Workers Rush To Repair Huge Hole In WTC 'Bathtub'

New York One News ^ | 3/21/02

[areafiftyone]

Crews at the World Trade Center site are rushing to fix a 90-foot-wide hole in the retaining wall that keeps out ground water.

The concrete wall, known as the bathtub, has sprung some small leaks, and according to the New York Times, the ground water is now only about a foot below the lower rim of the hole.

When a huge hole was dug out of Lower Manhattan to build the foundation for the World Trade Center more than 30 years ago, workers constructed the wall to keep the nearby waters of the Hudson River from seeping in through the earth. The seven-story pit is now almost all that remains of the World Trade Center after months of removing debris. The collapse of the south tower tore the large gash in the wall September 11, but the extent the damage was not known until the excavation reached the lower levels just recently.

[dead]

Big, big trouble at ground zero if that wall goes.

It will be Lake Zero.

[hellinahandcart]

You beat me.

[Cogadh na Sith]

It'll flood a lot of the subway too...

[DoughtyOne]

Actually, I believe the flooding would go beyond the pit through the subway tunnels, if the bathtub was compromised. I'm sure this has been considered and contingencies or protective measures instituted. At least I would hope so.

[hellinahandcart]

I thought they said last week that the tiebacks were working.

[CasearianDaoist]

They once said that it would knock out the subway up to 32nd Street!

[dead]

It's always been a question mark. There's no way to assess the damage to the wall without moving the wreckage, and the wreckage may be the only thing keeping the wall in place.

Hopefully, they'll be able to plug these leaks before the thing crumbles.

[antaresequity]

I trust that a crew that can ex that hole out so fast and organize this effort will have things right as rain in short order.

Little pressure grouting ought to do the trick.

[KC Burke]

The structural forces such shapes are typically meant to withstand were not analyzed in the initial design to allow for the lack of a permentant building or to have withstood the effects of the complex loads imposed by the towers collapse. If this thing continues to maintanin its integraty, I will be suprised.

I bet they pump a lot of water this spring.

[js1138]

There are concretes that will set under water. they were used extensively by the Romans. Nothing new.

[SunnyUsa]

"It will be Lake Zero."

ha.........You are so cold, dead! ;)

[hellinahandcart]

It may sound cold, but the worst-case scenario would include not only a lake seven stories deep but also danger to the buildings on the other side of the bathtub--the ones on the landfill, on the other side of that wall.

Hopefully nothing even close to that happens.

[antaresequity]

I dont think the flooding of this hole is nearly as troublsome as the possible soil liquifaction between the pit and the river. If you create a low pressure area like this, and the ground water continues to migrate...where as it otherwise would be more or less static....other buildings might be troubled...the ones that lay between the pit and the river...

[js1138]

I think the buildings are on granite. The problem is flooding.

[DoughtyOne]

Yes you're right. I'm sure they've had inspectors roaming that place constantly looking for signs of weakness. To the extent that they've been able to, I'm sure they know what's going on. Still, there's only so much they can know for sure. Evidently the basin is in tact or they'd be seeing a lot of water already since they're only a foot above the water table. Let's hope things hold up.

[Mike Fieschko]

They once said that it would knock out the subway up to 32nd Street!

What about the PATH tubes over to Jersey?

[wheezer]

It'll flood a lot of the subway too...

Flooding the subways is the least of the worries. A good amount of Battery Park City could very easily wash away....and remarkably quickly, I might add.

The NY Times, back in late September, ran an excellent in-depth article on "the bathtub"....it was scarey.

[hellinahandcart]

No, there's a good many buildings on landfill to the west of the WTC.

[wheezer]

I think the buildings are on granite. The problem is flooding.

Only the biggest ones, the rest are on landfill from the excavation for the towers.