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NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

fiOVtrSTORY p E o p lHe

Contractors Manage Big Unknowns 'I of WTC and Pentagon Cleanups ^^Jalking through the rail I ■■■tunnels and corridors ■I below the World Trade Center was nothing unusual for i Bill McGuinness, vice president of operations for contractor Slattery Skanska. The firm has been intimately involved with the complex’s subterranean world for decades. But investi­ gating underground damage in the wake of the twin towers’ col­ lapse was “scary and eery” even \ J for veteran McGuinness, he says. That same feeling may also / .4 apply to other contractors and their executives who entered "MB the world of the unknown in f tackling the WTC cleanup, and the Pentagon as well. Even the most seasoned con­ CM tractors on New York City’s emergency list were over- whelmed by the task at hand: T— L—I marshalling labor, subcontrac- ftSSESSMEWT Slattery Skanska’s McGuinness (left) and Koch Skanska’s Matre review damage. tors and equipment; carving work zones and paths from the mountain of debris; and setting Zero, “even though you leave thejob, you never leave it,” he says. schedules and chains of command where chaos reigned. “There As the quadrat guy in charge, Vitchers has had to spread was no time for writing a scope of work,” says Michael Burton, himself pretty thin. There are the nonstop meetings with subs executive deputy commissioner of the New York City Dept of and city ofScials, countless trips down into the debris pUe, even Design and Construction, the city’s lead cleanup agency. “We counseling sessions with workers stressed out over victim recov­ had to allow contractors to set up their own operations." While ery. “You just have to constantly talk about it,” he says. contractors speak privately of concerns over costs and liability, Dan Fraunfelter, a 24-year-old project engineer with AMEC, they mobilized quickly. “Because of the events that brought us could hardly believe that his job inspecting ongoing renovation all here, you really want to do work at the Pentagon would turn into a life-and- what you can,” says Bill Matre, ■r death operation. He had gotten to know the build­ project superintendent for Koch ing “extremely weU,” so when Fraunfelter heard Sksmska, a cleanup sub. the crash and felt a shudder as an American Air- Responding to immediate lines jet flew into the structure two floors beneath rescue needs was the obvious him, he imagined the generator m front of the first priority. “We had to clear \ A., building had exploded. It wasn’t until almost an hour later, when he was § paths, get fire department hoses ( in, put out fires and help find [ told to get out of the building, that Fraunfelter fe victims,” says Charlie Vitchers, began to realize what happen^. By then, people | general superintendent for Bo- .11 <1 were calling for help. “The lights were out, there | vis Lend Lease, one of four 'Jj was a heavy smoke starting to fill the corridors,” he j cleanup prime contractors. says. Joined by other rescuers, Fraunfelter began to g I “I’ve worked in the area for search in the direction of the junction between the ? years, but everything was out of _ . . . , ■ newly renovated Wedge 1 and Wedge 5. Tt was real | place.” It was a long first week ' dark and itwas starting to get hot,” he says. Fraun- | V for the 44-year-old. “I don’t B ; , felter wasn’t aware of it, but the plane had pene- | think I slept for the first 72 trated the budding directly below that point. It was o hours,” he says. In fact, the Po- also an area that collapsed about 45 minutes later. | conos resident has been home iSitS The group made masks from wet cloth to help 5 J only occasionally since Sept 11. them breathe. Fraunfelter gave away his two shirts g But with cell phones constantly to others. “I wound up with a sleeve from an Army g attached to all ears at Ground RESCUE Fraunfelter helped Pentagon victims. guy’s shirt,” he says. Fraunfelter soon reached “a g

DECEMBER 17. 2001/ENR 29

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