9/11: Ten Years Later

It was literally a bolt from the blue. The skies over New York City were a crisp bright blue with nary a cloud in a sky. It was a morning full of promise.

New Yorkers were heading to the polls to vote on the next mayor of the city. People were talking baseball and the upcoming football season. All while the region was stirring for the day ahead, al Qaeda's terrorists were already on board four jets bound for New York and Washington DC and had already overpowered the crews.

I was on a NJ Transit train with my dad when I first noticed something wrong at the WTC out of the corner of my eye; it was smoke coming from the upper reaches of the tower.

It was just around 8:45.

The world changed, and I didn't quite realize it.

People watching the morning news didn't know it either at first. But they would soon be glued to broadcasts that showed the horrors of the worst terror attacks ever perpetrated.

The damage done on that morning was nearly impossible to comprehend. In the mere blink of the eye, nearly 3,000 people were condemned to death and the World Trade Center would soon be reduced to a pile of rubble that burned for weeks on end. But the death rattle of the Twin Towers would continue for nearly two hours and victims trapped above the fires had to make the choice to stay and choke on the heat and smoke or jump to a certain death. All too many make that decision to jump. Firefighters on the ground also succumbed before the towers fell - falling debris hitting firefighters and fleeing people alike.

Victim Number One would be there to comfort those who fell. Rev. Mychal Judge of the FDNY was comforting fallen firefighters and office workers alike when he was struck and killed by debris. So many people inside the Department and around the City thought so highly of him that he was honored as the first victim of the attacks - so that he could comfort and aid all those many others who were murdered on that day - to guide them to Heaven.

All too many would unfortunately follow him - and not by their own choice.

Lower Manhattan was engulfed in smoke and debris as the towers fell. Emergency personnel, still choking on the dust that would swirl through Lower Manhattan for days and weeks to come, quickly moved to seek to help those who may have been trapped beneath all the rubble. They formed bucket brigades, moving debris a handful at a time. Occasionally, the remains of a victim would be discovered and crews would solemnly remove the remains.

There were moments of heroism all around, and not just from emergency personnel. MTA subway workers made important decisions independent of their superiors to evacuate passengers from areas around the World Trade Center saving countless lives in the process.

Emergency personnel would be at Ground Zero around the clock for weeks on end before officials would claim that the site had officially been cleared of remains. Many of them would later become ill from the effects of breathing in all the dust and debris that was pulverized by the collapsing towers, and it is one of the sadder chapters from 9/11 that we are still burying victims of the attacks to this day, including James Zadroga (even as some medical experts dispute that Zadroga died of exposure at Ground Zero.

People who risked their lives to save others and to help families who lost loved ones find remains of the victims are themselves victims of the attacks. The Zadroga Act isn't perfect by any means and it has come too late for some, but it's a start to compensate and aid families of responders who are suffering from all manner of ailments (but not cancer to this point) attributed to Ground Zero exposure.

We cannot allow petty political differences prevent the delivery of critical aid to these emergency personnel and those who selflessly strode into the unknown to help provide rescue and recovery from the debris of Ground Zero all while environmental agencies proclaimed the air was safe to breathe - it wasn't.

Even after the fires were being put out and officials claimed that the site had been cleared of remains, it turns out that victims' remains would be discovered months and even years thereafter on buildings surrounding Ground Zero including the rooftop of the former Deutsche Bank building. The death toll, which was once feared to be more than we could bear - in the tens of thousands, would eventually drop to around 2,742 at the World Trade Center. That count may rise once again as more and more emergency personnel working at Ground Zero succumb to ailments attributed to exposures at Ground Zero.

Efforts to quench the pile and enable crews to begin searching for remains was an all but impossible task in the immediate aftermath of the attacks since most of the water mains in the area were destroyed by the collapsing towers. That meant that the heavy lifting had to be carried out by FDNY fireboats supported by the John J. Harvey, a retired fireboat with a civilian crew. The Harvey, alongside the city's two active fireboats pumped water nearly continuously over the next several days as crews raced to repair fire hydrants to get more water on the fires. Just a few years earlier, the Harvey was set to be scrapped but for the new owners who restored the boat.

Since then, the City has received funds to buy new fireboats, and there are reports of teething problems since the two fireboats (The 343 - in honor of the 343 firefighters killed on 9/11 and the Firefighter II) were christened on September 10, 2010.

Thomas Franklin, the Record's photographer who caught perhaps the most famous photo after the collapse (the firefighters raising an American flag that harkened back to the famous Iwo Jima flag raising) has put together a series of photos and recollections of his own along with other photographers who were witnesses to history.



Video footage has encompassed nearly every aspect of the attacks, but every now and then new footage shows up that presents a different vantage of the attacks.

Even nearly 10 years after the attacks, new footage has come to light as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request for NYPD footage taken from a helicopter circling the World Trade Center in the critical moments before the towers collapsed. That video mirrors photos taken by NYPD Aviation Unit Detective Greg Semendinger, who took more than 300 photos (film and digital) during the course of the day. NIST released those photos in 2010 as part of another FOIA request.

More recently, FEMA released video taken on 9/11 and the rescue efforts beneath the fallen World Trade Center, including investigating tunnels, the PATH station, the shopping mall, and other areas for survivors or victims.



And then, just in the past week, new video has surfaced from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, showing the smoke plume from when Flight 93 crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers rose to fight off the hijackers and crashed the plane into the countryside rather than allow the terrorists to fly into their presumed target, which was either the Capitol building or the White House.



The National Flight 93 Memorial is being dedicated on Saturday and opening to the public on Sunday, after temporary memorials marked the spot where Flight 93 crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers learned the fate of the other hijacked airliners and chose to fight than see another national landmark attacked.


Coming full circle, just this past May 1, 2011, the world learned that the United States finally caught up with Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. In a daring raid on a compound near Pakistan's military academy, US special forces killed bin Laden and captured a treasure trove of intel that will help the intelligence community and military plan further campaigns against the terrorists who did so much damage. 

Yet, all those events of this past May and the celebration and reflection pale in comparison to what happened on that fateful day and the nearly 3,000 people murdered across New York, Washington DC at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Here are remembrances of a few of those killed on 9/11, as written by my friend legalbgl for Project 2,996:
Captain Patrick J. Brown (2010).
Hagay Shefi (2009).
Alison Marie Wildman (2008).
Daniel Thomas Afflito (2007).

