World Trade Center rises from the ashes

The focus of debate surrounding Ground Zero has shifted recently from reconstruction delays to other concerns, such as the proposed Islamic cultural centre to be built two blocks away.

But as the mosque debate rages, the World Trade Center construction site is booming. Trucks race in and out as more than 2,000 construction workers push the new towers skyward.

By the 10th anniversary of the disaster, a 9/11 memorial will be open at the site with more than 400 oak trees and two waterfalls at the foot of the space where the old towers were situated. These granite depressions will feature bronze panels with the names of all 2,982 victims of the attacks.

In the following few years, a subterranean museum, a transit hub, a performing arts centre and four new towers will open on the 16-acre site.

But the progress has come in the wake of lengthy political, security and financing delays, leaving elements of the site years behind schedule.

New York’s Port Authority has taken flack for slashing its reconstruction budget, which has led to delays in the years after the disaster.

The planned opening of the memorial one year from now will come at a time when the entire site was originally scheduled to be complete.

Construction speeds up

The overall project was pushed forward in 2008, with the looming possibility of the site being incomplete on the 10th anniversary. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, head of the memorial foundation, prodded the Port Authority to speed up construction schedules.

These new schedules have construction racing ahead. In the last year, two of four planned office towers have begun construction. The signature 1 World Trade Center, previously known as the Freedom Tower, is nearly 40 storeys tall, on its way to 106.

Two 20-metre columns salvaged from the wreckage of the north tower were moved back to the site from a hangar at Kennedy airport on Sept. 8.

The three-pronged columns, known as tridents, once made up the façade of the old building, and will be located in the museum.

The museum will also house the Last Column, another piece salvaged from the wreckage and stored at the Kennedy hangar. The steel beam, the last piece of standing steel to be removed from the rubble, was lowered into place in the future museum’s great hall in 2009.

The granite staircase that withstood the attacks and allowed hundreds to escape from Tower 2, known as the “Survivors Staircase,” will also be on display.

Unidentified remains salvaged from the rubble and biographies of victims will also be located in the museum, expected to be completed in 2012, part of 27,900 square metres of underground space at the site.

The Santiago Calatrava-designed transportation hub is expected to be completed in 2014, and will link underground walkways with subways and rail lines. The performing arts centre, designed by architect Frank Gehry, will seat 1,000 people.

At the north corner of the site will be the $3-billion 1 World Trade Center. It will be completed in 2013, and at 541 metres, will be the tallest building in the United States.