Port Authority Updates Its Progress at
the World Trade Center Site
The 3rd Quarter of 2009 continued to see important progress on the 9/11 Memorial, One World Trade Center, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub and the other public infrastructure the Port Authority is responsible for building. Specifically, as of September 30, we have completed more than 80 percent of the steel erection for the 9/11 Memorial, which remains on track to open on 9/11/11. We also commenced installation of the jumbo steel perimeter columns of One WTC, which are 60 feet high and weigh 70 tons each – the equivalent weight of a Honda Civic for every foot of steel. These columns are critical to have in place in order for One WTC to reach the 20th floor-equivalent level during the first quarter of next year. Finally, we issued the Notice to Proceed for the critical Greenwich Street Corridor package, which will build out the permanent support structure of the MTA’s #1 Subway line and the future Greenwich Street.
Overall, we hit 21 of 24 milestones. Of the three that were missed, we have developed complete mitigation strategies for the two that are within our control to avoid future delays.
As the Port Authority looks ahead to next Quarter, we face several significant challenges.
- We continue to look at ways to mitigate the impact the delay in the deconstruction of 130 Liberty Street has on the construction of the Vehicle Security Center.
- We continue to manage aggressively the successful execution of our restructured procurement strategy for the WTC Transportation Hub’s Structures to Grade work.
- In light of the continued uncertainty with respect to the schedule for the development of Towers 2, 3 and 4, the Port Authority has begun the formulation of a revised design for the WTC Hub that will permit the Port Authority to complete the construction of the public components of the WTC site independent of construction of Towers 2, 3 and 4. The development of this option will require, in addition to a revised design for the WTC Hub, a redesign of various aspects of One World Trade Center, the Vehicular Security Center and other infrastructure in order to minimize the impacts on the Roadmap dates included in the Port Authority’s October 2008 WTC Report, while maintaining the ability of Silverstein Properties Inc. to commence construction of Towers 2, 3 and 4.
- We will also need to pay very close attention to the progress of the Memorial’s Sector 1A Steel. This section of the Memorial Plaza is especially challenging to erect because it involves steel from two different projects – the Memorial and Transportation Hub – and several different contractors, who all need to be coordinated seamlessly in order for us to stay on the Memorial schedule’s critical path.
Previous Reports
Second Quarter 2009 report (PDF)
First Quarter 2009 report (PDF)
Fourth Quarter 2008 report (PDF)
Legislative Correspondence
Chris Ward testimony, New York State Senate, 9/9/09 (PDF)
Chris Ward testimony, New York City Council, 8/19/09 (PDF)
