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NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

FEATURE •UT 1'1 IT Y C O N.5.T R U C T I O N

Disaster Spawned Opportunity To Vastly Improve Utilities in Area Service providers rebuilt and dispersed for better security urning disaster into opportunity, Underground utility replacement also handle more than 1.7 million voice mes- utility companie.s and other service proceeded on a grand scale and a fast sages at a time, it was a crucial telecom providers are using the wholesale track. The emergency cable on the link serving all the financial exchanges in reconstruction of Lower Manhat­ streets was replaced by 130 miles of new the nation’s financial heart. “We essen- tan grids and networks to upgrade, mod­ underground cable in nearly nine miles dally had to rebuild [the network] in the ernize and rationalize their .systems. of trenches, says Rana. In late May, Con outside plan,” says Lynch. Two electrical substations .serving load Ed removed the last of the temporary Following a rehearsed disaster recov- in Lower Manhattan were destroyed by electric cable in tlie streets. Now, “the ery plan, AT&T restored service to the the collapse of World Trade Center bulk of the underground work has been few customers remaining in the devas- Building 7, where they occupied the two completed,” he says. tated area with a parking lot full of pr^^ bottom stories. On Sept. 11, their corn­ A substation is planned for the build- loaded tractor-trailers in Jers^^jjgjj^^ billed 407-Mw capacity was loaded about ing now being con.structed on the 7 City, N.J. By Monday morning, 75%. Two 138-kv feeder cable,s serving WTC site. The lower four stories will the stock exchange ( ould them also were lost. hold up to 10 transformers and associat- count on teleci * Restoring electric power became the ed switchgear, says Fogarty. Con Ed was well as electricity top priority, says Louis Rana, Consolidat- hoping to have the station available by AT&T ni . ed Edison Co. vice president for Manhat- summer tan electric operations. To meet the imm- 2003, but ediate goal—reopening the New York “that’s physi- । .Stock Exchange on Monday, Sept. 17— cally impossi- ' p Con Ed technicians working round die ble now,” he y ! clock ran 36 miles of what Richard P. Fog- says. Con Ed J k i !1 arty, substation and transmission chief plans to have j; UH engineer, calls “13-kv extension cord.s” its new sta- around both sides of the site to the tion operat- blacked-out areas. ing even as Lines laid directly in the streets to save the building time were buried only at intersections to rises above allow passage of emergency vehicles, it, but Fogar- The power was restored by 6:00 a.m. on ty says he will Hipi Sept. 17 and the exchange opened on serve next sum- / schedule. Ten days after the attack, pow- mer’s load with ' has dispersed er had been restored to the rest of the diesel genera- replacement affected areas. tors, if necessary. equipment to re- / / The priority then shifted to preparing Telecommu- I mote locations, ® ' / ■

for the summer peak load, requiring re- nications also ' making the sys- placement of at least one of the stations, reeled from the tem much less vul- | At an existing station in the vicinity of the attack. “The nerable to future S South Street Seaport, five bays were avail- square mile sur- I ; attacks. | able, complete with 138-kv feeders. Trans- rounding the J f Workers cleared “ formers ordered for another project were World Trade Cen- space for the new a diverted to die replacement station. Ven­ ier is without nodes in three sepa- j dors went all-out to meet emergency or­ doubt the most • ''TJMM Rana oversaw rapid rate buildings else- | ders for switchgear and other equip­ intensive square restoration of electrical system. where in Manhattan □ 1. ment, says Fogarty. With that kind of mile of telecom ' “ . and ran nearly 6,000 | cooperation and packaged equipment on Planet Earth,” says David Johnson, miles of fiber-optic cable up the east and | being installed in an existing building, spokesman for AT&T, Bedminster, N.J. west side.s of the island to tliem from the g the substation was in service April 27, The WTC basement held the largest area of the destroyed transport node. Of > after les.s than eight months. “Normal­ AT&T local network transport node in the cost, Lynch will say only that it was t ly that takes two to three years,” notes the U.S., says Kevin Lynch, vice president greater than $100 million. □ g Rana. of field operations. With the capacity to By Thomas E Armistead |

I SEPTEMBER 9, 2002/ENR 19

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