Seven years after the attack on the Twin Towers that killed nearly 3,000 people, the new project faces a complicated rebuilding
The enchanting Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas was destroyed on September 11, 2001 in the terrorist attack which killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York. According to the 'Master Plan' redrafted in 2005 to rebuild the entire area, the small space occupied by the congregation was perfect for installing the Centre for Security Vehicles of the new complex. In return, Porth Autorithy of New York New Jersey Port Authority, owner of the land and project director, will relinquish an area in another place next. Disagreement between the parties makes it impossible construction of the Centre for Vehicles, which in turn slows construction of the five towers to replace those destroyed in 2001
The case symbolizes the complications facing a project involving the construction, 16 acres (64,749 square meters) of five skyscrapers (two of them, the highest in the city) the third major transport hubs in Manhattan and one of the greatest museums in the world in honour of victims of terrorism. Overall, an office space equivalent to the entire business district of Atlanta, without forgetting the services they need all that and reconstruction of the total of two adjacent streets, Greeenwich and Fulton. In total are involved, two major private developers, 19 public agencies, 101 contractors and subcontractors, 33 agencies design and architecture, the victims' families and several thousand workers.
Tons of setbacks
The problems appeared from the outset. The plots are above the Hudson River (see photo) and we must build walls to isolate the subsoil moisture. First mistake: the engineers used surface and studies were based on the conditions of the land where the Twin Towers were. The disadvantage is that these new buildings are built a little further east and the ground is much harder, which has delayed the works since the beginning and has complicated the transport of more than 400,000 tons of material were removed during the first phase of the works. At 300,000 dollars a day for delays, the total paid for this error is 14 million dollars for the developer and 14 others for one of the builders, Pohenix Shipyard.
All these figures are nothing compared with the costs of delaying a project whose initial budget stood at 15,000 million dollars (10,600 million euros), which is already far from these data and is rising about 15% annually, according to sources of the sponsoring Silverstein Properties. The city council, ruled by multimillionaire Michael Bloomberg, eager to rebuild the area and fill again companies, signed a pact in 2005 with investment bank Goldman Sachs in which he granted tax concessions if they undertook to settle in the new World Trade Center. The small print of the pact included bonuses for the bank valued at 321 million dollars if there was no degree of construction in 2010. Now that we know are not going to meet the deadline, the council renegotiated the agreement while balls thrown outside and blamed the Port Authority, which ensures that the time deadlines imposed by the former governor of New York (George Pataki, a Republican, favourite target of all criticisms) are "magical and emotional." The new governor, David Patterson, has promised a timetable "rigorous and realistic".
Clarifying this crossing accusations is mission impossible. This newspaper contacted Steve Coleman, a member of the team's press Porth Authority, which refers to the document on the project hung on his website. Not a word more. Elizabeth Kubany, of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, one of the largest studies of architecture in the world and responsible for the construction of Tower 1, neither wanted to make statements "about delays and delivery times" and refers to the Port Authority. The paper on the status of the works, their heads recognize that the deadlines were "not realistic" and attributed the increase in the budget to "the effects of the dramatic increase in the price of materials."
Two symbols' touched '
Two of the major milestones of reconstruction have been particularly affected by this disaster planning and execution. The first, the transport hubs designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the third largest city and which will serve 80,000 passengers a day. The project provided for a retractable roof and other aspects that will not be covered eventually by delays in implementation, which already exceeds 1,000 billion dollars in the initial budget. Bloomberg, in an attack of sincerity, said yesterday in an article titled quite rightly 'There should be no more excuses for Ground Zero' that the terminal is "too complicated to build."
More dramatic is the story of the Memorial for Victims and that includes the museum. His inauguration was scheduled for September 2011, a date with strong emotional charge. Mayor Bloomberg has said that is his "highest priority" and that the plaza that houses the memorial will be ready by then. The museum will have to wait another year. Part of the 8,000 tons of steel for construction began arriving last week to the area, as a symbol of desperezamiento of such works which cost 530 million dollars (374 million euros) and carrying a considerable delay.
The place has saved a place for the Straight survivors, who agreed that for the hall of Tower 1 hundreds of people were saved in the attacks and who miraculously survived the collapse of the tower and its subsequent peripecia. The recklessness of some workers, who tore part of the bulkhead that hid, revealed that the ladder was stranding on Vesey Street, protected by a plate and pending relocation. The publication by the New York press of the news prompted the authorities to change their location. They assert that the ladder, another paradigmatic error, is safe. Excluding these small setbacks, the norm is that New Yorkers look with some scepticism and indifference to the issue. A stroll through the area serves to verify that only the tourists, and by thousands, are interested in the progress of works.
Christopher O. Ward is in charge since June of the Port Authority, the boss of the project. Those who have used the Air Train that leads from Jamaica Station to JFK Airport, a project of who was responsible, can be an indication of the efficiency of this man 53 years not without controversy (there are those who criticize his transfer from the public initiative to private and start all) who studied a postgraduate theology at Harvard. He will be required.
