Mass transit station reconstruction at World Trade Center, 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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I Groark, Port Au­ were challenging because of thority assistant chief the risk of damage to build­ I i engineer. Officials say tile reconstruction re­ quired contractors to A |i ings above, say's Groark. Engineers decided to use Austrian roadheader machines ! work “double and tri­ I’ to excavate the soft mica en­ ple shifts.” Construc- countered, say.s Raymond ( don was managed by Sandiford, the Port Autliori- a joint venrure of Tul­ ty’s chief technical engineer. ly Construction Co., Flushing, N.Y.; A.J. Pegno Construction -J But the machines were high- maintenance and sometimes went down “for days and Corp., College Point, weeks,” he says. N.Y.; and Yonkers s. Next .spring, architect San­ i' Contracting, Yonkers, tiago Calatrava will present A Hore To Coma. Train service kicks off new activity at former Ground Zero. N.Y. The team is set to designs for the permanent I receive a S.Ymillion early completion bo­ iron lining of compressed air tunnels transportation hub that will link PATH t nus, sources say. built in 190.5 “is as good as the day it was with subway lines, says a Port Authority The 16.6-ft-dia, iron-lined tunnels put up,” Groark say's. spokesman. Five bidders have been short­ f now have a new track system of direct- Reconfiguring tunnel extensions to listed for the construction management J P fixed neoprene fasteners instead of the allow train*? to turn around and switch contract (see story, p. 7), The entire hub old des and ballast. Duct banks now fea­ tracks required nearly 11,000 cu yd of is set for a 2009 opening. ■ ture fiberglass reinforcement. The cast- excavation. Drill-and-blast operations By Aileen Cho and Debra K. Rubin

BLACKOUTS

Reliability Standards Could Have Prevented Aug. 14 Failure preliminary government report Those recommendations could take S’ H into the causes of the Aug. 14 blackout across several Midwest- on new importance with Congress’ fail­ ure to enact omnibus energy legislation three high-voltage transmi.ssion lines until the problem escalated out of con­ trol. When those lines short-circuited em and Eastern states and part of Cana­ this year (see stoiy, p. 9). Government because they came into contact with da found that human error, poor com­ officials say that the lack of mandatory trees, the control room alarm system munications and inadequate training reliability standards were a contributing failed to react. Because FirstEnergy’s mon­ ! were to blame for what one senior U.S. factor to the power failure. “Reliability itoring system was not providing airrent official calls a “preventable” incident. standards likely would have prevented information about problem.s, the control The report, released Nov. 19 by the U.S.- this,” Energy Secretary Spencer Abra- room operators took no action. ham said. The bill This set off a chain reaction because Task force Officials now begin to conduct a series Of required those neighlxiring unlnies and reliability coor- public forums on the initial findings. standards. dinators, who could have addres.sed the The lack of an growing problem, were not informed. Canada Power System Outage Ta.sk enforceable standard also leaves open the The report also found that tlie Midwest Force, faults Akron, Ohio-based FirstEn­ question of how to discipline FirstEner­ Independent System Operator, which co­ ergy Corp, for not stepping in soon gy. “If we had an enforceable reliability ordinates power transmission in the enough to stop the outage from “cascad­ standard, the answer would be clear-cut,” region, also was performing ineffectively. ing out of control.” says Abraham. He added that it is “pre- “We remain convinced that the out­ lask force officials now beginjthe,sec= mamre” to discuss any enforcement mea­ age cannot be explained by events on any 3 ond phase of the inquiry, a series of pub- sures until the final report i.s issued. Abra­ one utility system,” FirstEnergy Presi­ II I lie forums in the affected areas to hear ham also declined to speculate on possible dent Anthony J. Alexander says. The re­ I# I» I comments on the initial findings and action by state regulators. port does not adequately address under­ I solicit specific recommendations to be The report says FirstEnergy' employ­ lying causes of the outage, he adds. ■ £ included in a final report. ees were not aware of problems with By Sherie Winnon

December 1,2003 ■ EHR ■ 11

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