Posted On: October 14, 2004, 8:00 pm CDT

Posted By: Mr. Marian Augustyniak

Mr. Marian Z. Augustyniak, Architect
77 Cooper Street
New York, NY 10034
mzaug@aol.com

October 2, 2004


U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs
Senator Susan Collins, Chairman

Dear Senator Collins,

The 9/11Commission's report did not concern itself with the physical state and condition of the World Trade Center prior to the disaster.
However, knowledge and official recognition of them is instrumental in forging the safeguards, taking corrective measures and creating rules and directions to prevent or minimize the possibilities of such catastrophes.

Since the fateful events of September 11th 2001, I researched and analyzed the structural and architectural aspects of them. My conclusions, published in www.ponderon.com, are that if the World Trade Center Towers were constructed more substantially, they would have survived the murderous attack. The dominating weaknesses were the lack of cross bracing and that the main structural connections were bolted instead of welded. I further discussed some remedial actions for existing structures, and the ways and concepts how such disasters can be prevented or mitigated. An excerpt follows.

In preparing this presentation I relied on my architectural and urban planning education at the Carnegie Mellon University and the Columbia University. Also, I did so on the years of architectural practice and the efforts to reclaim a New York City's derelict building to a habitable state. Before the attack I worked in the North Tower and am familiar with the towers construction and operations. In my life I was exposed to, and influenced by, the disasters and harm of wars, and witnessed the destruction of buildings and cities. As a child, in 1939 I saw planes bombing Warsaw. In 1943, although I sent a rifle to the fighters, I watched helplessly the Warsaw Ghetto burning. A year later, August and September 1944 I took part in the Warsaw Rising, which was followed by the destruction of this City. Then, as a prisoner of war in Germany, I watched the destruction of its cities. In 1951, when the train, carrying me to the U.S. Second Infantry Division in Korea, was held in Hiroshima the stop was long enough for me to absorb the enormity of its annihilation.

The present buildings design, materials, processes and construction methods must be reviewed, revised and enhanced with new concepts, and knowledge to assure a continued development and progress toward the stable, safe and agreeable living environment for the people. To achieve these goals, a reliance on the governmental agencies and activities must be supplemented and assisted by actions of all those directly involved in the actual creation of such conditions, including the universities, associations, and professional media.

Sincerely,


Augustyniak

WTC TOWERS COLLAPSE (www.Ponderon.com excerpt)
OBSERVATIONS
To put it in other words, were the structures of WTC designed to withstand an earthquake of a magnitude seven on the Richter scale, they would be still standing. To wit: The AT&T Company which is historically dedicated to a strong, solid construction erected the building that suffered only surface damage, while adjacent to it the WTC 7, of similar to WTC's buildings construction, collapsed, even if not from the same fire. Were the Towers spared, in a decade they would have to be vacated and disassembled for safety, perhaps after a collapse of a floor or two.
Still another shortcoming was the lack of rescue systems, equipment and concepts in fire and other disasters. Such dangerous conditions existed in tall buildings for decades, for which no remedy was provided and still they are amiss. Was there anyone viewing this tragedy who did not think of some net, air bag, or foam put in place that would receive and save the victims? It is a tragedy also that there were materials and technologies to create such safeguards. All that was needed was a a system, whether air bags, bubbles, foam, net or lattice that would bring to stop a person weighing 200 pounds falling 160 miles per hour, without serious harm. A deceleration to zero for such effect requires less than 20 feet. The feasibility of such systems was attested to by the successful January 2004 delivery of Rovers to Mars. There are also aerial rescue possibilities, such as roof pickups and helicopters' suspended cages at the sides of buildings.
Another consideration is of the structural concept of using bolts as the means of fastening and holding together major structural elements. It is a prevailing method in erection of high buildings, and indeed in most of steel construction in the United States. The bolting method is wrought with uncertainties, inaccuracies and unreliability. Main detractors are: rust, loosening of connections under wind sway, thermal expansion, inconsistency, and structural, not easily detectable flows in bolts, washers and nuts. The indications in the commonly used in fastening torque wrenches are not precise and at variance with the actual forces. Their false readings are caused by the uneven threads friction, temperature at time of connecting, and a lack of reliable verification methods. There is no better example of it than the Towers. There is no justification, structural and economic, to continue the use of bolts as a primary means of holding together tall structures. The bolting syndrome driving the construction industry has to be arrested and reduced to the low, for short lifespan warehouses and commercial buildings. The welding has to be the standard for the structural steel construction. There is ample experience, knowledge, and understanding to amplify the guides, standards, and procedures to assist and rely on in the implementation of welding processes. A scarcity of the competent journeymen, may be a drawback , but which can be remedied in two or three years. Also, it has to be noted that the reliance on the steel as a primary structural and construction material has to be revised and modified to incorporate and integrate with other materials and technologies.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING STANDARDS
The current standards originated in the nineteenth century and were perpetuated without extensive efforts to verify, test and improve them. Consider The American Society for Testing Materials, ASTM E119: "Loss of integrity is deemed to have occurred when a specified cotton wool pad applied to the unexposed face is ignited."
A continuous and extensive research is needed to update and expand the safety directives. Although there are numerous entities, governmental, public and private that concern themselves with the safety, quality, appearance and functionality of the buildings and their construction, generally they are slow to act, sometimes are without an authority to do so and are limited to verbalization. As professionals, the architects, engineers, designers and constructors, including also the owners and investors, have some leeway in the selection of construction methods and materials. Theirs is to choose for safety, durability, as well as the esthetics, economy and the prevention of human loss and tragedy, in facilitation of the Constitution mandated "Pursuit of Happiness".
REDUNDANCY IN WARNING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
The Port Authority, the manager, had the Center organized for fire emergencies. Each Tower floor had a fire warden in charge of the emergencies, and periodically conducted fire drills. In the bewilderment and chaos that the attack created, these measures served in good stead, and the wardens must be given due recognition for assisting in Towers' evacuation. The failure to evacuate the floors above the fires may be laid in part to the lack of anticipation of such circumstances, but mostly to a lack of communications. At the North Tower there were usable, if damaged, stairs accessible from the south west. At the South Tower the north east stairs were open. This escape window was short, perhaps a quarter of an hour before the fire, heat, and smoke blocked the way out. However, there were no means to communicate these roads to safety. There was no clear cut central authority in command of all emergencies at the Center that would receive, evaluate and act upon the information from any source. These who succeeded in negotiating the stairs had no one to report this way of escape. Also, for this to help, a Public Address system was necessary. A PA system, as well as a central authority, that has built in redundancies and bypasses to insure its functioning in catastrophic conditions. There were adequate stairs for the evacuation. However, all were located in a central core, short distances from each other, so that the fires blocked access to most of them. Their proper location was at the opposite ends of the building, accessible from any part of it. Further, the Towers, as all other individual tall buildings in the densely built areas, should have been connected at several levels by passages to provide emergency means of escape for the occupants.
Augustyniak


AUGUSTYNIAK
WTC REMAINDER