WTC Rebuilding Schedule Gets New Roadmap

[IMGCAP(1)]NEW YORK CITY-In a board meeting Thursday morning, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s detailed an updated progress report on the World Trade Center redevelopment, outlining a road map that will guide the ongoing rebuilding of the site. The report was an attempt to bring a new level of certainty and control to the complex project and, for the most part, sources say the agency has come up with an achievable timetable.

Elizabeth Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance says that the report is “a welcome new road map for rebuilding the WTC site.” She explains that the agency has taken a practical approach and after several months of analysis, “have proposed what they believe is an achievable timetable, starting with the Memorial but including many key project elements.”

[IMGCAP(2)]The report set a new timetable for completion of One World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower and the site’s entire public infrastructure. One World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower, is scheduled for completion between the second and fourth quarters of 2013, at a cost of $3.1 billion. The World Trade Center Memorial Plaza, including the inscribed names of the victims from the attacks on 9/11, and Feb. 26, 1993, is scheduled for completion by Sept. 11, 2011. Some street-level landscaping will be completed later. The underground museum portion of the project will be completed between the first and second quarters of 2013. The WTC Transportation Hub will be completed between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2014, at a cost of $3.2 billion. A new Greenwich Street–the front door to Towers 2, 3 and 4, and a key access point to the Memorial–will be completed between the second and fourth quarters of 2012, years before the Port Authority anticipated. The Vehicle Security Center, which will serve as the underground access point for the commercial development on the site, will be completed between the first and third quarters of 2012, at a cost of $633 million.