In addition to all the people who will be sorely missed, we also lost a cultural touchstone when the Twin Towers came down. From the moment they poked out over the surrounding skyscrapers and raced towards the sky, Hollywood used them as a backdrop on everything from a remake of King Kong to a montage/cut scene for the television show Friends. The following video shows a bunch of movies that included the towers in the fore- or background:

Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

(Special thanks to Donna Grunewald for her extensive list) http://wtcinmovies.tripod.com/chrono.html

Here's another video, from the movie Godspell, which concludes atop the still under construction WTC:


The band Depeche Mode even did a video Enjoy the Silence atop the outdoor observation deck at the WTC.

Even today, there are movies being released that reference the Twin Towers or use footage relating to the Towers.

Like all those killed on 9/11, the towers will be missed even if they were not the architectural gems that critics wished for. They were meant to be impressive and to impress upon the sky a sense of grandeur and permanence. What we had for 10 years was a profound sense of absence, and its successor with 1WTC will recapture only part of that.

We will have a new memorial and we will have new skyscrapers and architectural and engineering wonders at Ground Zero.

And yet, the site will always be tinged with sadness.

The skyline will never be the same.

Neither will our hearts, which are heavy with the loss and supreme sacrifices made on 9/11 by the rescue personnel who bravely rushed up the towers even as people were racing to get out of the towers or gasping as people were forced to jump to their deaths to avoid being burned alive in the fires that racked the towers.

For my prior year recollections and postings, see September 11, 2010, September 11, 2009,  September 11, 2008, September 11, 2007, September 11, 2006, and September 11, 2005.

A Perimeter Walk Around Ground Zero

The tour starts outside Engine 10 located on the South side of Ground Zero. We're looking North across the WTC memorial and towards 1WTC. The World Financial Center is in the background:

This photo shows from left to right, the Goldman Sachs building (just outside Ground Zero to the NW), the Freedom Tower (1WTC), 7WTC, and 4WTC. The low-slung brick-faced building in the center is Fiterman Hall.

Crossing West Street, this is a view from the SW corner of Ground Zero and you can see across the Memorial Plaza and the WTC Museum protruding in the background. In the foreground, exhaust ducts for PATH and other underground facilities are clad in stainless steel:

1WTC as viewed from West Street looking North:



Looking back towards the SE corner of Ground Zero, you can see where the former Deutsche Bank building once stood and where the Vehicle Security Center facility is underway:


Taken from inside the World Financial Center, this shows the underground connector that will take commuters from the WFC into the PATH Transit Hub and then across to the Fulton Street Transit Center via the Dey Street Connector:


Looking up at 1WTC from 7WTC. You can see the service elevators and the side-mounted crane that is at the corner of Vesey and West Street:

A close up of the new Fiterman Hall. It isn't actually clad in brick, but rather in concrete panels that have been made to look like brick. The panels were hoisted into place and the building is starting to be sealed with window installation that began over the past two weeks:

All photos were
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The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 141

There's a pretty frenetic pace of work going on around Ground Zero these days.

The Freedom Tower continues rising. The glass exterior is keeping pace with the rising steel, and scaffolding has now appeared on the mechanical spaces from the 10-20 story level, which means that those spaces will soon get their cladding.

Fiterman Hall is getting its outer skin and windows. While the exterior appears to be glass and brick, the brick was installed in large panels so that there wasn't any actual bricklaying on site.

Even work on the foundations for 2WTC are underway.

The Port Authority is even working on leasing arrangements for the retail space that will occupy significant portions of the underground space in and around the PATH Transit Hub. It's working out a deal with Westfield Properties that began with talks in 2008 to fill the space:

These sources said the Port wants to know by mid-fall if it can seal a deal with Westfield. That would give the agency enough time to either find another partner or move forward by itself in developing a plan for the approximately 360,000 square feet of retail space that will be initially built at the site. Roughly 200,000 square feet of that space is in the Calatrava transit hub, which is slated to open in 2014.

In 2008, the Port Authority and Westfield signed a letter of intent whereby the Port agreed to provide approximately $825 million toward the $1.45 billion project, with Westfield providing the other $625 million. However, that deal was based on projections of about 488,000 square feet of retail space. That total has shrunk, in part because there are no immediate plans to build one of Larry Silverstein's three towers.

Meanwhile, a federal circuit court ruled that the Port Authority can be sued by Con Ed and its insurers over the collapse of 7WTC on 9/11. A lower court judge, Alvin Hellerstein, had precluded Con Ed's suit, claiming that the terms of the lease prevented Con Ed from suing the Port Authority on a negligence claim.

However, a portion of Hellerstein's decision was upheld, relating to Con Ed's failure to provide timely notice on certain claims.

"In short, we conclude it was error to read the parties' lease as precluding claims by Con Edison against Port Authority premised on Port Authority's negligence in connection with the construction of 7WTC or the installation of the diesel fuel tanks in the building," the appeals court order said.

But the order upholds the lower court judge on the more general negligence claim, saying Con Edison had not properly notified the Port Authority of its intention to sue on those grounds.

Overall, this ruling opens up the Port Authority to significant financial liability and stems from claims that the Port Authority had improperly allowed its tenants (the New York City Office of Emergency Management) to place diesel fuel tanks used for back-up power, and that the burning tanks had accelerated the collapse of the building late in the afternoon of September 11.

Also, the special master under the Zadroga Act has expanded the geographical area of coverage, but that doesn't satisfy all those who claim to be affected as it excludes areas in Chinatown and Brooklyn where dust and debris came down.

UPDATE:
From the Port Authority site:

1 WTC Construction Status

Steel has risen to the 70th floor.
Installation of glass curtain wall has risen to the 44th floor
Installation of concrete floors has risen to the 64th floor
Installation of podium glass will begin in 2012 to allow for construction activities and deliveries to proceed in this area.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 95

Scott Pelley of CBS News takes an in depth look at the situation at Ground Zero and calls it an outrage that the situation isn't as far along as it should have been. It's a situation that I've been detailing for years. Welcome to the party pal. Where have you been? CBS News has offices uptown, but they most certainly know that Lower Manhattan is still missing the towers at Ground Zero as promised. This isn't a surprise.

What is a surprise is that it took CBS News years before they sent 60 Minutes to Ground Zero to take a look at the sorry state of affairs that I've been cataloging since before I started blogging it on A Blog For All. It's a disgrace that the Port Authority is passing the buck and blaming Larry Silverstein for delays when the Port Authority is years behind on its own schedule for rebuilding the transit hub and repeatedly delayed handing over the site in a condition suitable for rebuilding.

