Remembering 9/11 - Russell Lipari Will Never Forget

Russell Lipari was fortunate. Fortunate that a last minute meeting location change kept him away from the World Trade Center on that fateful Tuesday morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Fortunate to have been able to play an important role in the restoration of the PATH tubes in the year that followed, an experience he will remember for as long as he lives. Someone up there is certainly looking out for him, he says.

Lipari very likely would have been in the elevator of one of the towers on his way up to the 70^th floor to meet with Port Authority representatives had it not been for a last-minute change which moved the meeting across the river to the Jersey City PATH offices.

Then two months after the attacks, Lipari found himself at Ground Zero. Now he was in the position to help restore PATH service. An engineer with Brownworth Engineering Associates, his firm worked on many projects with the Port Authority. He was brought in to restore the infrastructure of the tubes.

Everything in the Port Authority office, which was located in one of the towers, had been completely destroyed in the attacks but the firm Lipari worked for still had some drawings which were used to help in the restoration.

He quickly became part of a team that worked day and night. Equipped with a gas mask and hard hat, Lipari would be on call 24/7. He recalls being there at 2 a.m. Sometimes 4 a.m. Sometimes they worked 20 hours straight.

None of the men really knew each other, Lipari said, but they worked hand in hand. There was high security and everyone came in and out to do their work. Lipari recalls having to walk down to the tunnels from street level as there was no elevator service. He can still hear the sounds boats made as they passed above the tunnels.

During this time Lipari was also dealing with his own personal matters. He had cancer and had to go in for an emergency surgery. At this point he was already too deep into the project but needed to remain at home to recuperate. Two Port Authority engineers went out of their way to visit his home as many times as needed so Lipari could look over the plans. “They were so good for coming here,” Lipari said of how grateful he is to those men.

When they were first brought into the project, Lipari and his colleagues were given a deadline to have the tunnels fixed and running again. They worked endlessly but they did make the deadline. As a gift, all the workers were given a piece of the tunnel wall encased in a box to commemorate everything they did. Lipari keeps it on display along with photos of the site and some of the PATH employees he worked with.

“Being in there had a purpose,” Lipari said. “It’s an experience I will never forget as long as I live.”

It also gave him a new kind of respect for the police, firefighters and PATH employees, something he takes with him every day.