Remarks from the PA on the status of other WTC developments:
http://panynj.com/AboutthePortAuthority/PressCenter/PressReleases/PressRelease/index.php?id=1088
(condensed)
REMARKS BY PORT AUTHORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER O. WARD ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ASSESSMENT
Date: July 01, 2008
Press Release Number: 68-2008
Perhaps for the first time in the history of the rebuilding effort, all of the key stakeholders at the World Trade Center site worked collaboratively with the goal of producing an accurate and current picture of where we are and where we need to go. They opened up their books, shared information, communicated their concerns and – most importantly – asked fundamental questions that largely had gone unanswered in the haste to rebuild.
On June 11th, Governor Paterson asked me for a candid and transparent assessment of the rebuilding effort at the World Trade Center site. Like you, he wanted to understand just what was the state of downtown. As the new Executive Director of the Port Authority, I had the same question. Nineteen days later, here’s what I found:
The dates and costs of the World Trade Center projects that the public has been told are not realistic. We are not going to make any of them.
Our report details 15 fundamental issues that drive both schedule and cost that have yet to be resolved. Until we can resolve these issues, another neatly wrapped package of dates and budgets would be just as unrealistic as the last bunch.
So we are not going down that path again. Instead, this report marks a new way of doing business at the Port Authority, a new way of doing business among all of the stakeholders at the World Trade Center site and; most importantly, a new way of doing business for how we manage this complex project – something the Port Authority Board of Commissioners has been pushing for some time.
Because it’s no longer a question of if all of these projects will get built. Nothing in my assessment leads me to believe that any of these projects won’t be completed as promised. The questions are when and for how much. That is where this new way of doing business comes in.
What we now face is the most complex and difficult construction job you can imagine.
I can tell you today that we know significant progress has been made on every major project on the site since 2006. In fact, it is a completely different site today than it was then.
In early 2006, the site was at a virtual standstill. Today, more than 700 workers have turned a standstill into a bourgeoning construction site. Everyone who made that real should be enormously proud of that accomplishment.
But, as I said upfront, we also know that the schedule and costs of the rebuilding effort are not realistic. Unfortunately, far too often those dates and budgets have been driven by emotional and political needs instead of a clear-eyed sense of how you actually build such a vision.
Working together with all of our partners, we will approach this project with a clear sense of mission. We will look at a range of mitigation options to build these projects smarter, faster and for less money. We will peel back budgets to generate cost savings; and we will question assumptions as just those: assumptions. And all of this will be done with a renewed sense of urgency that our town demands.
Having said all of that, as I look across this room, I see a lot of skeptical looks. I don't blame you for being skeptical. But skepticism never built a thing. I know because I have been involved with many projects the skeptics know too well.
In my first tenure at the Port Authority, together we built the AirTrain system to JFK. Many said this project would never be built. It was too costly, too challenging and faced too much local opposition.
We proved them wrong. We overcame challenges and embraced community concerns. Today, the AirTrain system provides a critical mass transit link for millions of riders who travel to and from the airport each year.
There is no question that the World Trade Center project is perhaps the most challenging rebuilding effort in this City’s history, and the biggest challenge ever faced in the 87-year history of the Port Authority.
While I am not naive when it comes to the challenges that lie ahead, I know we have several factors in our favor.
So where does that leave us? What is the actual status of the project?
We have met with all of the major stakeholders of this massive project and we have gotten the engineers and experts involved in a comprehensive analysis, poring over data and combing through budgets and timelines of each construction project.
I also walked the site to see firsthand the state of construction.
First, I was amazed to see the progress on every major project on the site.
-The Freedom Tower is rising above street level.
-Excavation and construction for the foundations for Towers 2, 3 and 4 and associated retail are well underway.
-The foundations and footings for the Memorial are near completion and steel will be arriving soon – so that we can lay the groundwork at the Memorial site for a publicly accessible and appropriate tribute on the 10th anniversary of September 11.
