At the time of 9/11 and afterwards, I was the Director of Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals. As Director, I was, of course, immediately pre-occupied with dealing with some incredibly difficult people issues including locating all of our employees and somehow motivating staff to begin focusing on recovery. TB&T facilities had closed and opened depending upon conditions, single occupancy vehicles were prohibited, and the Holland Tunnel was fully closed and open only for the necessary movement of emergency related supplies. Several days after 9/11 I called my boss, COO Ernesto Butcher and asked for an emergency allocation of $5 million for the Holland. After he wondered if I fully understood all the financial demands being placed on the agency, I explained that we had an incredible opportunity in front of us despite all else that was going on. Simply put, the Holland Tunnel was to be closed for an extended period of time, and this was an amazing opportunity to take care of several important maintenance projects. These projects were extremely difficult to accomplish during normal tunnel operations. In a manner that I believe truly exemplified what type of agency we were, I received the allocation. To me, this was perhaps one of the best definitions of our agency in that despite all else we still worked smart and took advantage of conditions — as lousy as they were.
Within a few days after 9/11, COO Ernesto Butcher, the 5 Line Directors (TB&T, Aviation, PATH, Port and World Trade) as well as some key security, police and engineering staff held regular meetings for all of us to try to figure out and develop realistic plans both for dealing with the present and thinking to the future. Remarkably, I recently found my notes from those meetings, and it brought back some amazing memories. We made some amazing operational decisions as well as focusing on immediate security issues based upon our extensive facility knowledge and a desire to bring things back safely and as quickly as possible. Simply put, the notes revealed our leadership's amazing ability to manage and make decisions on the fly and literally by the "seat of our pants". As a Director, it was very special to be among such capable and caring individuals — all working towards smart, efficient and effective solutions to the immediate need of bringing everything back.
Ken Philmus
Retired Director, TB&T
