The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 224

The bathtub slurry wall looks like it will be getting a wall of its own. A section will be preserved in its current shape and may allow visitors to reach out and touch it for a small section, the exact dimensions of which remain to be determined. The rest will be covered with an additional layer of concrete to stabilize the structure which is designed to keep the Hudson River water from seeping into the site.

The article also highlights additional timeline issues:

Despite delays involving the continuing search for human remains, the $510 million memorial “is on budget and on time,” said Anthony E. Shorris, the executive director of the authority, referring to its scheduled completion in 2010.

Joseph C. Daniels, president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, said that $253 million of the foundation’s goal of $350 million had been raised, “$120 million of it since last October,” he said.

Steel structure will begin rising from the ground at the memorial site in December, Mr. Plate said. Looking to the south, Mr. Plate said that managers hoped the dismantling of the shrouded former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street would also be finished next December.

It's good to see that the fundraising efforts for the memorial are underway in earnest and that construction will finally get underway.

I've found the advertisements in the PATH system relating to the memorial to be quite good - they show a photograph of an ad hoc memorial to the victims at Ground Zero and states that we needed a memorial then, and we need one now. That is a call that many people can agree upon, even if they can't quite agree on what the memorial is to look like.

This comes as yet more remains have been identified, including an Australian man who was one of 10 Australians killed in the attack. He had been visiting relatives and was on AA Flight 11 when it hit the WTC.

Here's a recap of what's happened thus far this year at WTC, and what is expected to happen for the rest of the year. Also, the design for the new temporary PATH station at the WTC has been unveiled. The existing temporary structure will be dismantled so that the permanent structure designed by Santiago Calatrava can be built. The new temporary structure will be built around the corner from the current location on Vesey Street.