The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 214

Yet another part of the Ground Zero rebuilding efforts are suddenly well over budget.

The Calatrava transit hub, which most folks have taken a liking to, is more than $1 billion over budget. Expect cost cutting, which will include lesser materials.

Still think delaying construction on any other portions of the site is a good idea when the costs are rising by the day?

Meanwhile, Bovis Lend Lease should begin the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building within days. They're scheduled to have the building completely deconstructed by the end of the year. Good luck with keeping to that schedule. Nothing relating to the Deutsche Bank building has been done on schedule.

In what has become a familiar ritual downtown, officials said yesterday — and this time they really, truly meant it — that demolition would soon begin at the damaged and contaminated former Deutsche Bank building opposite ground zero.

They said that Bovis Lend Lease, which is in charge of dismantling the 41-story bank tower at 130 Liberty Street, must do so by the end of the year under a newly amended contract. That is almost one floor a week.

“I believe we have solved our problem,” Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said yesterday.

Clearing that parcel is now critical to construction progress throughout the World Trade Center site.

Bovis was awarded the $75 million demolition contract in 2005. Preliminary cleanup work at the building stopped several times to address the concerns of environmental regulators and to accommodate the search for human remains.

More recently, with the regulatory coast looking clear, work slowed as Bovis and its subcontractor, the John Galt Corporation, negotiated with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation over an extra $30 million in pay for the project, which has been far more complex than anticipated. Officials said that sometimes only a fraction of the normal complement of workers was on the job.

The costs for the deconstruction are also over budget. Figures.

Also, the City isn't ready to attribute the death of Cesar Borja to his work at Ground Zero. That isn't surprising since the science and medical community is still trying to pin down the epidemiology. However, the FDNY is preparing new treatment plans for those firefighters suffering from ailments believed to be related to Ground Zero.