The headlines about the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site usually include “arbitration,” “notice of dispute,” and “finally started” — with only the occasional mention of any good news. For the people involved with the construction of all the towers and public spaces at the 16-acre site, many of whom have been at it for close to a decade now, this can be particularly frustrating. Because they have been working, regardless of the squabbling between the 19 stakeholders — Silverstein Properties, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, ConEd, Verizon, and a host of notoriously slow city agencies that each have a say, and indeed a vested interest, in how the final version of the site will look and function.
“When people say there wasn’t a lot of momentum, it just wasn’t visible,” says Mel Ruffini, project executive for Tishman Construction, which is managing work on the towers 1, 3 and 4 at the World Trade Center Site. Ruffini has been working on the site since 2002, starting with 7 World Trade Center and has since worked on each of the other rising towers. “People don’t realize how large the work is below grade.”