> Madrid Fire Re-opens 9/11 Questions: Why did the twin towers fall so fast?
23 February 2005, 00:15
Towers towers fell because they were built without having to follow the building codes. The Port Authority is not required to follow any City, State or Federal codes. They used the cheapest and fasrtest methods of construction. The concrete was weak and disintegrated in the collapse. The steel joists were the lightest possible and more vulnurable to heat than more heavy construction. The open areas they wanted required long spans and necessarily left out intermeniate columns creating a weakness. There was little lateral bracing besides the exterior walls acting as shear walls.
The engineers and architects were overconfident and didn’t believe that the Building Code regulatiuons had any validity. They used the least stringent code requirements possible to build the largest office buildings in the world in order to gain financial advantage. They had a "policy" to follow the city codes but conducted the inspections and review of plans themselves.
Towers towers fell because they were built without having to follow the building codes. The Port Authority is not required to follow any City, State or Federal codes. They used the cheapest and fasrtest methods of construction. The concrete was weak and disintegrated in the collapse. The steel joists were the lightest possible and more vulnurable to heat than more heavy construction. The open areas they wanted required long spans and necessarily left out intermeniate columns creating a weakness. There was little lateral bracing besides the exterior walls acting as shear walls.
The engineers and architects were overconfident and didn’t believe that the Building Code regulatiuons had any validity. They used the least stringent code requirements possible to build the largest office buildings in the world in order to gain financial advantage. They had a "policy" to follow the city codes but conducted the inspections and review of plans themselves.