WTC security and emergency response newspaper article

9ZZZS1L000 OLM-OAN THE SUBWAYS totes oxy RANDY KENNEDY ‘M8 president of New York City Tfatisit toured subway tunnels yes- tétday near the worst devastation fromthe World ‘Trade Center col- lays@;.and reported that the N and R lingg; thought to be extensively dam- aged, had not been pierced by failing steel.beams, as earlier thought. But trajigit officials cautioned that their onl inal projection of those lines run- ning hormally in, a few weeks was prdBably too optimistic. - “Around the rest of the city, there were stall glimmers that transpor- tation was inching closer to normal. The Brooklyn Bridge, which has been . closed to private cars since the disas- ter, will partly reopen today, with two Manhattan-bound lanes back in use. Brooklyn-bound lanes on the bridge are still closed to make travel easier. for emergency vehicles, as aréfhe Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. THe best news for city car owners wis" undoubtedly an announcement by fe city transportation commis- sider, Iris Weinshall, that alternate- sid¢farking rules would be suspend- definitely, “If they have to move i thelr car, they take it to work,” she . said.,{‘And we don’t want that to happen.” buoyed y the relatively good condi- Hopf: weres ersthey li trying to deteriiiné wheth- fé was hidden structural dam- ~in the subway, officials were: ie N and R tunnels, but they . Damage on Lines Néar Towers Is: Less Than Officials Feared ‘age. They were also moving sensing equipment underground to measure ‘vibrations from cranes and other , heavy machinery that are moving debris away from the street above. _ Al O’Leary, the chief spokesman for New York City Transit, said that ‘initial plans to reopen the line in a few weeks were being reconsidered. “We're not in a good position to say how. long it’s going to be out,”’ he said, “because we don’t know how long the work is going to take on the street, and that, has a direct effect on. the subway.” But over all, the damage to the system near the trade.center was not as bad as had been feared. At the World Trade Center station on the E line, an inspection of the platform found very little damage. In fact, even the glass doors leading out to the mall area beneath the trade cen- ter were unbroken. “Given the poten- tial for what could have been lost there long-term,” Mr. O’Leary said, “sts kind of amazing.” The most lasting effect from the collapse will be ‘to the 1 and 9 line, whose tunnels appear to be collapsed for about 1,000 feet just east of where the towers fell. Lawrence Reuter, the transit agency president, and other ! officials toured those tunnels south of the Cortlandt Street station, walking north, and fotund not only a solid wall of steel and crushed concrete near the station, but also other damage, such as a steel beam that had’ punched through the street. (Len? York Winso alzolor Ploh2 . $8TH ST. BROOKLYN Hudson %. cess by public transit : only East River NEW JERSEY moved fom Works Financial Cerpét. NEW FERRY TO juswunsod JBNOd I1IGNd 11/6 OAN