112 COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 



Senator Jackson. And your firm is working on that at the present 

 time? 



Mr. DeLong. That is correct. 



Senator Stennis. Mr. DeLong, right at that point, this is a rela- 

 tively new field, is it not, building towers in such deep waters, is that 

 right ? 



Mr. DeLong. Well, my only comment on that is the lot of a pioneer 

 is a rugged one. 



Senator Stennis. Mrs. Smith, we shall be glad to hear from you. 



Senator Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman ; I have no questions. 



Senator Stennis. Senator Bartlett ? 



Senator Bartlett. I have no questions, either, Mr. Chairman, thank 

 you. 



Senator Stennis. The Chairman will call on Counsel Kendall here, 

 and Mr. French, who prepared a good deal of this information. 



Mr. Kendall. Getting back to the imbedment question, if these legs 

 were not embedded deeply enough, ]\Ir. DeLong, would that contribute 

 to a swaying of the platform ? 



Mr. DeLong. That is a little difficult question to answer. If the 

 legs were not embedded deeply enough, they would be moving, and as 

 the waves hit the towers, the leg on that side would come up and then 

 come back down. If that condition arose, why, I think you would 

 have problems very quickly. 



Mr. Kendall. Would that question be affected one way or the other 

 by the presence or absence of driven piling ? 



Mr. DeLong. The driving of piling and concreting them into the 

 bottom of the tower is to operate as an anchor, and also as a load- 

 bearing member. I feel that the question is in relation to tower No. 4, 

 and from what I understand, the footings were in solid position. 



Mr. Kendall. Would that necessarily indicate that there had not 

 been any scouring or sucking action under those footings ? 



Mr. DeLong. Well, I think it would be. It would be hard to check 

 whether the footings had moved in the sea, down there 185 feet, and 

 150 feet or 175 feet from one leg to another, whether they are in a true 

 plane to one another, I think, Vould be a little hard to check. As I 

 understand from the divers' report the footings appeared undis- 

 turbed. So we are assuming that the footings withstood the elements. 



Mr. Kendall. Well, the situation here, Mr. DeLong, is that, during 

 the course of construction, a change was made to eliminate the pilings 

 and to reduce the embedment of the legs from 20 to 18 feet. What is 

 your opinion as to the effect of those changes as contributing to any 

 motion or swaying of the tower ? 



Mr. DeLong. Mr. Kendall, I do not think that I could express an 

 opinion. I think they were coinpetent foundation peoole, who 

 analyzed the problem, and I think I would be out of order in trying 

 to second-guess what they did. 



Mr. Kendall. Do you not have an opinion on that question, as a 

 man experienced and Avell versed in this field ? 



Mr. DeLong. Well, you take a tower and put it in the ocean, and 

 the height is 250 feet, from the ocean floor to the bottom of the plat- 

 form, and in sand, and you excavate the footings only 18 or 20 feet, 

 I would say that you would have to be an awful bold man to do it. 



Because on the tower No. 2, we went in 48 feet, and it is common 

 knowledge that in the Gulf of Mexico, we ^et scour around the struc- 



