BOMA Position
BOMA International strongly supports the research that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has accomplished in its investigation of the World Trade Centers collapse on September 11, 2001. BOMA continues to work to ensure that the proposed new regulations, codes and standards that may be rendered out of this research are carefully studied, tested, and debated. BOMA firmly believes that the recommendations that emanated from the NIST research are most appropriately addressed in the model codes and standards development arenas.
Background
On October 26, 2005, NIST issued the final report on their investigation into the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center towers. The report contains the findings of the extensive research and concludes with a list of 30 recommendations for action highlighted in eight broad categories.
Although the recommendations clearly state the changes that NIST feels needs to be included in the model codes, they are not in a form where they are ready for implementation into codes, standards, or operations. Additionally, most of the recommendations require extensive study to determine where they should be applied, to what extent they should apply, or if they should even apply at all. For example, one of the 'increased structural integrity' recommendations is that buildings should be designed to prevent a progressive collapse. Unspecified is the height or size buildings should be before more stringent progressive collapse criteria are applied, or the extent of damage (e.g., one column or ten columns) a building would need to be designed to withstand. These details must be studied and debated in a variety of arenas over the next several years.
There is concern by many in the building regulatory community that, at the state and local level, the NIST recommendations will be used as the basis for introduction of code amendment proposals or other proposed legislation by well-intentioned persons who do not have benefit of the debate by code experts. This adoption of the recommendations without the guidance of the model codes will result in implementation in a random and inconsistent manner. At the national level, the NIST recommendations have been the focus of Congressional hearings. They are already under review by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) which has a contract with NIST to identify, monitor and assist in ensuring that the recommendations are considered in the appropriate arenas. Also, the International Code Council (ICC) has two committees that are studying several of the recommendations: the Code Technology Council (CTC) and a new Ad Hoc Committee on Terrorism-Resistant Buildings. BOMA believes that any code or standard must address safety in a manner that is fair, reasonable, achievable, and cost-effective since codes and standards must be based on reliable data and balance the interests of all involved.
Action Requested
BOMA members should keep abreast of legislative and regulatory action at the state and local level to ensure that the NIST recommendations are not used as justification for introducing unnecessary new requirements in state and local building codes.