Underground Construction in Iconic Buildings - Essay Example

ICONIC BUILDING: BUILDING UNDERGROUND Introduction When terrorist struck the twin towers of the World Trade Centre (WTC) in what is popularly knownas the September 11 attacks, several questions came up about the vulnerabilities of super –skyscrapers. There was and still are widespread speculations that the towers were structurally faulty, that the fire fighting equipment failed to operate or that the towers’ columns of steel melted causing the collapse (Eager & Musso, 2001). The mechanism by which the seemingly gigantic and solid edifices unexpectedly collapsed, killing many, became the subject of discussion by experts in building and construction industry. The debates mainly covered topics such as: The ultimate cause of the collapse. The other skyscrapers that could collapse under a similar situation. The possibility of coming up with designs that could prevent such catastrophic failures. What such designs should entail (Hales & Gooch, 2004). One of the proposed solutions to future attacks is the underground construction of buildings. For example, there have been proposals to expand the city of Amsterdam with a futuristic and massive underground network of activities. This paper seeks to examine the construction lessons learned from the WTC attacks and the possibility of considering underground construction as a way of avoiding attacks situations similar to the one of the WTC. Lessons from the WTC collapse The twin towers were designed and constructed five decades ago as new way of building skyscrapers in which they were to be very light in weight and involved modular methods of construction meant to reduce costs and accelerate the building schedule. They were constructed using an egg-crate design having extra columns that would hold the building standing in case one or two columns were to be lost (Eager & Musso, 2001). This design made the towers to be some of the most resilient buildings ever constructed and it is no wonder their collapse was that astonishing and generated so much speculations and debates among knowledgeable structural engineers (FEMA, 2002; National Institute of Science and Technology, 2008)). Prior to the WTC attacks, security in design was not all that an important concern to engineers, architects or builders (Bazant and Cedolin, 1991). Security was normally only considered a design priority when designing and constructing specific types of projects such as consulates, government facilities and prisons and State Department embassies. Following the attacks, security has become of absolute importance in virtually all types of construction including educational, healthcare, commercial, residential and institutional. The drastic change in the construction environment, which occurred virtually overnight, makes it important that all suitable technology and security safeguards are incorporated into the initial stages of the designing and building process (Atlas, 2008).The report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (2002) stated that the towers would have remained standing for a longer period of time in their damaged state were it not for the heat caused by the burning jet fuel. The fuel that did not burn at the impact zone flowed down to the other floors causing multiple fireballs that, over a period of time, induced additional stresses while simultaneously softening the tower’s damaged frames. This additional loading, combined with resulting damage, was enough to induce the crumpling of both structures (Bazant and Cedolin, 1991). Many other buildings designed and constructed differently would have been more susceptible to collapse under similar conditions. The collapse of the towers highlighted the importance of designing and constructing buildings with adequate strength and redundancy that would provide additional capacity of strength. Buildings in addition need to have alternative paths for load transmission for survival should significant building damage occur and improved fire suppressing mechanisms. Designing of a building that is one hundred percent fireproof would be very costly and hence design engineers are faced with the dilemma of trying to produce designs that are both cost effective and possess acceptable levels of safety (Fennelly, 2004). Before the September 11 attacks, the intentional use of commercial airplanes as weapons was beyond the imagination of many, even design builders. Since then, the risk of similar attacks recurring is ever present. As a result, several design improvements have come up as means of reducing the risk. Design builders who do not construct in compliance with the lessons gained from the attacks risk liability according to Solomon (2008). The investigations by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, 2008) recommended steps that were to be taken to make buildings safer, especially from extreme fires. Implicit in care standards is a rule that has to be used in assessing the security levels and technologies to be applied in a design and building project (Archibald, 2002). For instance, construction of a residential office or a high-rise commercial building near a politically sensitive consulate requires rigorous implementation of present security designs and technology. However construction of the same in the suburbs serving back office facilities involves reduced need for technological designs and innovations since terrorists are less likely to attack them. Building Underground as a Solution Man has been constructing underground structure for thousands of years, especially in mining and in recent times transport, commercial industries and housing industries according to the National Electric Light Association, Underground Systems Committee and Sinclair (1931). Apart from using space that would otherwise have remained dormant, underground constructions have advantages such as being more resistant to extreme weather, wind and