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Buildings, bridges, and other man-made structures are not supposed to fail. But, sometimes they do, and for different reasons: fire, earthquakes, high winds, errors in design and construction, flaws in materials or workmanship, and even terrorist attacks.

Under the National Construction Safety Team Act (NCST), signed into law in October 2002, the National Institute of Standards and Technology is authorized to investigate major building failures in the United States. The NIST investigations will establish the likely technical causes of the building failure and evaluate the technical aspects of emergency response and evacuation procedures in the wake of such failures. The goal is to recommend improvements to the way in which buildings are designed, constructed, maintained and used.

Some major investigations include the building and fire safety investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center fire and building collapses, and the investigation of the fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I. on February 20, 2003.  The NCST Advisory Committee provides advice to NIST on its investigations.

(Note: Some of the information presented here is in PDF format.  To read these files, you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader free.)

bullet Background on the National Construction Safety Team Act
 

 
bullet National Construction Safety Teams Publications
 
bullet NCST Advisory Committee
 
bullet World Trade Center Investigation
 


(For a printed copy of NIST-NCSTAR 1 the summary report for the WTC investigation, contact the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) at http://www.ntis.gov or 800-553-6847. NTIS order number: PB2006-100819)

 
bullet The Station nightclub Fire Investigation
   
   

Date created: 04/02/03
Last updated: 07/16/08
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov