DOB Findings and Recommendations for WTC, Feb 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

assess existing building and safety standards and requirements. The National Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be a critical component of the on-going efforts to update standards, requirements and procedures. Until these results are issued, the Task Force has endeavored to make these recornmendations based on currently available information. Nevertheless, the Task Force strongly supports NIST's investigation and has referred to them a number of items that require further investigation.

1.3 Recommendations The following recommendations are being made by the Task Force: 1. Publish structural design guidelines for optional application to enhance robustness and resistance to progressive collapse. 2. Prohibit the use of open web bar trusses in new commercial high-rise construction over 75 feet in height, pending the development of an appropriate standard recommended by NIST. 3. Encourage use of available impact resistant materials in the construction of stair and elevator ( shaft enclosures until appropriate standards can be developed. I 4. Work with the Department of City Planning to exempt floor area of stairwells above minimum requirements from zoning Floor Area Ratio (FAR) calculations to encourage the inclusion of more stairwells or wider stairwells in buildings. 5. Prohibit the use of scissors stairs in high-rise commercial buildings with a floor plate of over 10,000 square feet. 6. Improve marking of the egress path, doors and stairs with photo-luminescent materials and retrofit existing exit signs with either battery or generator'backup power 7. Mandate a full building evacuation plan for non-fire related events. 8. Work with the Department of City Planning to exclude floor area of “fire towers” from Floor Area Ratio (FAR) calculations to encourage their use. 9. Mandate protected vestibules at elevator lobbies in newly constructed occupancy group E buildings greater than 75 feet. 10. Require controlled inspections to ensure that fireproofing is fully intact on all structural building members exposed by subsequent renovations to ensure continued compliance with applicable code requirements. 11. Require all high-rise commercial buildings over 100 feet without automatic sprinkler protection to install a sprinkler system throughout the building within 15 years. 12. Require all occupancy group E buildings to maintain a Building Information Card (BIC) listing a building's vital features. 13. Enhance Fire Department emergency response communications in high rise commercial buildings. 14. Provide additional training for Fire Safety Directors. 1 15. Limit diameter of fuel oil transfer piping in systems using day tanks. , 16. Implement standards for piping that is utilized to distribute fuel oil to equipment without the use of a day tank. 17. Exclude floor drains for elevator vestibule and shafts from being counted as fixtures in calculating normal waste water pipe capacity. 18. Require air intakes in all new construction to be located at least 20' above grade and away from exhaust discharges or off street loading bays. 19. Require controlled inspections of HVAC fire dampers in newly constructed occupancy group E buildings. 20. Wait for the recommendation of Mayoral Commission on adoption of national model code and incorporate Task Force recommendations into any locally specific modifications. 21. Encourage buildings within NYC geographic boundaries and subject to other jurisdictional authority to comply with NYC Building Code through collaborative agreements. Additional information about the findings and recommendations is outlined in the report. February 2003 WTC Building Code Task Force Page 11 I Findings and Recommendations

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