-And the foundation work of the WTC Transportation Hub has begun while the temporary North Access for the PATH Station has already been completed.
But while there is great progress on the 16-acre site, what we discovered during our assessment is that the complex construction activity on the ground doesn’t match up to the timelines and budgets that the public has been told.
Let me give you a sense for the reality of what we are talking about here. On just a few city blocks there will be:
-Five major skyscrapers, which will house Class A office space comparable to all of downtown Atlanta;
-One of the world’s most significant memorials and museums;
-The third-largest transportation hub in New York City;
-A world-class retail venue serving all WTC users;
-A major performing arts center;
-A state-of-the-art vehicle security center;
Two brand-new city streets (Greenwich and Fulton) and two brand-new pedestrian ways (Cortlandt and Dey); and,
-All of the critical infrastructure to support these projects (chiller plant, utility and communication networks, etc).
And all of this is happening within the confines of a transportation corridor that moves 150,000 commuters a day through an active construction site via the MTA #1 subway line, which literally cuts through the center of the site, and the WTC PATH Terminal, which runs beneath the site.
Add to this challenge the fact that there are 19 public agencies, two private developers, 101 different construction contractors and sub-contractors and 33 different designers, architects and consulting firms all in charge of one element of the project or another, and you have a construction challenge that is as complex as any in the world.
Given this enormous complexity, unfortunately, we found that there was no single command and control structure to manage it all, particularly the site logistics on the site – essentially to be the air-traffic controller for the hundreds – soon to be thousands – of workers and heavy construction equipment on the site. That will now change.
Moreover, there was no efficient decision-making process or steering committee to resolve the fundamental drivers of schedule and cost. That too will change.
By opening up this process we found at least 15 fundamental decisions on critical components of the overall project had not been made.
For example,
until the Port Authority completes the final design of the WTC Transportation Hub, it is difficult both to responsibly predict a completion date and total cost of the Hub or, for that matter, to predict the completion dates and costs of all the other projects that are linked to and dependent on the Hub. Indeed, it is time that the design of that complex project be made to conform to real budget and schedule expectations, which will require tough decisions that have not been candidly addressed up to now.
Once we have resolved these issues, we will report clear and achievable timelines and cost estimates for each of the major projects with interim milestones and deliverables that will be open to the public so that we can be held accountable.
In fact, I’m pleased to report today the first of these issues has already been resolved. Working together, the Transportation Hub designer Santiago Calatrava and the Port Authority have determined that the so-called “wings” of the Hub oculus will no longer open and close.
Making this decision helps preserve the overall iconic nature of Calatrava’s winged design, but it will allow the Hub to literally fit better with the other buildings on the site; when the wings opened they came far too close to the surrounding office towers.
And best of all, this decision will result in significant cost and time savings.
This is a tough choice, but it’s the right choice. And it’s reflective of the kinds of choices we simply must make in the coming weeks and months if we are to establish priorities and intermediate milestones, to which we can be held accountable.
Having talked construction exclusively during my remarks, I would be remiss if I did not at least touch on my other passion and quote a little Henry James, because it’s a quote I often think about when considering the challenge before us.
James once said: “The New York City skyline is swept clean every twenty-five years.” A Europeanist, James was decrying the rapid change that New York was going through as market forces swept away old economies for new ones, brownstones for skyscrapers – from the early port city, to the trading and industrial era, through financial consolidation, the information age and finally as the world city we know it today.
But the loss of our skyline on September 11th was not this New York energy James described. Rather, it was the very opposite – an anti-modern view which sought to stop our future.
But New York has rebuilt itself time and time again. And it will do so here again in Lower Manhattan. But unlike any other time or project in our history, we are rebuilding on a site fundamentally taken from us by those completely at odds with our town.
And that remains our challenge. And it will take time, as it has. But rebuild we will. With the stakeholders in this room, the real estate market behind us, all of the efforts to date, and a roadmap going forward, a new downtown will be rebuilt. To that I have no doubt.
Thank you.
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