Six emergency exit hatches manufactured by The BILCO Company will provide safe, reliable and code-compliant egress for riders of a new transit line that is currently being constructed in Los Angeles.
BILCO, based in New Haven, Conn., also manufactured four large doors to access underground control systems along the 8.5 mile line, which is known as the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project. Plans for the $2.058 billion project started shortly after the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and the extension is designed to better serve transit-dependent residents in the corridor and provide economic stimulus in the region.
Besides subway riders, the exit hatches also support construction workers who are working on the rail line. “Even before there were any designs, the engineering team knew that they needed doors that would provide safe and reliable emergency egress’’ said Dave Pebley of Specialty Building Components, the sales representative for The BILCO Company in Pico Rivera, Calif. “The doors had to meet code requirements, but also stand up to the demands of the job.”
The doors include an engineered lift assistance system and a two-point panic locking mechanism that allow them to open with less than 30 pounds of force. Additional features also need to be added at the ground level where the doors will be installed in sidewalks to ensure reliability and added safety.
To prevent structural damage, the doors are reinforced for vehicular loading to withstand the weight of an occasional car or truck that may drive onto the sidewalk. They also feature a slip-resistant coating on the walking surface to ensure safety in these high pedestrian traffic areas.
For riders and construction workers, the importance of swift egress in emergency situations has never been more essential.
The doors allow for swift egress for subway passengers and construction workers in the case of emergency.
Decaying infrastructure, inadequate maintenance and terrorism have made subway safety a critical threat for subway passengers. In 2015, riders along Washington D.C.’s Metrorail system stopped because of smoke in a tunnel. Smoke seeped into the cars, one woman died, and 91 people were injured. In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported 525 track fires in 2015.
Terrorism has also become more rampant. In 2005, terrorist attacks in London killed 52 people and injured more than 700. Since the London tragedy, there have been more than 15 attacks worldwide, including a blast in 2016 in Belgium that killed 20 people. At least two attacks on U.S. soil were foiled.
Construction is also quite hazardous, particularly for underground workers. In a Los Angeles construction project in 1997, a worker was killed in a subway construction accident.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reported 4,836 workers were killed on the job in 2015, an average of more than 93 per week. The doors help give workers confidence that they can escape in case of a work-related underground disaster.
“Workers know that with those doors in place, they will be able to get out quickly in the event of an emergency,’’ Pebley said. “The other important consideration is back injuries. They’re not going to produce excess strain on an underground or utility worker.”
For more information, contact BILCO at (800) 366-6530 or Commercial@bilco.com, or visit www.bilco.com.
Related Stories
| Nov 27, 2013
Exclusive survey: Revenues increased at nearly half of AEC firms in 2013
Forty-six percent of the respondents to an exclusive BD+C survey of AEC professionals reported that revenues had increased this year compared to 2012, with another 24.2% saying cash flow had stayed the same.
| Nov 27, 2013
Wonder walls: 13 choices for the building envelope
BD+C editors present a roundup of the latest technologies and applications in exterior wall systems, from a tapered metal wall installation in Oklahoma to a textured precast concrete solution in North Carolina.
| Nov 26, 2013
Construction costs rise for 22nd straight month in November
Construction costs in North America rose for the 22nd consecutive month in November as labor costs continued to increase, amid growing industry concern over the tight availability of skilled workers.
| Nov 25, 2013
Building Teams need to help owners avoid 'operational stray'
"Operational stray" occurs when a building’s MEP systems don’t work the way they should. Even the most well-designed and constructed building can stray from perfection—and that can cost the owner a ton in unnecessary utility costs. But help is on the way.
| Nov 13, 2013
Installed capacity of geothermal heat pumps to grow by 150% by 2020, says study
The worldwide installed capacity of GHP systems will reach 127.4 gigawatts-thermal over the next seven years, growth of nearly 150%, according to a recent report from Navigant Research.
| Nov 6, 2013
Energy-efficiency measures paying off for commercial building owners, says BOMA study
The commercial real estate industry’s ongoing focus on energy efficiency has resulted in a downward trend in total operating expenses (3.9 percent drop, on average), according to BOMA's Experience Exchange Report.
| Oct 30, 2013
11 hot BIM/VDC topics for 2013
If you like to geek out on building information modeling and virtual design and construction, you should enjoy this overview of the top BIM/VDC topics.
| Oct 23, 2013
Some lesser-known benefits of metal buildings
While the durability of metal as a construction material is widely recognized, some of its other advantages are less commonly acknowledged and appreciated.
| Oct 18, 2013
Researchers discover tension-fusing properties of metal
When a group of MIT researchers recently discovered that stress can cause metal alloy to fuse rather than break apart, they assumed it must be a mistake. It wasn't. The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair early damage before it has a chance to spread.
| Sep 19, 2013
What we can learn from the world’s greenest buildings
Renowned green building author, Jerry Yudelson, offers five valuable lessons for designers, contractors, and building owners, based on a study of 55 high-performance projects from around the world.