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Port Authority work is continuing on the fast track
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Truck traffic through the World Trade Center (WTC) site’s west side is ramping up, according to the Port Authority. The agency told Community Board 1 this week that it is preparing new access and egress roads through the northwest corner of the site, as steel installation continues at 1 World Trade Center.
The update was delivered by Quentin Braithwaite, the Port Authority’s assistant director of WTC construction. He told members of the board and the public that 12 of the tower’s 24 jumbo-steel columns are now in place around the perimeter, forming the base from which its 102 stories will rise. Those 70-ton beams are to be complete by late November.
Around the tower’s base, the steel and concrete plaza is being built, and will soon accommodate trucks delivering materials for 1 WTC. A plan to extend the Vesey Street Pedestrian Bridge to the east side of Washington Street is being finalized -- and would mean that by late March 2010, trucks will be able to drive under the bridge and onto 1 WTC’s plaza without disrupting pedestrian flow. They would then exit through a new gate to be built at West Street at Fulton.
Just south of that construction, major headway is being made at the National 9/11 Memorial site. Concrete decking made access to the site possible during this year’s September 11th commemorative events, and the reflecting pools that will mark the twin towers’ footprints are now almost fully built out. Braithwaite noted that lining the pools will be the largest man-made waterfalls in the world.
Final steel erection recently began in the Memorial’s southwest quadrant, putting a roof over that remaining section of the PATH train tracks.
The South Bathtub work continues further south, where crews are installing the last of 29 slurry wall panels before excavation can begin. Port Authority crews are preparing for that work by reconfiguring the Liberty Street walkway, and planning to shift the Liberty Street Pedestrian Bridge exit south to Cedar Street.
Because so much heavy construction at the WTC is planned for the coming years, Braithwaite also explained that pedestrian counts are being conducting in several locations around the site. Those counts will help the Port and its consultant Sam Schwarz Engineering maintain and improve traffic flow and crossings in the vicinity.
The reconstruction of Greenwich Street through the WTC is now on track, with the Port awarding a $177.6 million contract to Tutor Perini (a bid that came in below the Port’s projections). That firm’s work includes the top-down construction of the 1 subway box, with the Greenwich roadway above it, and the safety system the project requires.
For the WTC Transportation Hub, the Port Authority’s excavation inside the east bathtub is winding down. Braithwaite explained that as part of the Hub’s upcoming construction, a massive crane will be installed in the middle of the WTC site. Rising about 15 stories high and with a reach of about 150 feet, the crane will be able to pick up steel from Church Street and deliver it to the Hub’s west side, along the future Greenwich Street, in one motion.
Responding to a board member’s question, Braithwaite gave no comment on arbitration proceedings with Silverstein Properties for the three east-side towers, which is expected to begin soon.
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