Challenging Week at 25 Broadway
Telehouse facility wrestles with generator outages, fuel shortages

Sept. 17, 2001 -- Major carrier hotels plan to stay online through nearly anything. But the massive destruction wrought by last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center has tested even the best laid plans for mission-critical facilities.
"It's been stressful and hectic from day one, and from minute one," said John Shields, vice president of operations and engineering for Telehouse America, which operates Broadway Center carrier hotel at 25 Broadway, home to the New York International Internet eXchange (NYIIX).
"There's been a lot of uncertainty and a lot of chaos," he added.
The 85,000 square foot facility, located less than a half-mile from the World Trade center, was among the most seriously affected by Tuesday's events, experiencing fuel shortages and generator problems that left its telecom and Internet service provider customers offline for parts of Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
With much of Manhattan below Canal Street without power nearly a week after the terrorist attacks, generators continued to run around the clock to power several New York carrier hotels. Con Edison has not yet indicated when it will be able to restore full electric power to the area.
The most visible carrier hotel in the blackout zone is 60 Hudson Street, a critical telecommunications hub nine blocks north of the Trade Center. Generators have kept the facility online throughout.
"The building is 100 percent operational," said David Stearns, a spokesman for GVA Williams, which manages 60 Hudson Street. "They have power."
NYIIX and numerous international fiber installations between 60 Hudson and Broadway Center account for nearly 70 percent of Internet traffic between the US and Europe, according to Telehouse.
The Broadway Center building near the south tip of Manhattan lost grid power from Con Edison soon after the World Trade Center's twin towers collapsed Tuesday morning, and quickly switched over to generator power.
At the time, the building had three days of fuel on-site. The generators performed well through Tuesday and Wednesday. But as the fuel supply dwindled, security-related restrictions on fuel trucks in the city left Telehouse and other carrier hotel owners scrambling to keep the generators running.
On Thursday, after talks with the Port Authority of NY & NJ, Telehouse secured a truckload of generator fuel with police escort through the Holland Tunnel.
"We certainly got to the front of the line (for fuel shipments)," said Shields. "We have some very important customers, and they used their influence, especially EDS," which uses the facility to clear transactions for the European financial system.
But soon after refueling, the generator overheated. On Friday a street generator from Con Edison was brought online, but soon ran out of fuel.
That meant the building - whose tenants include EDS, Internap, Globix, Digital Island and Akamai - without power for much of Friday and parts of Thursday and Saturday.
Given the circumstances,
"From the onset of this catastrophe Telehouse management has continued to overcome obstacles," said Tom Szeluga, Regional Project Manager of EDS. "Throughout this trying process, they issued frequent status reports and worked closely with their clients. I have every confidence that they will do what's in our best interest and continue to use every resource possible in doing so.''
"Our clients have been invaluable in seeing us through this," Shields said. "In the face of adversity, they have offered their total support, both emotionally and in using their influence when needed. We're proud of both our and our client's efforts to continue to provide critical services to the maximum extent possible during these critical times.''
On Monday, Shields said the outlook had improved.
"We are now in much better shape with fuel," said Shields. "We're good through Wednesday or Thursday.
"We're focusing now on trying to keep our generators healthy," said Shields. "We obviously had a problem with one of them, and the other generators do have maintenance issues that require attention.
Meanwhile, more than 1,900 Con Edison workers are laboring around the clock to restore power in lower Manhattan and thousands more are working behind the scenes. More than 26 miles of high-voltage cable have been stretched through the streets and trenches are being dug to accommodate the wires.