...raised by the New York City Police Dept. The museum project almost unraveled when one tenant, called the Freedom Center, came to loggerheads with victims’ families over content issues relating to patriotism and artistic freedom. Goldman Sachs planned, canceled and reinstated a scheme for a $2-billion office tower across Rte. 9A from WTC, in the Battery Park City development. The city’s Fulton Transit Center to the east, linking a nexus of subways to each other and, via a pedestrian tunnel, to WTC and BPC’s World Financial Center to the west, is being scaled down.
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Incentives. Surrounded by city and state officials, last month, Pataki signed legislation to draw businesses to lower Manhattan.

On the good news side, Gov. George E. Pataki (R) announced that New York would commit $1 billion to a transit link to lower Manhattan for the commuter Long Island Rail Road and a one-seat ride to JFK International Airport. On Aug. 31, Pataki also signed legislation into law that will provide tax incentives to new businesses to relocate and encourage existing businesses to recommit to the area. Pataki plans to set an example. He has announced that the governor’s office will move into the Freedom Tower.

Moving. Lower Manhattan’s future mass transit hub (above) broke ground on Sept. 12. (Photo courtesy of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)

With many of the political and community concerns addressed, "we are moving forward with rebuilding," says Charles A. Gargano, chair of the state’s Empire State Development Corp., the parent of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., and vice chair of the WTC’s landowner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As an example, Gargano cites the Sept. 6 groundbreaking for the mass transit hub at Ground Zero (ENR 9/12 p. 9). Within six months, $10 billion worth of work will start within three blocks of the WTC.

If anyone can keep things moving–and keep 10,000 to 15,000 construction workers from tripping over each other or worse–it’s Maikish, say many of those involved. "Charlie has a good grasp of what’s needed," says Gargano. "He is a good man for the job, with the necessary experience," he says.

Larry Silverstein, whose Silverstein Properties Inc. holds the commercial lease on WTC, calls Maikish "a very superior professional....To have his focus on construction coordination...is a plus." Silverstein’s support is important. He is developing the Freedom Tower; is about to announce the architect for 2 WTC; and next spring will be moving into the first tower to rise from Ground Zero, 7 WTC, (ENR 9/12 p. 37).

Heart. Ground Zero is the center of the plan. (Image courtesy of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, LLP)

Maikish, both a civil engineer and lawyer by education, often sounds as if he also is a philosopher and a psychologist–with street smarts. Some say he is a micromanager, as well. He likely will need all those qualities, and the cooperation of all parties, to successfully implement his coordination plan.

Maikish figures that in addition to up to 15,000 workers coming and going, there will be 2 million cu yd of concrete in about 200,000 truckloads. There also will be just-in-time delivery of thousands of tons of steel and tons of precast concrete. This will require staging, dispatching, receipt and placement of material, and orchestrated street closings. Something as insignificant as keeping trucks from idling becomes important for air quality. His group also is charged with aesthetic standards for barricades and construction fencing.

In about a year’s time, the center will reach 50 to 60 people, and stay that way through 2009, when construction is at its peak. Maikish expects to announce an "outside" general program manager in early October.

Though Maikish and his team will not build anything, they may create a consolidated batch plant, a central laydown area and provide a place to plan joint use of equipment. The command center may also include a central place to mobilize and dispatch labor.

The intent is to provide a central facilitator for construction–for anything that it makes sense to coordinate from a central place. "We need to demonstrate the efficiencies and potential cost savings of getting everyone to the table," says Maikish.

Funding for the center, which kicked off with $4.8 million for the first six months beginning in May, is from the Federal Transit Ad-ministration and several other sources. Though still gearing up, the center already has begun bi-weekly coordination meetings.

Maikish was a reluctant recruit to the job. In the end, he could not say no. "My role in life is creating or developing something, not operating something," he says.

As lower Manhattan’s construction coordination czar, he has the opportunity of a lifetime before him.