Trade Center Stairway Design Is Rethought

A team of experts will look at whether better stairway design would have allowed people on the top floors of the World Trade Center towers to escape after the buildings were struck by hijacked jetliners, an official from the American Society of Civil Engineers said.

“What we’re going to be looking at is what might have happened to the stairs in the areas where the impact occurred,” said team leader Gene Corley at the society’s annual conference Friday in Houston.

“Are there things we could have done differently to the stairs that would allow those people above the crash area a better chance of getting out?” he said.

The South Tower was hit between floors 87 and 93 and the North Tower between 96 and 103 by speeding jets in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York.

One tower stood 47 minutes before collapsing, the other an hour and 40 minutes, he said. More than 5,000 people died when the buildings came crashing down, but about 25,000 people had time to escape.