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http://onlineethics.org/moral/lemessurier/7.htmlTexto en EspañolPart 7 Accomplishing the Repair Without CausingPanicRepairs to the Citicorp building commenced immediately. The plan of action was to expose each boltedjoint in the building by ripping away the flooring and walls around it, to cover each joint with a plywood'house' in order to minimize any visible signs that things were awry with the building's structure, and tocomplete the repair welding at night when the tenants were not in the building, so as not toinconvenience them.The pace of work was fast. Parts of the interior around the bolted joints were torn up at night and putback together in the morning. LeMessurier occupied himself with repair process calculations. LesRobertson calculated how to repair the joints, and, suspecting that other components of the buildingcould be vulnerable, went about investigating the floors, columns, and braces for weakness.The repair work was in full swing on the first of September, when a hurricane moving toward New Yorkwas detected. The news was met with alarm. The partial repairs -- along with the tuned mass damper --greatly improved the building's strength, but no one wanted to see it tested. There was great relief whenthe hurricane moved out over the ocean.Two weeks later, repairs had progressed to the point that, with no storms predicted, the elaborateevacuation plans could be scrapped. The next month, repairs were complete. Even if the tuned massdamper were to fail, a 700-year storm would not pose a threat to the Citicorp Center.The engineering problem had been solved, and today the repaired building now exceeds even itsoriginally intended safety factor.Continue on to Part 8Go back to Part 6Back to LeMessurier Main Pagehttp://onlineethics.org/moral/lemessurier/7.html [10/13/2004 1:44:58 PM]