Silverstein had sued the Port Authority for $2.75 billion over the delays and while the court found that the Port Authority had indeed repeatedly delayed handing over the site in accordance with prior agreements, Silverstein was not entitled to damages.

Moreover, the LMDC, a public entity, has still been incapable of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building that was severely damaged on 9/11 and it was only a few short months ago that Fiterman Hall was finally demolished after it stood hulking over the triangle in front of the newly rebuilt 7WTC, which Silverstein had rebuilt within three years time.

Each delay builds on the next, which is why fanciful schedules and timelines claiming that various components of the rebuilding will be completed come with expiration dates and probability charts. More often than not, the Port Authority will not make its deadlines, pushing the rebuilding even further into the future.

The lack of urgency in rebuilding is still omnipresent. The failure to obtain sufficient funding for this shovel ready project is also astounding. At a time when the federal government is throwing hundreds of billions of dollars around to stimulate the economy, where's the money to help rebuild Ground Zero? 4 WTC was pretty much canceled last week because of a lack of financing, which is simply unconscionable. That means that should the building be reconsidered at some point in the future, it will mean a far higher cost and inconvenience to those who commute through the site to say nothing of those who live and work in the area who have to deal with the ongoing construction that will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 65

This is especially troubling and disconcerting news, even though there had been rumblings that the Port Authority would go in this direction.

The Port Authority is now seriously considering building what can only be politely called stumps of two of the office towers that were set to grace the Eastern side of Ground Zero. These two towers, which were to be designed by world famous architects Richard Rogers and Sir Norman Foster, are apparently on the chopping block in more ways than one. The excuse is that they don't want to build out 10 million square feet of office space, and are instead proffering an option that builds 5 million square feet (the original WTC complex contained 10 million sf when it was destroyed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11).

Bludgeoned by recession and a war with developer Larry Silverstein, the Port Authority is proposing halving the office space it will build at Ground Zero - from 10 million square feet to 5 million, sources familiar with the plan say.

The sources say the agency's new vision for the site calls for scrapping one tower that would have been taller than the Empire State Building and nixing two others that would have dwarfed the nearby Woolworth Building.

In place of two Silverstein behemoths, each designed by a British lord and soaring 79 stories, the PA would erect a pair of short, squat buildings no taller than four or five floors - coined "stumps" - that could be used for retail shops, according to the proposal.

The vastly scaled-back site plan was disclosed to The News hours before Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Friday branded budget-busting delays and cost overruns at the 16-acre site an "embarrassment to our city, our state and our nation."

For a change, I actually agree with Silver. It is an embarrassment. Of course, Silver deserves some of the blame for that, by refusing to push the Port Authority and the State to get construction moving years earlier than it eventually did. Silver has been an obstructionist on major city projects for years, including the Hudson Yards project (which would have resulted in major office building development on the West Side), and various other projects unless he benefited politically.

Now, Mayor Bloomberg is holding a summit on the Ground Zero rebuilding, including all the major players.

Expect Larry Silverstein to be thrown under the bus, despite the fact that he's the only one to have built anything of permanence on the remains of Ground Zero. His 7WTC is a stark reminder of the failings of the LMDC, City, State, and Port Authority. Yet, all too many people are looking to blame Silverstein for the impasse, even though the Port Authority still hasn't turned over the site for 3 and 4 WTC to Silverstein to build and the former Deutsche Bank building wont be demolished until 2010 delaying the ability to access the site and construct the vehicle security center that will service the entire site.

Also, with all the trillions thrown around by the Obama Administration, no one can seem to find the money to make sure that the construction at Ground Zero can proceed without worrying about the money woes? Silverstein's construction efforts are hampered by the inability to secure credit. He's been trying to get the Port Authority to provide the credit, which hasn't been forthcoming.

If the Administration (and the state and city) want to make sure that Ground Zero doesn't remain a perpetual construction site, make the loan commitments to Silverstein and get out of the way so that he can rebuild.

Massive Fire Breaks Out in Beijing Skyscraper

A major fire broke out at China's CCTV complex, which was one of the featured buildings in the Beijing skyline during last year's Olympics.

A fierce fire engulfed a major new building in Beijing that houses a luxury hotel and cultural center on Monday, the last day of celebrations for the lunar new year when the city was ablaze with fireworks.

The building was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and is part of China Central Television’s new headquarters, an angular wonder of modernist architecture that sits astride the city and was built to coincide with the Beijing Olympics last year. The CCTV building was a hugely expensive trophy of Beijing’s pre-Olympics building boom, costing millions of dollars, and any damage is likely to be embarrassing for the ruling Communist Party.

The fire was burning from the ground floor to the top floor of the large building, the flames reflecting in the glass facade of the main CCTV tower next to the hotel and cultural center. The 241-room Mandarin Oriental hotel in the building was due to open this year. Flames were first spotted around 7:45 p.m. and within 20 minutes the fire had spread throughout the building, dominating that part of the city.

That suggests that the sprinkler systems were not operating properly, or were overwhelmed. Either scenario isn't good news, and there are reports of debris falling onto the streets below.

Here's the video:



You'll note the appearance of fireworks in front of the fire, and it's not clear whether fireworks had anything to do with the fire.

This is a developing situation.

UPDATE:
CNN has additional video from closer to the scene.

UPDATE:
Here's more detail on the Mandarin Oriental hotel that was scheduled to open in the affected building. It's the building on the left in the artistic rendering.

Other reports are indicating the fire may have started because of the fireworks display in the vicinity. The CCTV complex, including the affected building were designed by Rotterdam, Netherlands, architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren for the firm OMA. The hotel building also included restaurants, visitors center, a theater and exhibition spaces.

UPDATE:
The conspiracy freaks think that this fire and that the building has not collapsed as yet is somehow proof that something nefarious happened at 7WTC on 9/11. Yes, something nefarious did happen on 9/11 - airlines destroyed the Twin Towers and the falling debris from the towers damaged key structural members and the resulting uncontrolled fires led to the collapse hours after the rest of the complex.

Here's another video:


UPDATE:
It appears that firefighters have knocked down the fire:



The cause remains under investigation.

Photo of the Day

 

7WTC catching the light of midday.

This is my call for the best and brightest from around the Web.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 46

Today is a pretty important day. Two major reports have either been released or will be released today. The first deals with the Deutsche Bank building fire, which killed two firefighters and has caused innumerable delays in the construction timetables.

 

The report indicates that workers at the building waited 13 minutes before reporting the fire. The 176 page report blames the contractor, John Galt Corporation, the FDNY and Buildings Department, among others for a series of failures that led to the deaths of firefighters Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia.

