as of two weeks ago.
T-1 - 1,776 feet.
T-2 - 1,350 feet.
T-3 - 1,250 feet.
T-4 - 975 feet.
T-7 - 752 feet, finished.
T-5 in about two or three years - courtesy of Deuchtesbank, which is now down two 8 stories.
I might retire after this one...
http://www.wtc.com/
http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/index.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wtcprogress
http://www.youtube.com/user/WTCProgress
"The Rest of the Story....."
The Port Authority agreed last week to commit to fully restore the World Trade Center site with the help of more than $1 billion in public financing and subsidies. For a while, it looked as if Tower Two was not going to be built (except for the portion below street level), as there is already doubt as to whether the other three towers can be filled with tenants in the midst of this recession and an office space glut in the New York real estate market.
As with everything that happens at Ground Zero, there was much political wheeling and dealing behind the scenes.
The Port made this announcement after a political deal was struck with the Governor of New Jersey. Governor Christie had threatened to veto additional funding to complete the WTC project if the Port Authority did not approve a project to raise the Bayonne Bridge to accommodate large container ships which would use the Port Newark container ship terminals.
The Port Authority has been studying ways to accommodate the larger ships once a widening of the Panama Canal is finished this decade. The Bayonne Bridge, which spans the Kill van Kull, the gateway to Port Newark, was opened in 1931 and joins Staten Island and Bayonne, NJ. Although it is the second longest arch bridge in the world (beating the Sydney Australia bridge by two feet, it was the largest until 1978), is only about 150 feet above the water level, and additional clearance is needed. Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said raising the bridge to 215 feet would be the best solution. Even now, some of the taller ships heading for Port Newark must wait until low tide to pass through to the Port.
(For movie buffs, this is the bridge that is destroyed in the first portion of the recent "War of the Worlds" with Tom Cruise. One of our field crews was working on the bridge abutment rehab project a few years ago and noted some Spielberg and Cruise sightings.)
There are two possible solutions. One is to use the existing steel structure, raise the two piers and roadway deck and shorten the cables. The other is to build a completely new bridge alongside the old one and then demolish it. The first option would gain about 35 feet and cost $500 million, the second would put the deck clearance at 200 feet and cost $1 billion.
So, the commitment of a billion dollars to cover the costs of building Tower Two has also committed between half a billion to a billion dollars for additional construction elsewhere in the Port.
Not to make this a political post, but not bad for a Governor who says he is committed to cutting spending, eh?