earthquakes (Meijenfeldt & Geluk, 2003). With technology advancing, building taller buildings is becoming a reality. Unfortunately, the taller a building is, the more susceptible it is to terrorist attacks similar to September 11. Underground construction could reduce this risk considerably as it would be more difficult to get access to the buildings since they are out of sight. These buildings, unlike high rise buildings are required to be constructed from non-combustible types of construction as a way of reducing chances of fires running out of control (Scott, 1997; International Tunnelling Association, 1998). There have been numerous proposals of how underground construction can help in reducing terrorist attacks. For example, it is known that oil remains the driving force of many economies worldwide and as such has been use by terrorists to get their point across. Saudi Arabia’s oil pipelines have been attacked severally by terrorists resulting to an increase in the cost of oil worldwide. The most obvious countermeasure to these attacks would be to increase security around the pipelines. In Iraq, an army of over 13000 guards has been positioned at oil wells, refineries and along pipelines (Schweitzer, 2009). There are complex modern systems that also aid in monitoring the oil supply chain from the air. Maintaining these troops and the complex technology is very costly and not so many countries can a support this system. If these pipelines would have been initially laid underground, these costs would have been reduced. Russia has also faced terrorism attacks on its oil transportation system mainly during the period of war against Chechnya on the points which oil pipes were not underground. Russia has taken extra precautions by underground construction of its natural gas storage facilities as a way of preventing further catastrophic attacks on its fuel transportation pipes (Serebryakov, 2009). The Yamantau complex in Russia is made up of complex tunnels that span an area approximately equal to Washington, D.C. Its purpose is widely unknown except that its design can survive a nuclear war (Pry, 1999). From these examples, it is clear that designers find it much safer to build underground, especially for facilities considered sensitive and prone to attacks. Plans for Underground City in Amsterdam Early 2008 saw the launch of an ambitious plan to see car packs and roads build under the city centre of Amsterdam as a way of solving parking problems while at the same time providing facilities for recreation, sports and leisure (Muynck, 2008). The main reasoning behind the need to build underground is to provide a solution for the overcrowding and soaring prices of land in Amsterdam City (ITA, 1998). Apparently Dutch engineers have found it easier to build underground than seek more space for new development in the sky. Zwartz and Jansma Architects and Strukton Construction Company unveiled an ambitious proposal for construction of an underground city beneath Amsterdam city that could cost over 14 billion USD, starting in 2018. Underneath Amsterdam lies waterproof clay up to 30 metres deep which will be utilized together with sand and concrete to construct the walls of the underground city. The pits will be the deepest ever dug in the Netherlands (ITA, 1998). Calculations by Strukton Construction Company showed that six layers could be built underground creating up to six million square metres of extra space; enough space for roads, parking space and other projects according to Muynck (2008). The project will be constructed in difficult soil conditions given that the city was built on a drained swampland, with a thick soft layer of clay beneath the topsoil (Out, 2005). Some of the walls will be up to three metres close to foundations of buildings of significant importance and such require special construction techniques that will have minimal effects on the ground above. The technique identified for this project is the cut and cover which utilizes diaphragm walls to bear loads as a support of the construction pit (Bakker, Bezuijen, and Broere, 2006). Apart from providing extra space for development, the Amsterdam project will also act as safe heavens in times of emergencies within the tunnels (Saveur, Jan and the International Tunnelling Association, 2003). Amsterdam though, is not the only city to have considered building an underground city. In China is Beijing’s Underground City built, from 1969-1979, as subterranean bomb shelters against nuclear attacks. The city is made up of tunnels spanning an area of more than 80 square kilometres ranging up to eighteen metres deep. China still has numerous ongoing underground projects though the projects have serious quality and safety problems to which solutions are being sought (Leung & Zhou, 2006). Conclusion From the examples mentioned in this paper, it is apparent that underground buildings are considered much safer than sky scrapers. The proposal for the underground city in Amsterdam which has difficult soils to construct on shows that underground buildings can be constructed anywhere. Underground buildings can, therefore, be relied on as a solution to reduce chances of destruction caused by attacks similar to those of the September 11. References Archibald, R.W. (2002) Security and safety in Los Angeles high-rise buildings after 9/11, Rand, California. Atlas, Randal (2008) 21st century security and CPTED: Designing for critical infrastructure protection and crime prevention, CRC press, UK. Bakker, K. J., Bezuijen, A. and Broere, W. (2006) Geotechnical aspects of underground construction in soft ground: proceedings, Taylor and Francis Group, London. Bazant, Z.P. and Cedolin, L. (1991) Stability of structures: Elastic, inelastic, fracture and damage theories, Oxford University, New York. Eager, Thomas W. and Musso, Christopher (2001) “Why did the world trade centre collapse? 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