On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, the United States came under attack when four commercial airliners were hijacked by al Qaeda terrorists. Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives that day. But because of the actions of the 40 passengers and crew aboard one of the planes, Flight 93, the attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted.
On Sunday, Sept. 19, 2018, the National Park Service dedicated a new memorial at the 2,200-acre crash site outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in honor of the 40 heroes aboard that flight.
The Flight 93 National Memorial, designed by Los Angeles-based Paul Murdoch Architects, includes a learning center, visitor’s center, a marble wall of names that frames the flight path, a field of honor, a memorial plaza along the edge of the crash site and the Tower of Voices, a 93-foot-tall structure holding 40 wind chimes to represent the plane’s 40 passengers and crew members.
Leonard S. Fiore, Inc., Altoona, Pennsylvania, led the Tower of Voices portion of the project. The scope included installation of 25 micropiles 83 feet into the ground with a 60-cubic-yard concrete pilecap foundation; fabrication and erection of the precast concrete tower; installation of decorative hardscape and landscape; underground utilities infrastructure to support the site; and installation of the 40 chimes provided by the NPS.
Fiore had extensive experience matching the scope of the project, including micropile foundations, decorative precast structures, and extensive hardscape and landscape, and had previously worked with the NPS at the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
Fiore began work in October 2017, completing the foundation installation, concrete cap and 8,000 pounds of reinforcing steel. According to Joe Pullara, project manager, the main challenge was the fabrication and erection of the 93-foot concrete tower.
“The tower has 53 precast pieces consisting of eight columns spliced into approximately 45-foot individual lengths, with two cap pieces at the top and precast beams on 40-degree angles on a radius between the columns,” Pullara says.
To improve the aesthetics of the tower, the precast contractor, PennStress Inc., Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, designed the beam installation to minimize all the patch holes for connecting the beams to the columns.
“The C-shaped erection process eliminated approximately 440 holes that would have been noticeably patched on the columns, thus giving the structure a clean, uniform appearance,” Pullara says.
The Tower of Voices is the first visible monument upon entering the park. It is built atop an earthen mound surrounded by 208 trees—137 white pines, 16 serviceberry, 22 hawthorns and 33 American redbuds—planted in concentric circles, symbolic of the sound waves from the voices of the passengers and crew as they thwarted the attack.
The field surrounding the tower features a mix of meadow flowers that will bloom throughout each summer.
A lighted concrete walkway leads to the tower and winds around the mound to a plaza where visitors may sit and reflect. A stone path also winds through the trees, taking visitors to the tower and continuing around the mount to provide viewing from all directions.
Visitors can walk through the tower’s columns and look up at the chimes, each representing a passenger or crew member who lost their life that day. The intent, according to the NPS, is “to create a set of 40 tones (voices) that can connote through consonance the serenity and nobility of the site while also through dissonance recalling the event that consecrated the site.”
Eight of the chimes are installed, and Fiore will install the remaining 32 upon fabrication completion.
“It’s very humbling, knowing what the project represents and having a role in it,” Pullara says. “Meeting a few of the family members and the friends of Flight 93 passengers, it was just so humbling and such an honor to be a part of the project.”
Marianne Hazel, president of Associated Builders and Contractors’ Central Pennsylvania Chapter, adds: “Leonard S. Fiore has been a long-time member of our chapter, and we’re so proud of their involvement with the Tower of Voices. The tower is a unique tribute to the selfless passengers and crew of Flight 93,” she continues. “When I experienced the chimes, I was overcome with a feeling of reverence and gained a sense of the magnitude of the bravery and courage of the heroes and of their sacrifices.”
