DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

A NATION CHALLENGED

Engineers Tackle Havoc Underground loop through the site, are covered with rubble By DENNIS OVERBYE and possibly obliterated. But there are hints of the havoc the engineers expect to find. Water, probably from fire hoses, rain and On Friday afternoon in Midtown Manhat-1 broken water pipes, is flowing through the tan, George J. Tamaro, professional engineer, PATH tubes to New Jersey. There are 6 or 7 was holding court among conference tables' inches of water in the Exchange Place station stacked with blueprints dense with threadlike in Jersey City, which is just across the river lines. He was trying to resurrect what had and 20 feet lower than the trade center station, suddenly become a ghost world. As a staff engineer for the Port Authority said Daniel Hahn, a former Port in 1967, Mr. Tamaro helped build the World Authority engineer who works at Trade Center’s basement, a 16-acre, 70-foot- Mueser, Rutledge.-He said the Port deep hole in the ground that until last Tuesday Authority was planning to cork the housed seven levels of shopping, parking and, tunnels at Exchange Place with a at the very bottom, the PATH train station. pair of giant concrete plugs. Now he and others are concerned that debris ■ The plugs are necessary, Mr. Ta­ from the collapse of the twin towers might be maro said, because if the trade cen­ the only thing supporting the walls of that giant ter basement were to flood, water hole against the pressure of muck and water could wind through the PATH tubes and dirt on the outside. back across the river to 34th Street Attempts to dig out the basement without and then goTnto-the subway. “That’s proper precautions, they fear, could cause the not going to happen,” he said flatly. walls to shift or rupture, leading to flooding and . Parts of two New York City sub­ the destabilization of nearby buildings. way lines, the 1 and the 9, have Mr. Tamaro said he had urged Fire De­ collapsed from the north end of the partment officials not to proceed with remov­ complex — where columns and ing wreckage from the basement until engi­ beams from 7 World Trade Center neers had figured out how to do it safely. “The have punctured the street and en­ walls require lateral support,” he said. tered the subway — to Liberty Street “You've got the Hudson River across the at the south end, according to David street.” Cacoilo, a Mueser Rutledge engineer At the behest of the city’s Department of who explored the tunnels on Sunday. Design and Construction, Mr. Tamaro, an ex­ He added that the Cortland Street pert on foundations who is now a partner at station of the N and R lines, a block Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, has east on Church Street, was in good turned his office into a “below-grade command shape, and trains could be running center” to provide rescue workers and engi­ through it (although not stopping) neers with accurate information on the loca­ relatively soon. As if to emphasize tions of the myriad walls, passages, floors, and the haphazard nature of the catastro­ water, sewer, electrical, telephone, gas, sub­ phe, Mr. Cacoilo and his colleagues way and train lines under the ruined plaza. were able to enter the concourse of 5 He and his colleagues are working closely, World Trade Center and found that he said, with the Fire Department, the Port the floor and part of the superstruc­ Authority and the Transit Authority, as well as ture on its northeast corner had not yet collapsed. with engineers from the Thomton-Tomasetti Yesterday Mr. Tamaro said engi­ Group, who are advising the city on the condi­ neers were now planning to seal off tion of structures affected by the catastrophe. the 1 and 9 line with a bulkhead at the Mr. Tamaro was involved in building the south end of the trade center and foundations of all the buildings at the trade sandbags to the north to contain wa­ center and the World Financial Center, across ter and any debris generated by the the street. “I’m carrying around a mental recovery and demolition efforts. picture, but there’s no piece of paper that has They are also considering various the whole project,” he said. “That’s what we’re strategies to shore up the streets putting together.” over the subway tunnels so they can He added, "It’s a complicated site.” safely support the heavy equipment Mr. Tamaro said it would be some time needed for the demolition of the before anybody could get a complete assess­ trade center buildings. ment of just how bad conditions were imder- ground. Two emergency hatches on West Street that go down to the PATH tubes, which NYt/mes NYC-WTC_000152341