COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 165 



to determine that the conditions that exist in towers No. 2 and No. 3 

 are the conditions that were encompassed in their original design. 



Now, we have gone a little further than that to the extent that we are 

 making an oceanographic study to determine whether or not the 

 expected conditions now ai-e the same as they were then. 



Senator Stennis. I did not question you, or them either, when I 

 asked the question. I am just getting to basic commonsense, as I see 

 it, in saying that when they bring back their verdict on towers No. 2 

 and No. 3 under this special contract they, directly or indirectly, to a 

 substantial degree, will be passing on their own design. That is the 

 way it seems to me. How does it look to you ? 



Captain White. No, sir ; w^e have not asked 



Senator Stennis. May I ask you to give a reason ? You say "No." 

 What are your reasons ? Pinpoint your reasons. 



Captain White. I do not know whether I can make this clear or not. 



Senator Stennis. Well, do the best you can. 



Captain White. We have not asked them, nor are we asking them 

 now, sir, for a statement as to whether or not their original design was 

 capable of meeting the conditions mider which that design was pre- 

 pared. We are not asking for that at all, sir. We are going beyond 

 that and asking: are the towers as they are constructed, and are the 

 conditions of these members, and are the things that exist out there 

 now the same things that you thought would exist at the time that you 

 prepared your design ? The results so far have indicated that there 

 are no conditions out there now that were not anticipated in the 

 original design, sir. 



^nator Stennis. So you are not asking them to certify anything 

 about their opinion as to whether those towers are reasonably safe 

 or reasonably adequate or anything like that? If you were, you 

 would certainly be asking them to pass, in part, on their design, would 

 you not ? Would not this necessarily follow, if you were asking them 

 if they were safe or if they were adequate ? 



Captain White. Yes, sir. 



Now, a part of this package, of course, is a verification through in- 

 dependent studies as to whether or not the wind and wave conditions 

 which these towers were designed to withstand have changed or not. 

 Now, certainly, the field and the knowledge that has existed in the 

 past, and, to a large extent, still exist with respect to the effect of 

 wind and waves and what might be expected from certain types of 

 storms and what their effect will be on these structures, fixed struc- 

 tures in the open ocean, is extremely limited, sir, and it was limited 

 at the time the towers were originally designed. We would like to 

 augment that information by the information that has been developed 

 by the people who have been on these towers by subsequent studies. 



Senator Stennis. All right, that is a new point. I hope they are 

 able to bring you something worthwhile on that. But if they are not 

 giving you an opinion as to whether or not those towers are adequate 

 and reasonably safe now, I do not see what it is you are paying them 

 the $225,000 for. That is what you want to know, is it not, whether 

 the towers are reasonably adequate or reasonably safe for continued 

 operation You have had this misf ortmie about No. 4. Now you and 

 the Air Force want to know whether to go on operating these others 

 as I see it. 



