COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO, 4 109 



Senator Stennis. You would replace the old braces with new ones 

 which you would weld in progressively and one at a time. Is that 

 correct ? 



Mr. DeLong. You would bring them as a section. You would 

 take a whole section, redesign it and lay it out. You would make a 

 caisson or a sleeve that would fit aromid, full length, that would fit 

 around this pipe. This pipe is 121/^ feet in diameter so that one 

 would probably be a couple of inches larger. You would make it not 

 too large, but you would try to hold it to a couple of inches that while 

 you were going down, you would still get some support from the 

 structure as you were sliding down. Because this structure, as you 

 were building it, sliding it down, would have to take the place of the 

 structure you were cutting out. You would cut the structure out 

 only ahead of the sinking of the top structure. Whatever that was 

 you would want to keep, whether some of it broke or not ; you would 

 want to get all the benefits you could from it until you got all the 

 way down. 



You would have to remove it ahead of the lowering of the section 

 you are doing. So all you are doing, you are floating this braced 

 structure, surrounded by a bigger tube, that this comes down in. As 

 you go down, you are clearing all this up, take that out. 



Then you have from here to here an unsupported column. You 

 could have hard luck and have a storm and get in serious trouble. 

 But that would be the only way that I could see you could have made 

 some effort to salvage it. 



Senator Saltonstall. Mr. Chairman, that would not be a salvage, 

 would it, Mr. DeLong? It would really be building a complete new 

 tower. 



Mr. DbLong. It would be building new bracing, and that would 

 be a method of saving the tower. Because that is only a portion of 

 the work. It would probably involve 1,800 or 2,000 tons of steel. I 

 am just making a guess. 



Senator Stennis. Well, in view of what was testified yesterday and 

 in the light of your testimony today, it seems clear to me that the 

 more practical thing would have been just to abandon the tower 

 when they were confronted with this situation which required putting 

 in the bracing above the water. 



All right, proceed now with any points that you have in mind, and 

 then we shall go back to Mr. Bauer. 



Mr. DeLong. I think, Mr. Chairman, that I do not have anything 

 more to add to this. The statement was made that this water depth 

 was impossible and so forth. We do not agree with that. We have 

 offered to build structures in 300 feet of water. We have worked 

 barges in 210 feet of water. It is just a matter of working out the 

 problems. That is all I have to say. 



Senator Saltonstall. Mr. Chairman, may I ask one question? 



Senator Stennis. Certainly, Senator. 



Senator Saltonstall. Mr, DeLong, did you ever bid on Texas 

 tower No. 4? 



Mr. DeLong. Yes, sir, we bid on Texas tower No. 4. 



Senator Saltonstall. Did you withdraw that bid when you saw 

 what the plan or design was ? 



Mr. DeLong. We had an agreement to be able to do it under scheme 

 B. That is the scheme that we have described. And under scheme 



