April 27, 2006
Freedom Tower construction prep work starts today
 Construction prep work to build the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero will begin today, following Wednesday's vote by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to approve a deal with developer Larry Silverstein covering the construction and operation of several new skyscrapers at the site, NY1 is reporting.
After nearly five years of delays, an accelerated schedule calls for the construction of 8.8 million square feet of office space in four towers 58 to 70 stories high, according to the New York Times, which also wonders if the pace is possible:
Some experts are even wondering whether there will be enough steel, concrete and curtain wall to build the four towers by 2012 at the same time that two baseball stadiums, the $2 billion Goldman Sachs headquarters, the $1.7 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Moynihan Station, 10,000 apartments and various subway projects are under construction. The deal approved Wednesday gives Silverstein, who held the lease on both the north and south WTC towers when attacked Sept. 11, 2001, control of the new Towers 2, 3 and 4. He will build the centerpiece 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower, but it will be operated by the Port Authority. Silverstein is only weeks away from opening his rebuilt WTC 7 skyscraper, a building that had collapsed late in the day on Sept. 11.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has again halted work to tear down the black-shrouded 40-story Deutsche Bank building immediately to the south of Ground Zero after asbestos was found in areas that were supposedly clean, the Daily News is reporting. In recent weeks, hundreds of minute bone fragments have been recovered from the building, some of which contained enough DNA to match with Sept. 11 victims who had not previously been identified with any remains.
Elsewhere, the Daily News reports on another dust-up surrounding the construction of the actual memorial museum scheduled for Ground Zero. A friend-of-the-court brief was filed this week by The Alliance for Downtown New York, the West St. Coalition, Battery Park City United, the Tribeca Organization and six area residents who are challenging the Coalition of 9/11 Families' call to stop the memorial's construction (webcam,) until it is redesigned above ground and away from the towers' footprints. The families coalition is suing the Port Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Center and the New York state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Earlier: WTC agreement allows construction to proceed
Taste of Wall Street set for WTC 7 reopening May 15
The views from atop the rebuilt 7 World Trade Center
Freedom Tower work suspends PATH trains to WTC
Museum at Ground Zero may charge admission fee
Wall of words installed at World Trade Center 7
Freedom Tower opening delayed to end of 2011 - NYT
Chinese firm leases five top floors of WTC 7 - Crain's
April 27, 2006 09:05 AM in Downtown
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