Are they waiting till someone gets killed?
Falling ice sends tourists fleeing again Port Authority leaves sidewalks open
FOR THE SECOND day in a row, chunks of ice fell from the Freedom Tower — but this time streets remained open and Port Authority officials didn’t close the nearby PATH station.
Instead, pedestrians had to fend for themselves, scurrying for cover about 11 a.m. Saturday in the shadow of the nation’s tallest building.
“We just saw ice falling down the building,” said startled Austrian tourist Katharina Amann, 24, who is visiting the city with her family. “It was scary. Then I heard it shatter.”
Ice also fell from 7 World Trade Center, which is 52 stories tall, some chunks even bouncing off the building’s awning.
Pedestrians escaped injury and PA officials downplayed the danger.
“Each incident was fully investigated and d proper protocols were e followed,” Port Authori- ty spokesman Steve Cole- man told the Daily News. “Ice falling from buildings occurs in urban environments such as Manhattan, and we are taking all appropriate safety measures when the situation arises.”
On Friday, workers closed the main exit of the World Trade Center PATH station during morning rush hour to keep commuters from walking out into falling ice beginning just before 8 a.m.
The subsequent overcrowding forced the temporary suspension of service and the whole station to briefly close. The north pool of the 9/11 Memorial was also closed for several hours Friday.
Nicole Gregory was on her way to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Saturday when the sidewalk was blitzed with ice again.
“We were talking about 9/11 on our way over here — and about the people who jumped,” said Gregory, 45. “Then all of a sudden we heard ice fall. It’s just surreal.”
Her husband, Stan Gregory, 47, agreed.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “They should figure out the problem and use heat to stop it.”
Architects often use heating strips on sloped surfaces to help prevent snow and ice from accumulating.
Coleman could not confirm if heating strips were to be used in the Freedom Tower, but noted that the building remains under construction.
Witnesses and experts p told The News the building’s sloped roof and rounded corners could be partly to blame.
“Any sloped surface can cause a problem,” said Prof. John Fernandez, head of the building technology program at MIT.
But no skyscraper is immune from the danger of falling ice, Fernandez said.
“There is no geometry that in every weather condition can avoid ice accumulating — and then shedding,” he said.
One Bryant Park, at the corner of Sixth Ave. and 42nd St. also has a sloped roof. Three winters ago, falling ice shut down the intersection. Ice has also fallen from the New York
Times Building on Eighth Ave. and 40th St., which is covered with cylindrical steel ribs.
On Wednesday, a worker at the H&M store on Lexington Ave. at E. 59th St. survived a heart attack after ice or snow fell on him.
The danger exists anywhere ice forms. In December, video of massive sheets of ice falling from an apartment building onto parked cars in Plano, Tex., went viral.
Workers around the World Trade Center site said that sidewalks were regularly blocked off due to falling ice in the weeks before Friday’s shutdown of the whole PATH station.
A halal truck vendor who works across the street from 7 World Trade Center said his truck was hit by four chunks of ice in Friday’s deluge.
“There was a big bang,” s said Mohammed Mohammmed, 32, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
“It was worse than rocks. The ice is sharp like a knife. It was shattering like glass. If someone got hit with it, it would really hurt.”
A Columbia University physicist estimated the ice would be falling about 100 mph.
“If it’s falling from that height you can imagine it getting to that speed before it hits the ground,” said Prof. Jeremy Dodd, senior lecturer in the discipline of physics.
“Obviously if it were to hit you on the head it could cause pretty catastrophic damage.”
A spokesperson for David Childs, architect of the Freedom Tower, still had nothing to say. He again referred questions to the Port Authority on Saturday.
The Durst Organization helped finish the design of the Freedom Tower, also known as 1 World Trade Center, and is overseeing the leasing of space there.
“The building is still under construction and minimally heated and we don’t expect this to be a permanent condition,” said Jordan Barowitz, director of External Affairs for Durst.
The 1,776-foot tower is expected to be finished later this year.