The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 22

The long saga of the Fiterman Hall deconstruction may finally be getting underway before long. The deconstruction has received approval from the federal EPA, which paves the way for deconstruction of this blight on Lower Manhattan:

The letter from the EPA arrived Friday, and Violette said the authority had its contractor, PAL Environmental, begin work as soon as possible. The cost of getting rid of the terror-scarred building is $16.3 million.

Violette said a crew of 30 was inside Fiterman Hall yesterday, installing decontamination units at all the building's entrances, showers for workers and plastic sheathing over windows to keep toxins inside.

The decontamination work will take four to six months.

"As soon as the decontamination work is done, we'll roll out the deconstruction phase. which will take another four to six months," Violette said.

The most recent delay in the project came after a fire at the Deutsche Bank building over the summer killed two firefighters. That building, south of the World Trade Center, was also undergoing a complex decontamination and deconstruction.

"We were ready to go back in July or August, the Deutsche Bank fire happened, and reasonably, everyone stepped back," Violette said.

FDNY spokesman Jim Long said the department was closely involved with all the recent planning to take down Fiterman Hall.

UPDATE:
This article in Crain's New York reminds me that the changeover will affect development projects around the state, including the rebuilding at Ground Zero. It's unknown what Paterson's views are on the rebuilding (let alone the pace of reconstruction), but we'll need to hear soon enough as construction begins to ramp up on 2, 3, and 4 WTC. Recall that the Governor of New York selects officials to administer the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Through his proxies, the governor gets to determine outcomes of construction in Lower Manhattan.

UPDATE:
Steve Cuozzo also writes about soon to be Governor Paterson's role in getting the situation resolved not only with the Fulton Terminal but Ground Zero to get both projects on track and moving forward to completion.