The report reveals the building was being taken down even though there was no demolition permit for the tower.

The city Department of Buildings was allowing the tower's owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., to proceed with the work using only an alteration permit, which carries less strict inspection requirements.

While it makes note of the slew of building-code violations at the site - including blocked stairwells and doorways - it also points a finger back at the FDNY, acknowledging fire inspectors failed to conduct inspections that could have discovered the standpipe, which gets water to high floors, was broken.

That forced firefighters to improvise by running hoses up the side of the tower.

The report also focuses on other problems firefighters faced, including difficulties with their oxygen masks and radio communications.

Graffagnino's self-contained breathing apparatus had run out of its 45-minute air supply, the report said, while Beddia had removed his face mask even though he still had five to eight minutes of breathable air. Both died of smoke inhalation.

The report says there were a total of 14 mayday and 19 urgent signals during the fire, not all of which were heard in the confusion.

The report has been forwarded to the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Expect charges to be brought against the John Galt Corporation, which helped create the dangerous conditions. Also, the LMDC should get thoroughly gutted, since they were the owners of record at the time of the fire and permitted the construction to proceed in a manner that was dangerous and threatened the lives of those inside the building as well as pedestrians outside.

The FDNY isn't blameless either, given that they should have been conducting regular inspections of the building - any of which would have discovered the standpipe had been severed and was missing 40 feet in length. Had that condition been revealed, firefighters would never have been placed in the building without proper water support. The Buildings Department also didn't issue demolition permits, instead provided an alteration permit. That allowed fewer inspections to take place.

Meanwhile, the second report is being issued by NIST over the collapse of 7WTC on 9/11/2001. That report is being issued later today. Expect the troofers - those that believe that there was a conspiracy to destroy the building - to be out in force. They've been quite busy trying to ignore the facts and logic (physics, chemistry, engineering, etc.) to claim that 7WTC was purposefully destroyed on the afternoon of 9/11. They ignore the massive damage done to the building when the Twin Towers collapsed and the raging fires that were not contained because firefighting crews were told to pull back for fear of further collapses from the WTC buildings, to say nothing of the hundreds of missing firefighters and killed in the collapses. Screw Loose Change has been on top of the conspiracy nuts and will likely have additional coverage today. Jammie is also on the prowl.

While 7WTC has been rebuilt into a gleaming new tower with the most modern amenities and safety and security engineering, the Deutsche Bank building remains a hulking reminder of 9/11.

UPDATE:
It was a fire, not an explosion that brought down 7WTC. Uncontrolled fires in the building for hours weakened key structural members that failed under the stress (fire weakens steel, allowing it to bend and stretch).

“Heating of floor beams and girders caused a critical support column to fail,” said Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator. “Video and photographic evidence combined with detailed computer simulations show that neither explosives nor fuel oils played a role in the collapse that brought the building down.”

No one died when 7 World Trade Center fell, nearly seven hours after the twin towers came down. But the collapse of the adjacent tower — once home to branch offices of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service and to the Giuliani administration’s emergency operations center — is cited in hundreds of books and Internet sites as perhaps the most compelling evidence that an insider secretly planted explosives, intentionally destroying the tower.

It is the first skyscraper in modern times to collapse primarily as a result of a fire.

Mainstream engineers and government officials have rejected the speculation as ridiculous. But national polls have shown that perhaps as many as 1 in 7 Americans believe that the destruction of the World Trade Center towers was an inside job.

The investigators determined that debris from the falling twin towers ignited fires on at least 10 floors at 7 World Trade Center, which was about 400 feet north of where the city’s two tallest buildings once stood. The blazes burned out of control for six hours, as the city fire department, devastated by the collapse of the twin towers, abandoned its efforts to extinguish the fire, and the sprinkler system was incapacitated.

7WTC might have been the first major skyscraper to collapse as a result of a fire, but it is hardly alone.

The full report is here.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 45

The delays keep on rolling for the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building. The building was supposed to already have been razed, but a fire last August resulted in the deaths of two firefighters and a closer inspection of the demolition process. The building was supposed to have been demolished by July 2007. Then mid 2008.

That was still too optimistic.

We're now looking at summer 2009. We've got inspectors looking after inspectors, making this demolition project the most byzantine in the city with red tape. Jobs within the project that should take a few minutes are dragged out for hours as inspectors check every last bit.

Because of the stigma attached to the building following the deadly fire last year, every city agency that has a stake in the building is going by the book.

The cost for the demolition alone? $272 million.

The families of the two firefighters are still waiting for answers and justice.

Meanwhile, Fiterman Hall is in need of demolition as well, and that work has barely started. The LMDC website says that decontamination has been underway and deconstruction of the building should take place in late summer. Well, late summer is already here, and still no outwards signs of deconstruction.

Some of the problems at Fiterman are a direct result of the issues with the Deutsche Bank building, namely the decontamination of the structure followed by the razing. With increased scrutiny and multiple layers of inspections, the pace has slowed to a crawl.

At the same time, costs for the 9/11 memorial continue soaring and there is concern that the memorial will not be ready in time for the 10th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in history.

UPDATE:
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is contemplating racketeering and embezzlement charges against John Galt company in connection with last summer's deadly fire that killed two firefighters, Joseph Graffagnino Jr. and Bobby Beddia:

Among the issues being probed is that officials from John Galt Corp., which was subcontracted by Bovis Lend Lease to raze the tower, laundered millions of dollars through various shell companies, sources said yesterday.

Another is whether Galt the inspectors it hired ignored safety guidelines in dismantling the toxic building, including the removal of a standpipe necessary for getting water to the hoses.

The floors and stairwells were also littered with debris that created a maze-like hazard for firefighters.

The Aug. 18, 2007, blaze was sparked by workers smoking on the site and compounded by a confusing maze of environmentally sealed barriers along with the dismantled standpipe that left the firefighters without any water.

Also facing heat is the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. over its management - or mismanagement - of the job.

Investigators found that 40 feet of standpipe had been cut in the basement, which meant that there was no water that could be sent to firefighters in the building through the building's pipes. The FDNY and Buildings Department are also on the hook because they failed to conduct inspections of the building that would have found the unsafe conditions.

Today marks the one year anniversary of Beddia and Graffagino's deaths and the FDNY still hasn't released its own report on why the building wasn't inspected prior to the fire, even though a firehouse is stationed next door.

