The Record
A jampacked future rises at Ground Zero
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
By DAVID A. MICHAELS
STAFF WRITER
Only last fall, this hallowed ground was a hollow place.
Private developers and government officials were still negotiating how to build and pay for the World Trade Center's renewal. On an island where towers sprout like cornstalks, Ground Zero remained the bare patch.
But on Tuesday, as Port Authority officials toured the site, they could point to the signs of renewal: concrete walls that mark the boundaries of the World Trade Center Memorial, steel columns and tower cranes that will permit construction of the Freedom Tower, and a plan to incorporate the Trade Center's original slurry wall into the memorial.
"Clearly there has been a shift of momentum to the positive," said Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia.
Even so, rebuilding remains a challenge, officials said. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is managing the construction of the memorial and the Freedom Tower, is fitting more into the 16 acres than previously existed. The project also must accommodate PATH trains and a new transportation hub.
"This is a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle," said Steven Plate, the Port Authority's director of construction at the site. "It is probably the most complex project I've seen in my entire life."
About 300 orange-vested workers ply their trades inside the crater, known as the "bathtub," as trucks trundle up and down a long ramp.
The 10-acre memorial, which will begin rising later this year, requires 4,000 cubic yards of concrete and 11,000 tons of steel. When complete, the $500 million memorial will feature a plaza with two reflecting pools where the Twin Towers stood. Visitors will walk among 418 trees and 100 benches.
Museum exhibits will be underneath the plaza, where the authority is making an effort to expose between 20 and 62 feet of the slurry wall, which holds back the Hudson River, and its giant steel supports, known as tie-downs.
A road, Fulton Street, will separate the memorial from the Freedom Tower, scheduled to be open by 2011. The skyscraper's foundation is in place, as are 14 steel columns that rise 60 feet on the site's northern edge. Twenty-seven columns will be in place by the end of spring.
The authority is building the tower at time when construction costs are soaring. Cost estimates for both the Freedom Tower and the PATH hub have risen. The authority is working with architect Santiago Calatrava to scale back some features of the PATH hub and keep it within its original budget.
"We're going to have to manage our way through it," Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris said.
Three other skyscrapers, built by developer Larry Silverstein, are planned for the site. By 2013, they will occupy the eastern edge.
Fund-raising for the memorial has been encouraging, said Joseph C. Daniels, president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. The foundation has raised $253 million of the $350 million it intends to collect. The Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. are funding the rest.
"The public is investing in this project because they see all the progress," Daniels said. "They see we are building what we said we would build."
What's next
• The Port Authority will award contracts for the steel for the memorial within two months.
• In late 2007 or early 2008, steel for the memorial will begin rising, bringing the project up to street level.
• The authority will build a new slurry wall on the site's western edge to keep water from seeping in.
E-mail:
michaels@northjersey.com
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What the hell those guys are waiting for to raise this shit up? 
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