NIST's Recommendations Following the Federal
Building and Fire
Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster
Recommendations - Next Steps
After issuance of the final report, the National Construction Safety Team
Act requires NIST to:
- Conduct, or enable or encourage the conducting of, appropriate
research recommended by the Team;
- Promote (consistent with existing procedures for the establishment
of building standards, codes, and practices) the appropriate adoption by
the Federal Government, and encourage the appropriate adoption by other
agencies and organizations, of the recommendations of the Team with
respect to—
- Technical aspects of evacuation and emergency response
procedures;
- Specific improvements to building standards, codes, and
practices; and
- Other actions needed to help present future building failures.
NIST is assigning top priority to work vigorously with the building and
fire safety communities to assure that there is a complete understanding of
the recommendations and to provide needed technical assistance in getting
them implemented. NIST has identified specific codes, standards, and
practices affected by each of the recommendations (Tables 9-2a, 9-2b, and
9-2c in report NIST
NCSTAR 1) and already begun to reach out to the responsible organizations to
pave the way for a timely, expedited consideration of the recommendations.
Toward this end, NIST held a
conference September 13–15, 2005, that was
attended by over 200 people, including all of the major standards and codes
development organizations.
In addition, NIST will implement a web-based system so that the public
can track progress on implementing the recommendations. This web site will
list each of the recommendations, the specific organization or organizations
(e.g., standards and code developers, professional groups, state and local
authorities) responsible for its implementation, the status of its
implementation by organization, and the plans or work in progress to
implement the recommendations.
NIST has awarded a contract to the
National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) to convene a panel of
building code experts, representing the diverse technical areas covered by
the WTC recommendations, to carry out the following tasks:
- Develop a strategy for implementing relevant recommendations into
model building codes.
- Develop awareness of activities of other groups already focusing on
implementing the recommendations (e.g., NFPA, ICC, ASCE 7, ASTM, AISC,
ACI, AIA, and BOMA).
- Develop initial proposals for change to the model codes.
- Shepherd proposed changes through the code-change processes.
- Identify additional steps to be taken with respect to relevant
standards.
- Identify any needed training and educational tools.
The building code experts represent a broad spectrum of specific
organizations (e.g., NFPA, ICC, ASCE, BOMA, and U.S. Accessibility Board)
and areas of expertise (e.g., architecture, engineering, risk assessment,
law enforcement, social science/egress, and insurance) that can address all
of the recommendations. This core expertise will be augmented with the
participation of other experts representing organizations and technical
areas required to address one or more specific recommendations.
The timeline for this effort is governed by the established development
cycle for the model codes. For example, the model codes follow a three-year
development cycle with the next edition due in 2009. The IBC also will issue
a supplement in 2007 based on code change proposals submitted by March 2006.
Working in partnership with NIBS, NIST will target the IBC’s 2007 supplement
as well as the 2009 editions of the model codes.
The NIST WTC recommendations impact about 37 specific national standards,
codes, and practice guidelines or regulations. In carrying out this work,
NIST recognizes that not all of the recommendations will have an impact on
model building codes. Many will impact standards that are referenced in
model codes. Others will impact stand alone standards used in practice but
not referenced in model codes. A few will impact practices, including
education and training, that don't have any impact on codes and standards.
Last updated: 11/7/2006