William L. Polhemus, Jr. P.E.
Via iPhone 3G
On Nov 16, 2009, at 5:08 PM, "Dmitri Wright" <dmitri@cascade-structural.com
> wrote:
> I miss Bill P !!
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl <astaneh@ce.berkeley.edu>
> To: seaint@seaint.org
> Subject: RE: Being Outspoken
>
> Dear Harold: Until we take our own individual responsibility and
> participate in cleansing our profession of these small number of
> corrupt engineers such as most members of Caltrans Seismic Advisory
> Board, the corrosion of reputation of honorable structural engineers
> such as yourself and thousands of hard working and ethical members
> of our profession will continue. Your suggestion of ASCE ethical
> panel looking into this is good one , but, in my experience, at
> least in two cases, the case of WTC Building Performance Assessment
> Team, and the Katrina investigation team, ASCE did not follow its
> ethical rules.
>
> When ASCE formed the WTC Building Performance Team, to investigate
> collapse of World Trade Center Towers, two people were on the ASCE/
> FEMA BPAT team. One was Mr. Jon Magnuson , who was the top officer
> of the firm Skilling, Ward, Magnusson Barkshire , the firm that did
> the structural design of the WTC. The name Skilling Ward Magnuson
> Barkshire after collapse of World Trade Center changed to Magnusson
> Klemencic Associates. ASCE did not find it ethical to put the top
> officer of the firm that did the structural design of the WTC on the
> investigative team that was investigating why buildings collapsed.
>
> The other member of the ASCE/FEMA BPAT was Ms. was Ms Saw-Teen
> See,Managing Partner, Leslie E. Robertson Associates, RLLP. Ms. See
> is also wife of Mr. Leslie Robertson who was working at the time of
> design of WTC at Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire and is the
> structural engineer of the record with his signature on all
> structural sheets. If ASCE is serious about ethical issues, it can
> start at home. When you are forming a team to investigate why a
> building collapsed, you do not put the wife of structural engineer
> who did the structural engineering of the building on the team to
> investigate her husbands design.
>
> Of course the result of having these conflicts of interest was that
> the ASCE/FEMA Report stated that in essence there was nothing wrong
> with structural design of the WTC. The truth is the opposite . There
> were many things wrong about it including the use of "steel Bearing
> Walls" with very high strength steel and extremely vulnerable to fire.
>
> As I have always stated, the 2595 people who died at the WTC, were
> murdered by those 19 murderers and their supporters and organizers.
> But, we had to learn from this tragedy to see if we have to change
> anything in our practices to avoid people loosing their lives
> because of our design. But of course, since there was nothing wrong
> with WTC design according to the morally corrupt ASCE BPAT, then we
> did not need to change anything!
>
>
> When I stated that this is nothing but "moral corruption", many of
> you, including yourself, were attacking me for bringing up these
> facts. In doing so, or even by keeping quite, , perhaps unknowingly
> and perhaps based on a very mis-guided sense of pride or belonging
> to your profession, were on the side of the ASCE and some even
> personally attacked my character.
>
> It took only the courage of my honorable colleague and very dear
> friend Professor Ray Seed , who wrote a 40+ letter to bring ASCE
> before an investigative panel which admonished ASCE for its
> unethical conduct in New Orleans.
>
> As for the WTC BPAT case, ASCE not only has not accepted any wrong
> doing, it has showered awards on those who organized the WTC BPAT
> including the WTC BPAT leader Dr. Gene Corley and The ASCE WTC BPAT
> Project Manger Mr. James Rossberg who were directly involved in
> knowingly inviting and accepting Mr. Jon Magnusson and Ms. Saw-teen
> See with such a clear conflict to be a member of the investigative
> team.
>
> Harold, we know each other for more than 20 years and I have utmost
> respect for your integrity as well as for your vast knowledge of
> the filed, but, do you really believe ASCE will be able to review
> the case of unethical conduct of Caltrans Seismic Advisory Board?
>
>
>
> Best regards
>
> A.Astaneh, Ph.D., P.E.
>
> ====================================================================
>
>
> From: Harold Sprague <spraguehope@hotmail.com>
> To: <seaint@seaint.org>
> Subject: RE: Being Outspoken
>
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>
> There is an independent group within ASCE involved in anti-
> corruption. ASC=
> E Global Principles for Professional Conduct that might warrant
> consultatio=
> n on this issue. =20
>
>
>
> Regards=2C Harold Sprague
>
>
>
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