Starting at 7 a.m., they built a trough 18 inches high and 6 feet 3 inches wide out of thick wood planks. Cagelike frames of steel reinforcing bars, or rebar, will be set into the trough beginning today. Then concrete will be poured over the rebar.Of course, this news is tempered by the fact that there is a lawsuit still pending against the Port Authority over the placement and need for the expanded transit facilities that happen to cross through the footprints of the former Twin Towers. The lawsuit alleges that the Port Authority violated a federal law requiring that historic sites not be used for transportation projects unless there are no feasible or prudent alternatives.
That will form the footing of a seven-foot-high concrete retaining wall. The wall will hold about four feet of fill, on top of which ballast will be laid for a temporary PATH track, No. 6, alongside the future Platform D, the fourth and westernmost platform.
Currently, there are five tracks among three platforms, two of which occupy a corner of the south tower footprint, as they did in the original station. Platform D would take up more space in the south footprint and a tiny bit of the north footprint.
Once Platform D and Track No. 6 are usable, in early 2007, other tracks can be taken out of service temporarily to allow construction of the permanent terminal while commuters are traveling through the tubes to and from New Jersey.
I think the lawsuit will fail because there is only a limited way in which the tracks can be aligned within the bathtub and the existing tunnels to New Jersey and all of them happen to cross through the footprints. The new transit center is going to be bigger than the prior PATH station to take into account future growth, and that's going to be a plausible defense that might be sufficient to overcome the emotional argument that is really behind the families concerns.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.
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