Meanwhile, CUNY is using Fiterman Hall to shake down the City; if CUNY doesn't get what it wants, they wont move forward on the demolition. It was never entirely clear why the building would need demolition if it was decontaminated like the other buildings around Ground Zero - like 100 Church and 90 Church next door. Yet, CUNY held out to raze the building because they wanted something shiny and new. So, the building remains shrouded in a perpetual stupor and a blight on the North side of Ground Zero.

UPDATE:
Here are a bunch of photos I took earlier today of the Deutsche Bank building and Fiterman Hall. The first two photos are of the Deutsche Bank building and the sidewalk shed designed to protect people from falling debris (an all too frequent occurrence at the building). The second two photos are of Fiterman Hall and the square that fronts 7WTC:

 

 

 

 

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 43

This is an excellent overview of the situation at Ground Zero as it stands today, and what we have to look forward to in coming months.

Most disappointing is the fact that the Deutsche Bank building and Fiterman Hall remain as hulking reminders that we haven't even completely the deconstruction of those buildings slated for demolition due to their damage and contamination from the collapsed WTC buildings. Without the Deutsche Bank building cleared, work cannot begin within the Ground Zero's 16 acres in earnest.

Also, note that the article points out that the costs are rising 1% a month due to inflation and materials costs. That means that the currently budgeted $15 billion is sure to rise well beyond that figure within months. It once again highlights why delays early in the process and working within the constraints of the flawed Libeskind master plan led to delays and further problems and revisions.

It further highlights the problems associated with still more revisions and alterations to the plans that will result in added costs above and beyond what is already projected.

Meanwhile, Larry Silverstein continues to lease what remaining space is left at 7WTC. He's just signed a big deal with HSBC for 280,000 sf on the top seven floors of the building. That's more than 15% of space in the building, and is a major catch for the building going forward.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 38

The Port Authority has completely botched things to date, but starting from scratch or trying to rebuild the towers means still more delays and further costs that spiral out of control.

Of course, anyone who's been reading my blog for any length of time has known this.

None of this should come as a surprise. None of this should be shocking.

Still, the revelations from the past week are getting people to look at the site anew. The Post thinks the plan should be scrapped altogether.

I think that's only going to add to the delays.

The Port Authority answers to the governors of NY and NJ, and Gov. Corzine has pretty much given NY a free hand to handle things since Ground Zero is in Manhattan, but Gov. Corzine has been carping of late that the costs are going to start hitting NJ projects so he might want a bigger say.

Governor Paterson has ordered the Port Authority to conduct a top-down review of Ground Zero costs, which is a start, but it will only detail what we've known all along - the foot dragging and delays have sent the costs skyrocketing.

Larry Silverstein is the only person to get something rebuilt, and he was pushed aside by the Port Authority when they claimed he was being obstructionist. The facts speak for themselves. 7WTC stands, while Ground Zero remains a pit.

The Freedom Tower barely pokes above street level - a situation that has been unchanged for months. Look across the street at the Goldman Sachs building, and they built from scratch a building topped off a few weeks ago, even though it started well after Ground Zero.

Cost overruns continue every day work gets delayed.

The Port Authority did a tremendous job to get the temporary WTC station rebuilt in an amazingly short time, but since then, the Port Authority has lost focus and the bureaucratic mess has dragged on. The Port Authority isn't alone. The LMDC bears serious responsibility for the failures as well.

The delays pile up when you start to take into consideration that two other damaged buildings have yet to be dismantled - Fiterman Hall to the North, and Deutsche Bank to the South. The Deutsche Bank building is the key - that has to be demolished before the transportation center and screening center can be built to accommodate the bus and truck traffic to the site. It remains a hulking black blot on the skyline because the LMDC botched the demolition - resulting in two dead firefighters and several other serious injuries. Now, the EPA and other bureaucrats have decreed how the building is to be decontaminated and deconstructed, which pushes the timeline back further.

The memorial and all of the problems with the site go back to a woeful master plan done by Daniel Libeskind and chosen by Gov. Pataki despite better designs from Sir Norman Foster that would have honored the Twin Towers and given the site a sense of place and memory. That includes the idea to reintegrate the Ground Zero superblock into the street grid, which means that the space that can be devoted to memorials or office space are severely limited by running streets through the site - streets that will likely never be opened to car and truck traffic because of security concerns.

The best memorial would be one that sees the site built. Right now, we've got nothing but the second temporary PATH terminal and an open wound. 7WTC is built, but that's overshadowed by the empty sky.

While one can pine for rebuilding the Twin Towers, it simply isn't feasible. As Steve Cuozzo points out, Silverstein is ready to build the rest of the office towers at the site, and plans are ready for that to happen. The Port Authority has to get out of the way to make it happen. The Port Authority is already trying to unload the Freedom Tower onto a private developer - even as it forced Silverstein to give up that right just a few short years ago.

The problems at Ground Zero are largely the non-commercial areas - the transit hub, the memorial, Fiterman Hall, Deutsche Bank, and the Freedom Tower.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 36

For those hoping to see the 9/11 Memorial opened by the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, you're going to be in for a sad disappointment. Construction of the memorial, along with everything else at Ground Zero is continuing to fall behind schedule to the point where the schedules don't mean much at all.

The Port Authority is behind on getting the site turned over to Silverstein Properties for construction of 2, 3, and 4 WTC, while construction on the Freedom Tower continues to move at a snail's pace. The Deutsche Bank building and Fiterman Hall continue to stand despite the all too obvious need for their deconstruction for the site to move forward.

Indeed, the Port Authority ignored reports a year ago warning that the construction schedule was hopelessly falling behind.

Port Authority officials ignored private warnings a year ago that Ground Zero construction was far behind schedule - and that the Sept. 11 memorial would not be done in time for the terror attack's 10th anniversary.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. told the Port Authority's then-executive director, Anthony Shorris, and then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer that the PA's claims the work would be done on time were unrealistic, to say the least.

Memos obtained by the Daily News reveal that as early as last June, an engineering firm hired by the LMDC contradicted the authority's predictions in an in-depth review of the $16 billion Ground Zero reconstruction. The report was never made public.

In a December memo citing the report's findings, the LMDC warned Spitzer: "The original dates were never real and were driven and produced by PR people, not construction and engineering analysis."

The most shocking thing in the secret report was that construction of the WTC memorial was at least a year behind the Port Authority's claim that it would be done in time for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.

Construction at the site has lacked focus and the Port Authority has lacked urgency, though that too can be traced to the three governors who have overseen the site - starting with George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, and now David Paterson.

All three have taken an approach that has demanded little of the Port Authority to fulfill its promise to rebuild Ground Zero and to make sure that the key features of the rebuilding are done.

