The one outstanding milestone is the full turnover of the east-side sites

In the three months since the Port Authority issued its World Trade Center (WTC), “Roadmap Forward,” Executive Director Chris Ward reported that eight out of nine major rebuilding milestones have been met -- making clear the agency’s renewed commitment to meet deadlines and mitigate construction impacts.

Ward was one of several people to give the New York State Assembly at the January 29th WTC redevelopment–status hearing. The public hearing was called by Speaker Sheldon Silver, and three Assembly Committees including Cities, chaired by James Brennan, the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, chaired by Richard Brodsky and the Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation chaired by Joan Millman. They were joined by Assembly members Deborah Glick and Brian Kavanaugh, who questioned the various agencies about their day-to-day responsibilities, timelines, and funding plans for the site.

Work on the north pool as seen from WTC 7

The Port Authority, which owns the WTC site, was joined by several rebuilding agencies whose executives also testified, including Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) Chairman Avi Schick, WTC leaseholder Silverstein Properties’s President and CEO Larry Silverstein, Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC) Executive Director Robert Harvey, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander. Community Board 1 Chairperson Julie Menin and Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth Berger testified as spokespeople for the local community.

Among the Port’s accomplished goals, Ward listed the completion of National 9/11 Memorial design documents, issuing WTC Transportation Hub steel-procurement requests, and extensive Freedom Tower concrete pours. The agency made progress on infrastructure planning and construction, as well as in beautifying the site itself with new lighting, sidewalk repaving, and a new fence “wrap” with project renderings.

The one outstanding milestone is the full turnover of the east-side towers’ “shovel-ready” sites to developer Silverstein. Ward explained that while his crews are working 20-hour days six days a week, the mass excavation and sub-grade infrastructure projects required significantly more time to complete than expected.

 And while Silverstein has been able to start foundation work at the Tower 4 site, there are still physical obstacles to moving ahead with Tower 2 and 3’s construction. Reluctant to give a hard date for the new towers’ official turnover, Ward predicted it would be “a matter of months.”

Silverstein agreed with Ward that progress is being made in the east bathtub, and that collaboration between the two companies has improved -- though regular, more direct communications could help expedite construction.

To that end, Harvey reported that the LMCCC has helped coordinate thousands of logistical components at the WTC through weekly and sometimes daily meetings, which are attended by all of the major rebuilding stakeholders.

Near the WTC site, the Fulton Street Transit Center will be a critical part of downtown’s mass-transit network, and Sander said the MTA is now working “full speed ahead” on its underground structure. He reported that several improvements to the 2/3 and 4/5 Fulton Street platforms are complete, and that Dey Street recently reopened with a new (but unfinished) pedestrian tunnel below.

The pedestrian tunnel below Dey Street

This month, MTA crews have mobilized on plans to underpin the Corbin Building, install a new mezzanine elevator below Fulton Street, and complete foundation work at Fulton and Broadway. However, the large-scale, four-year contract to rebuild the A/C mezzanine and erect the main building won’t be issued for another few weeks.

Sander said that while the main building’s design is not yet final, he hopes that $497 million from the federal stimulus package -- passed by the House of Representatives this week -- will complete the transit center’s funding needs. If it does, the revamped station could be complete by 2013.

Each of those who testified made clear the challenges they face in Lower Manhattan’s rebuilding effort, and assured the assembly members that progress will continue with transparency. They agreed that the national economic downturn has raised construction costs, and delays in the east bathtub and for the 130 Liberty Street deconstruction hinder the overall WTC timeline.

Still, active building spans the site’s 16 acres and beyond, and Silverstein, for one, is optimistic that the downtown commercial market will thrive as the towers and Memorial open over the next two to five years.

“I’ve never seen a completed office building go vacant for any length of time in New York,” said Silverstein. “You don’t build for the circumstance you’re in today -- you build for the circumstance you ought to be when the building is completed." 

 “I’m very confident that the market will be there, and we’ll be able to lease those buildings,” he added. “The fact is the city will need those buildings for continued growth.”

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