety deficiencies during Twin Tower construction.
The Port Authority operates the 3 major airports Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark; operates the docks, operates the Hudson Tubes, and the all the bridges and tunnels between NY and NJ; and thus has a good revenue source to pay the bonds off on the Twin Tower construction. Rockefeller was NY governor at that time, and his family had interests in the Chase Bank, and he supported the project. It all had to do with money in my opinion
At the time Port Authority Revenue was going into the Twin Towers, it should have gone into public rail transit and the 3 airports. Both Kennedy and Newark are shit houses as compared to O'Hare in Chicago that built rail lines to that airport. The money should have gone into providing 1st rate airports for New York and for building subways and commuter rail lines to these airports 30 years ago.
One has to understand that Robert Moses was running the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in the 1960's, with his hatred of public transit with his considerable connections to both banks and Architectural/Engineer Firms. Only after his death could they form the MTA combining the TBTA, the subways, Metro North. and the LIRR into one agency. The Port Authority followed the lead of Robert Moses as discussed in the book The Power Broker. It was a different time 30 years ago.
Today, there was general feeling that the Twin Towers should have been built by private investors, and the fact that Port Authority money should have gone into public transit and the airports. In fact Port Authority is building rail links into both Kennedy and Newark airports.
The present mayor has been complaining about the Port Authority for years, stating that they are mismanaged and don't pay NYC property taxes. His pressure forced the Port Authority to sell the Twin Towers a couple of weeks ago.
From: "Alexander Medwedew" <aemedwedew@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: nyc.transit
Subject: Re: Port Authority
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 21:15:38 GMTThe WTC as far as high rise design was concerned were the Titanics of the buildings. Yes they were considered engineering marvels but they definitely had some flaws. The WTC survived the direct hits of the jets. An online article at the NY Post web site stated that the building was able to withstand a Boeing 707 flying at 200 miles per hour which would have knocked out seven floors.
1 WTC the first tower to get hit lost 75% of the columns on one side of the tower and was able to remain standing. What did them in was the intense heat of the fires which, I feel led to the premature collapse. Collapse was inevitable, but there should have been a lot more time to evacuate the structures before that occurred. 1 WTC hit by the first jet lasted approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes and 2 WTC hit by the second jet approximately 55 minutes. A more resilient fireproofing technology would have bought rescuers and tenants time to escape. The steel trusses that supported the floors relied on ceiling and spray-on fireproofing to protect the structure. The original design of the building relied on smothering a fire by suffocation and compartmentalization. Many of the floors in the tower had open plans with rows of workstations.
The fire suppression systems mostly sprinklers were protected by ceilings alone. These systems relied on water to dowse the fires as well as cool the structure. No chemical fire suppressants are mixed into the water. The sealed nature of the WTC towers also kept much of the heat in.
To rely solely on stairs to evacuate the numbers of people is insane. The countless mazes of stairs Some who made it out had to walk down from the highest portions of the building taking over an hour. Firemen and rescue workers had to walk up stairs to get to their destinations. Why elevators to sky lobbies were not used to bring people down is unbelievable. Fire codes probably did not allow the use of them for this purpose. The ten elevators normally used daily to the 78th floor of each tower could have become lifeboats continuously shuttling people down to ground level and bringing rescue workers and firefighters to the affected floors more quickly.
The Port Authority engineer interviewed on one of the TV stations stated the towers were very strong, Just as he was saying this 2 WTC began collapsing in the background. The Port Authority probably figured the towers were nearly indestructible.
--
Alexander Medwedew
http://visual-engineering.com/