What’s happening at “Ground Zero” these days?
How’s the rebuilding coming along?
Curious in NC
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Clarified thread title to hopefully attract more viewers.
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What I don’t get is that I’ve heard nothing about this…except via a story on NYC buildings on Modern Marvels of the History Channel. The last I heard was that the elaborate proposals for rebuilding were all scrapped due to costs. Yet, they ARE building the Freedom Towers, right?
Just look here.
Horribly slow. 7 World Trade is finnished, and mostly occupied. That’s about it.
The new subway and PATH station are still under construction. The Freedom Tower only has the base steel down. Last I saw only like 1 story of steel out of the ground. And I belive that’s part of the super strong base. One of my union officals, said it would be another year before we see any real progress on the steel. The other 4-5 buildings had major delays in starting. The next one after Freedom Tower, had a target completion date of 2012; and was pushed back before the Wall St. crash.
Also the Deutsche Bank building, SE corner, which has to be taken down, due too damage, seems to be cursed. There have been several accidents there; including a fire that killed 2 firemen. It is about half-way “down”, and I don’t know if demolition has resumed yet.
However across the Westside Highway, Goldman Shachs is building a new Skyscraper. The steel is up, and most of the “skin” is on. This is not offically part of the WTC project. And the damage to the World Financial Center is all repaired. That was finnished about 2 years after the attack. This complex is also west of the WTC site.
I haven’t been near the hole in about 2 mounths, so this info is a little outdated. I have worked in 7 WTC on and off over the past 2-3 years. L.U. 28 Sheet Metal Worker; think HVAC, A/C , Ductwork.
It still looks like a hole; and that’s disgusting. There’s way to much red tape, and buricratic bullshit.
IMO, that should have been priority 2 (behind capturing Bin Laden) to get a building back up in that spot. The longer that hole stays in the ground it keeps reminding us that we haven’t made it back on our feet yet…
Apologies for the hijack, but is the Pentagon completely repaired yet?
I believe it is.
Yes, by mid-August 2002, a month ahead of schedule. Rummy himself welcomed staff back into their repaired and restored offices.
The damaged parts re-opened a while back, but they’re renovating the whole thing, so the construction is ongoing.
Just goes to show what people are always saying about the private sector being more efficient.
Oh, wait…
We had a good-sized Pit thread about this a couple of months ago. Basically, there are a whole bunch of interested parties that need to be satisfied with everything being built (or not built, as the case may be), and they’re holding up construction immensely.
Building large structures in the middle of metropolitan areas is always slow, but it shouldn’t be this slow - the Freedom Towers will take at least 10 years total to complete, while similarly sized buildings routinely go up in less than 5.
Very little about this project has anything to do with the private sector. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the public authority set up by Gov. Pataki to oversee rebuilding in Manhattan, has been a disaster from day one.
Add to that the fact that the Port Authority and the MTA need to complete reconstruction of the damaged PATH and subway tunnels, the botched design competition whose results were summarily rejected, the fact that the FDNY has rejected several proposed designs for dubious “safety reasons” and the fact that Silverstein Properties was involved in a years-long litigation with its insurer over whether the destruction of the site consisted of one or two distinct acts of terrorism, and you get a bureaucratic boondoggle the likes of which one has rarely seen, even in New York.
That renovation has been ongoing for several years, to modernize the building, and strengthen the outside walls. The damaged part had actually undergone renovation prior to the crash, the strengthened walls helped to limit the damage from the crash.
friedo explained it very well. The Goldman Sachs building about 2-3 years to construct; same for the Bank of America building on 42ed St. Both private sector. The Bank of America building, 42ed and 6th, is the second highest building in NYC right now,( if the swag at the job site is correct) just shy of the Empire State. I was on the outside hoist once, at the highest floor. Looking down, all the other skycraper roofs where below my feet; what an impressive site! An outside hoist, or elevator, is little more than a cage on a track, attached to the building.
Keep in mind who’s been in charge of the U.S. Gov’t over the last eight years. It’s clearly obvious that rebuilding the WTC (or finding Bin Laden, for that matter) was never a priority of the Bush Administration. (Sorry to drag politics into GQ, but that part’s a fact, not opinion.)
Well, Larry Silverstein is definitely in the private sector and he holds a 99 year lease on the properties.
The first five years of “rebuilding” were spent in court with the insurers and battles between Silverstein, architects, City and State governments and the Port Authority. In 2006 he ceded some of his rights as landlord to facilitate the reconstruction.