Further all those delays have real costs at the end of the day. The delays are adding billions to the cost of reconstruction, which means that some of the features have to be redesigned and scaled back, costing even more in the process.

More will be forthcoming later today as a scathing report is scheduled to be issued.

To put it bluntly, the Port Authority, the governors, and Mayor Bloomberg have all dropped the ball on the construction at Ground Zero. So far, the only person who has come through in fulfilling his promise to rebuild is Larry Silverstein who built 7WTC.

UPDATE:
The Wall Street Journal notes that the rebuilding will cost $3 billion more than prior estimates. Each delay causes a ripple effect of further delays and cost increases, for which someone will have to pick up the tab.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 35

Well, once again, the future of the Freedom Tower is in doubt. The Port Authority, already behind schedule and watching costs soar, is looking to unload responsibility for the Freedom Tower on some developer.

Steve Cuozzo reports that Brookfield Properties and Related Cos., have both been approached to take over the construction.

PA Chairman Anthony Coscia and Executive Director Chris Ward have recently had talks with Related Cos., the Stephen Ross-led giant that created the Time Warner Center and has been chosen to develop the West Side rail yards.

Earlier this year, sources said, the PA, advised by Deutsche Bank, made a similar pitch to Brookfield Properties, the publicly traded company that owns the World Financial Center. Reps for Related and Brookfield did not return calls.

With Brookfield, a source said, "The PA was a bit vague as to how it would work, but they basically wanted to privatize the Freedom Tower. But Brookfield didn't regard the project as economically viable."

PA officials declined comment. But insiders said the agency wants a developer to form a "partnership" that would reduce its risk while bringing in a company "fully knowledgeable in their core business of real estate development."

Because the PA owns the land, a transfer would likely take the form of a long-term lease.

It was understood that any developer jumping in would not start from scratch, but complete the $3 billion tower as it's currently designed.

You know, there is one guy who will probably step forward and get the job done, though he goes relatively unmentioned in the Cuozzo article. He's the same guy who the Port Authority ousted from that job even as work was starting to get underway.

That would be Larry Silverstein.

So far, he's the only one to get anything permanent built downtown on Ground Zero land. He built 7WTC, which is highly regarded, and is still awaiting the Port Authority to turn over land so that he can build 2, 3, and 4 WTC along the Eastern side of Ground Zero.

Watch for Silverstein to come to the rescue once again.

$2 Billion UN Renovation Underway

An ambitious $2 billion project to refurbish the aging U.N. building was launched yesterday with the ground-breaking for a temporary building on the northern lawn of the U.N. campus, east of First Avenue.

The project, scheduled to be completed by 2013, is designed to modernize the landmark headquarters, which first were occupied in 1952 and have not been refurbished since. Hazardous substances, including asbestos, are to be removed, while new safety features, updated telecommunications systems, and environmentally oriented devices will be installed.

Staffers will move for the duration of the construction project to several nearby office buildings, while the temporary building will host U.N. meetings.

One of the party favors handed out yesterday to guests — among them top U.N. officials and ambassadors, and Mayor Bloomberg's sister, Marjorie Tiven, a liaison between the city and the United Nations — was a gold-colored lapel pin in the shape of a shovel inscribed with the letters "U" and "N."

It's all well and good that the building gets necessary technological, safety, and security upgrades, but the cost is eye-popping considering that just a few years ago, the costs to do the same work were well under $1 billion. In fact, as I had noted in December 2006, the cost for the UN renovation of the Secretariat was going to exceed the construction cost for the brand new 7WTC. One has to wonder where all the money is going as US taxpayers foot a significant portion of the UN annual budget. Previously, I'd reported on the contracting for office space near the UN building for staffers.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 18

48 days late, but better than never, the Port Authority has handed over the East side of the Ground Zero site to Larry Silverstein so that Tower 3 and Tower 4 can begin construction.

he World Trade Center site's owner turned over land where two office towers are planned to a developer, clearing the way for construction to begin soon on more skyscrapers at ground zero.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey finished excavating the land for the towers on Sunday, 48 days behind a deadline it set for itself in an agreement with Larry Silverstein. The agency paid $14.4 million in late fees to the developer. It said it partially made up for the cost by not paying the contractor a $10 million bonus it would have received for finishing on time.

The Port Authority worked for more than a year to build 80-foot-deep foundations for two towers that Silverstein will build, removing nearly 400,000 tons of concrete, soil and rock. Silverstein had said that construction would begin on the towers within weeks after the land was turned over.

The Port Authority incurred nearly $15 million in late fees for missing its deadline to have the site prepped for Silverstein. That amount is offset by withholding a $10 million payment to the contractor who was preparing the foundations in the area for Silverstein.

Now that the foundation work is done, Silverstein can begin the actual rebuilding of Ground Zero along the Church/Greenwich Street corridor.

Still, there is little movement on the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building, which must come down for full development at Ground Zero to get underway since it is a key location for the security center for vehicles accessing the site underground.

Steve Cuozzo notes that the City needs this new office space, and space built elsewhere in the City to remain competitive globally. This, despite grumbling from some real estate experts who think that building on spec (without signed tenants) is not a good idea:

CBRE Regional CEO Mary Ann Tighe notes that 64 percent of Manhattan's towers will be more than 50 years old by 2010; nationally it's 24 percent.

That matters because companies that count most to the city's economy increasingly demand brand new buildings, not buildings 50 or even 10 years old. Only the newest locations offer the 14-foot "slab to slab" floor heights needed to install modern fiber optics, among other amenities.

Developers can improve lobbies and modernize heating and ventilation systems - but an older building is still an older building.

New York developers, landlords and brokers take comfort in a "disciplined" market where new buildings rarely go up without pre- signed tenants. It's a big reason why today's vacancy rate of around 8 percent is unlikely to mushroom out of control even in the event of large-scale Wall Street layoffs.

But that same discipline - instilled after the bear market of the early '90s pushed a few new, temporarily vacant Midtown buildings into foreclosure - is also our Achilles heel, stifling urgently needed new construction.

It's ironic that for all developers' (and banks') fears of speculative building, every spec project of the past dozen years has been a howling success.

Douglas Durst's 4 Times Square instantly lured Condé Nast and Skadden Arps. Tishman Speyer's 222 E. 41st St., and Kipp/Stawski's 505 Fifth Ave. took no time at all to fill up. Silverstein's 7 WTC is well on its way to being full.

