Agency Fights Building Code Born of 9-11
The International Code Council has recommended incorporating tough new requirements for 2009 that apply to tall skyscrapers. The code is specifically intended to address some of the issues believed to be most detrimental at the World Trade Center on 11 Sept 2001. Curiously a major objector to this standard is the federal government’s own General Services Administration. Serving as the “nation’s landlord”, the GSA’s mission is to “help federal agencies better serve the public by offering, at best value, superior workplaces, expert solutions, acquisition services and management policies.” Ironically, the government and its properties (which are managed by the GSA) are exempt from building codes, although it “generally requires that buildings it rents or buys honor building codes.”
“A federal agency has joined some of the nation’s biggest landlords in trying to repeal stronger safety requirements for new skyscrapers that were added to the country’s most widely used building code last year, arguing that they would be too expensive to meet.
“The new provisions, which include requiring tall office buildings to have more robust fireproofing and an extra emergency stairwell, were enacted as a result of an exhaustive federal study into the collapse of the twin towers at the World Trade Center seven years ago this week.
The entire article is worth a read. Emotionally charged politics vs. economic interests of major political contributors square off. In the middle is the NIST’s report following the investigation of the WTC collapses and the ICC attempting to translate that data into applicable codes.
10 September 2008 | Business, Construction, Construction and Law, General | Comments
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