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Engineers society accused of disaster probe cover-ups
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CAIN BURDEAU / Associated Press | March 30, 2008
NEW ORLEANS — The professional organization for engineers who build the nation’s roads, dams and bridges has been accused by fellow engineers of covering up catastrophic design flaws while investigating national disasters.
After the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the levee failures caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the federal government paid the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate what went wrong.
Critics now accuse the group of covering up engineering mistakes, downplaying the need to alter building standards, and using the investigations to protect engineers and government agencies from lawsuits.
Similar accusations arose after both disasters, but the most recent allegations have pressured the organization to convene an independent panel to investigate.
“They want to make sure that they do things the right way and that they learn lessons from the studies they do,” said Sherwood Boelhert, a retired Republican congressman from New York who heads the panel. He led the House Science Committee for six years.
Report expected in April
The panel is expected to issue a report by the end of April and may recommend that the society stop taking money from government agencies for disaster investigations.
The engineering group says it takes the allegations seriously, but it has declined to comment until completion of the panel’s report and an internal ethics review.
In the World Trade Center case, critics contend the engineering society wrongly concluded skyscrapers cannot withstand getting hit by airplanes. In the hurricane investigation, it was accused of suggesting that the power of the storm was as big a problem as the poorly designed levees.
The group has about 140,000 members and is based in Reston, Va. It sets engineering standards and codes and publishes technical books and a glossy magazine. Members testify regularly before Congress and issue an annual report on the state of the nation’s public-works projects.
‘Misleading studies’
The society got a $1.1 million grant from the Army Corps of Engineers to study the levee failures. Similarly, the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid the group about $257,000 to investigate the World Trade Center collapse.
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The society issued a report last year that blamed the levee failures on poor design and the Corps’ use of incorrect engineering data.
Raymond Seed, a levee expert at the University of California, Berkeley, was among the first to question the society’s involvement. He was on a team funded by the National Science Foundation to study the New Orleans flood.
Seed accused the engineering society and the Army Corps of collusion, writing an Oct. 20 letter alleging that the two organizations worked together “to promulgate misleading studies and statements, to subvert appropriate independent investigations … to literally attempt to change some of the critical apparent answers regarding lessons to be learned.”
‘We live behind our work’
In 2002, the society’s report on the World Trade Center praised the buildings for remaining standing long enough to allow tens of thousands of people to flee. But, the report said, skyscrapers are not typically designed to withstand airplane impacts. Instead of hardening buildings against such impacts, it recommended improving aviation security and fire protection.
Investigators in question
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a structural engineer and forensics expert, contends his computer simulations disprove the society’s findings.
Astaneh-Asl, who received money from the National Science Foundation to investigate the collapse, insisted most New York skyscrapers built with traditional designs would survive such an impact and prevent the kind of fires that brought down the twin towers.
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March 31st, 2008 at 5:37 am
CDI was at the levee system in New Orleans BEFORE the collapsed. CDI had contracts killed by local police after it was discovered that they were going around detonating the levees. I’m glad you brought up the point that CDI was there. Thanx Danksta.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:10 am
The first levee at New Orleans was built in 1716. It failed in 1719. I’ve got a problem with believing the levees were demo-ed. Only stupid people live below sea level.—–
March 31st, 2008 at 9:36 am
There has been a lot of interest in the deaths of microbiologists in recent years. There are also surprising deaths of engineers. In Canada one family firm has been hit twice. A.D. Williams engineering are specialists in forensic engineering. They do investigations in collapses, fires, and explosions.
The founder was killed in a company plane crash near Golden, B.C. Oct. 28th 2007. The son and heir died March 28th 2008 in the crash of another company aircraft with four other people near Wainright Alberta.
A.D. Williams also did work in Russia where there is little room for the revelation of the truth behind the destruction of buildings. On both sides of the ocean, the plane crash has been the instrument of elimination of informants.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:26 am
Danksta, there are plenty of witnesses and evidence that the they were blown up.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hey, “stupid is as stupid does” – go fuck yourself.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Before I start, who is CDI? Hmm.
Some years back, Arlington and Ft. Worth, TX were hit by a tornado.
I remember having to go into that part of Fort worth 2 days after the tornado hit and
seeing part of the windows blown out of the top floors of the First National Bank Building
if I’m correct. There was quite a bit of the same type damage to some other large buildings in the area. Even though a lot of windows were blown out and other debris littered the area, the
buildings did pretty good.
Now let’s run an “EF5″ tornado through Arlington, Dallas, and Ft. Worth during rush hour traffic
for example and see how many buildings stand up to the tornado.
Along with some under/overpasses, elevated roads, bridges, and some freeways for good measure. I how much of that would be able to withstand being hit with debris such as cars, trucks,
semis, etc before it failed? Let’s see how many total fatalities and injuries would result from a tornado of that magnitude hitting during rush hour traffic.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not wish anything like this to happen and I hope I’m not around if it does happen.