UPDATE:
OSHA has handed down fines for the fire at the Deutsche Bank building against Bovis Lend Lease and John Galt Corp:

The 41-story building has stood beside ground zero as an ugly reminder of the Sept. 11 attack and the slow progress of rebuilding Lower Manhattan. The complex project, perhaps the most closely scrutinized undertaking of its kind, involved removing asbestos and other potentially toxic materials from the tower and tearing it down floor by floor. The deconstruction work had torn down the building to its 26th floor when the fire halted the project.

OSHA cited the two contractors for a total of $464,500 in proposed fines. They issued three willful and 22 serious citations to Galt, carrying fines of $271,500 and 2 willful and 17 serious citations to Bovis, with $193,000 in fines.

The agency defines a willful violation as one committed “with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.” A serious citation, according to the agency, is one in which “death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.”

The EPA has approved a new plan to deconstruct the building after decontaminating the entire building first. The plan previously used had both decontamination and deconstruction going on simultaneously on different floors.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 16

Steve Cuozzo is reporting that Santiago Calatrava and the Port Authority aren't playing nice over Calatrava's PATH hub design. Calatrava's trying to amend and append his original soaring vision, while the Port Authority hasn't exactly been commited to any design and is pushing value engineering (using cheaper materials and designs to hold costs, which continue to soar).

Gov. Eliot Spitzer is dithering as the Port Authority muddles along.

Cuozzo thinks that the starchitect ego is getting in the way of the project, but I think that if you've got a developer who has to face a bottom line, the project will get done. David Childs is no slouch in the ego department, and yet he worked with Larry Silverstein to get 7WTC built. Silverstein is working with Childs to get the Fredom Tower built, Robert AM Stern to get 99 Church built, and is working with Sir Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki to build 2, 3, and 4 WTC. Construction on the Ground Zero (2, 3, and 4 WTC) sites has been delayed because site preparation by the Port Authority's contractors have been behind schedule - costing the Port Authority $300,000 per day.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 15

While the MTA continues to screw the public with its downsizing of the Fulton Street Transit Center and the streets in the immediate vicinity of Fulton Street and Ground Zero remain a trecherous maze of construction cuts and sidewalk sheds, the private sector continues to show that business can get done downtown.

Leading the charge is Larry Silverstein. Once again, Silverstein shows that he has the moxie to get projects built downtown. His latest effort is 99 Church, just blocks from Ground Zero and his recently completed 7WTC. 99 Church will be designed by Robert A.M. Stern, and will feature New York City's second Four Seasons Hotel and hundreds of apartments in a dual use configuration. As Curbed notes, there are some interesting features:

3) At 80 stories when it tops out in 2010, 99 Church will be Manhattan's tallest residential building. There will be 143 condos, including full-floor penthouses.
4) The hotel lobby will be on Barclay Street, and will have four floors of hotel amenities space. The residents' lobby will be at 30 Park Place. A public plaza on the east side of the building will link Park Place and Barclay Street.
5) LEED certified! Larry, you hippie!

Silverstein has been pushing in the direction of LEED certification for a while, and incorporated many energy saving features into 7WTC.

Now, if only the MTA could take a page from Silvestein and get on the ball. Of course, given that it's the MTA we're talking about, the chances of that happening are slim and none.

UPDATE:
Gothamist reports on the Port Authority seeking bids on a new restaurant and concessionaire to operate the observation deck at the Freedom Tower (aka 1WTC).

UPDATE:
The JPMorgan Chase building, which is to go up at the Deutsche Bank building site, has apparently lost its beer belly - the cantilevered structure enabling large trading floor space.

Of course, there's no timeframe as to when the building will get built because there's no timeframe as to when the Deutsche Bank building demolition will be completed. It's already months behind schedule and threatens development elsewhere in Ground Zero.

UPDATE:
Maybe it's time for the City, MTA, and other concerned individuals to take the Fulton project out of the hands of the MTA and into those of someone who can get the project built. Grand Central Terminal wasn't built by a public authority, but by the New York Central Railroad. Penn Station was built by the Pennsylvania RR. The IRT, BMT, and IND built much of the NYC subway system. All were independent companies who put their own money, prestige, and efforts into building infrastructure that we either take for granted now, or wish we had back (Pennsylvania Station for one).

Silverstein has shown a commitment to rebuilding in Lower Manhattan and could be the right person to get the Fulton Street Transit Center built. If not him, then perhaps it should go to another major real estate developer who can develop the site and get it built. The MTA clearly has shown it cannot build infrastructure necessary to keep the City competitive and flowing smoothly.

UPDATE:
Curbed breaks with still more news. This time it's detailing some 1,700 new hotel rooms in the works or already being built around Lower Manhattan. That's a pretty serious commitment.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 14

Bovis Lend Lease is in serious trouble. After a worker was killed after a major accident at its Trump SoHo work site, investigators have uncovered a trail of problems that mirrors that which was found at the Deutsche Bank building, for which it was the general construction contrator. The company is one of the largest construction firms in the City, and has worked on major projects including the Time Warner Center.

If a fire had broken out in the Trump SoHo building, the site of a construction accident that left one person dead this week, firefighters would have been unable to access one of the standpipes to carry water to the upper floors, according to detailed list of fire safety violations at the site that was obtained by The New York Sun yesterday.

After the accident Monday, Department of Buildings inspectors issued the violations to a general construction contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, the same company that is under criminal investigation after a broken standpipe in the former Deutsche Bank building led to the death of two firefighters six months ago.

The standpipe carries water from firefighters' hoses to upper floors in the event of a fire.

In the August incident, the standpipe had been broken off in the basement of the building and exits were blocked, leaving firefighters battling a blaze with insufficient water and few escape routes out of the toxic ground zero building.

Despite these findings, the City wants to cut back on the inspection schedule for construction sites. How many people are needlessly put in jeopardy because of that policy? The city should be increasing its work-site inspections, not decreasing them during times of economic growth because of the possibilities that workers are cutting corners and that companies are not using safe work practices including putting workers who are inexperienced into positions that pose hazards to themselves and others.

Meanwhile, work continues at Ground Zero as a series of controlled explosions will take place today to speed along the excavations at the site. Here are some more photos of the site taken within the last few weeks. Construction is proceeding for the Freedom Tower, along with the bathtub work along the South and East side of where 3 and 4 WTC are to be built.

UPDATE:
If you were expecting the Fulton Street Terminal to be build by 2008, you've got another thing coming. You're not going to see construction completed until 2010 at the earliest. Nice. That's the MTA for you. Actually, given that this is the MTA, expect the budget to soar, and the one redeeming architectural feature to be squashed like a bug.

