Building Owners To Comply With NYC Local Law 26

By Kelly Wood


It is usually the events that take place in our lives that cause us to finally take action. Sometimes we need something to take place before we know the best way to really handle that situation. Such is sadly the case for the tragic events of September 11th in New York city. It is for this reason that building owners are forced to comply with NYC local law 26.

Just like any other law that is put on the books there is a certain language that is used and that spells out exactly what must be done. However, for the rest of us who need to understand how these types of things help us, we need them written in plain English. The most simple description of this law is that it helps people to remove themselves from a building.

In order to do what was required by the city owners needed to make some simple improvements to their buildings. Or at least they seemed simple on the outset. Required was some changes to the exit strategy of the facility as well as the markings that lead to the exits. Glowing paint and special tape would be required and none of these things were cheap.

These things allow for people to still see the markings if there is no lights on or if the power has been knocked out. These markings also can still be seen if there is smoke or other things in the air preventing proper visibility. These and other measures have been taken to make sure that no matter what is happening people can find their way out of a building.

People were required to not only come up with new exit plans in case of a disaster but they also had to make these markings on the floors, walls, and exits doors and corridors everywhere. For those who owned multiple buildings it was difficult but not impossible. Everyone knew that in order to keep people safe these changes needed to be made.

Building have been given every chance to comply with this law and there is to be no negotiation made for getting only halfway there. This must be a 100% compliance situation by all building owners within the city. We have learned some very hard lessons about how we design and build structures during that fateful day and the same mistakes will not be made twice.

In addition owners must maintain log books to record and report all improvements made as well as any repairs made to non working structures or appliances. These repairs must be made in a timely manner and within a reasonable time of notification otherwise the owner will be responsible and fined. Again, the city is not taking any chances with this law at all.

New plans were drawn up where necessary but in all cases it was kept as simple as possible. In order to comply with NYC local law 26 people needed to borrow ideas from the ones that figured out a simple way to get this done and they did. This restructure of the exit plans for buildings was also completed in record time. Everybody wanted to help and they all knew what was at stake.




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