UPDATE:
The Survivors Staircase is about to begin the slow process of being relocated from its current position (where Tower 2 is to rise) to the 9/11 Memorial.

In August, Avi Schick, the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, proposed to extract the staircase whole from the surrounding concrete bulkhead, then reinstall it in the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at ground zero.

Preparations are under way to do just that.

By late February, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, expects to build a steel framework beneath the five-foot-wide staircase.

That will permit workers to isolate the stairs from the rest of the remaining Vesey Street structure, which includes a fragment of terrazzo paving from the Tobin Plaza, a sloping surface where two escalators once ran and an entrance to the Cortlandt Street station on the No. 1 subway line, which has been closed since 2001.

Besides the staircase, workers will salvage part of the plaza pavement. A plywood barrier and several columns from the subway station will be taken to Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport, where large-scale 9/11 artifacts are kept.

The rest of the structure will be demolished.

“You have to do it with an extraordinary amount of care,” said Stephen Sigmund, chief of public and government affairs at the Port Authority.

Once the staircase is atop its steel cradle, it will be jacked up and rolled to Vesey Street. It will stand opposite the small park outside 7 World Trade Center until it is lowered by crane to the museum’s principal floor, almost at bedrock.

UPDATE 1/18/2008:
The Port Authority has announced that they will be conducting more controlled blasts at Ground Zero to prepare the site for foundation work.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 13

Santiago Calatrava's transit hub may have its wings clipped according to some reports out of the Port Authority.

What matters most is whether the terminal's soaring, bird-like design will survive as Calatrava drew it.

Last week, Real Estate Weekly's Daniel Geiger quoted PA Commissioner Bruce Blakeman as suggesting changes might be in the works that would undercut Calatrava's vision.

Geiger wrote that the PA "is considering shrinking the dimensions of the station's glass pavilion and possibly also eliminating a mechanism that was to allow the structure's wing-like roof to retract."

It certainly wont be delivered on time - those same reports put the completion date in 2011, instead of 2009 as previously hoped.

Too much of the site remains mired in delays and controversy. The Port Authority continues to rack up $300,000 in penalties per day as they have failed to turn over the Eastern portion of the site to Larry Silverstein so that he can build 3 and 4 WTC. Every day of delays now means additional costs down the road as construction costs continue to increase due to demand both in the New York metro area and worldwide.

The Port Authority is also looking at ways to make construction at the site quieter. The sounds of jackhammers and other heavy equipment is taking its toll on nearby businesses and residences.

The Port Authority announced a six-point noise mitigation plan yesterday that includes reducing blasts from rock-breaking equipment, limiting the hours of really ear-splitting work to before 11 p.m. and soundproofing apartments facing the site within 100 feet. The agency will add jackhammer covers and stop whistle blowing below residential towers.

“We’ve been listening to you for quite some time on the issue,” Port Authority spokesman Glenn Guzi told the crowd at last night’s Community Board 1 meeting. “We know this is the right thing to do.”

But many felt the mitigation doesn’t go far enough. Residents who live beyond the hundred feet or whose windows don’t face the site want soundproofing, too. The area’s City Councilman Alan Gerson wants work stopped from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

“We’re trying to achieve severely limited heavy construction activity after 11 p.m.,” Guzi said, noting that the new windows should reduce noise by 80 to 90 percent. “Unfortunately there will be times when the work can’t stop by 11 p.m,” he said, citing the Port Authority’s missing a Dec. 31 construction deadline which is costing them $12,500 an hour.

The faster the construction is done, the sooner the disruption to local businesses will end. It is a conundrum since you can't finish the work quickly by restricting the hours, but you can't have the work disrupting the sleep of everyone living nearby for years on end.

Hellish Commute

This morning's commute by NJ Transit and PATH was anything but routine. First, there were problems on the Northeast Corridor due to downed wires, which meant trains were operating 30-60 minutes late. As I take the Bergen/Main line, this shouldn't affect my commute, but the announcements meant that those who transfer at Secaucus to New York Penn (including Mrs. Lawhawk) stayed on the train to go to Hoboken so that they could take PATH into Manhattan.

Little did we know that PATH service was shut down because of a track fire. The situation was first reported on the PATH website at 7:45 AM, and reported continually throughout the rush hour, but NJ Transit didn't get the memo and didn't report it to commuters heading into Hoboken:

1/3/2008 9:34:36 AM
Concerning the earlier track condition problem, train service on the Hoboken to 33rd Street line is operating with a 15 minute delay.


1/3/2008 9:33:33 AM
Concerning the earlier track condition problem, train service on the Hoboken to World Trade Center line is operating with a 15 minute delay.


1/3/2008 8:55:54 AM
Due to police activity, train service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street line is operating with a 15 minute delay.


1/3/2008 8:54:59 AM
Due to police activity, train service on the Newark to World Trade Center line is operating with a 15 minute delay.


1/3/2008 8:32:49 AM
Passenger Alert: Due to suspended service on the Hoboken to WTC and Hoboken to 33rd Street line passengers bound for World Trade Center or 33rd Street are advised to take the Hudson Bergen Light Rail to Pavonia Newport or Exchange Place to continue their trip on PATH.


1/3/2008 7:47:19 AM
Due to a track condition, train service on the Hoboken to 33rd Street line is suspended.


1/3/2008 7:46:31 AM
Due to a track condition, train service on the Hoboken to World Trade Center line is suspended.


1/3/2008 7:45:28 AM
Due to a track condition, train service on the Hoboken to World Trade Center line is suspended.

Had Mrs. Lawhawk and I known that PATH was suspended, we would have gotten off at Secaucus and taken the NE Corridor trains into Manhattan, which were running, albeit crowded to maximum capacity. The situation in Hoboken was intolerable and the directions given to commuters did little to actually rectify the situation as the other modes of transit were strained beyond capacity. The crushing mass of commuters made it nearly impossible to navigate Hoboken Terminal and get to where you could actually take their alternative suggestions.

NJ Transit dropped the ball by not informing commuters of the problems with PATH until you actually arrived in Hoboken.

Mrs. Lawhawk and I both backtracked from Hoboken to Secaucus, where we were able to catch trains into New York Penn within minutes of arriving there. 10 minutes later, we were in Penn Station and I arrived in work 45 minutes late.

This was my first time utilizing Secaucus Transfer, and it definitely came in handy in the crisis situation, although the half billion spent on the project could have been better used in upgrading the infrastructure on the NE Corridor including better catenary towers that power the NE Corridor.

UPDATE:
There were three separate fires affecting PATH service this morning.