Ground Zero Rush Response Followed By Site's Painstaking Cost Recovery
This summer, New York City officials turned over control of the former World Trade Center site to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. With its original debris removal mission done, the city's Dept. of Design and Construction is now enmeshed in reconstructing the project's complex paper trail and in seeking final reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
By year's end, New York City officials hope that the massive reconciliation of the estimated $500-million Ground Zero cleanup job will be complete. The city has already paid 85% of all unreconciled invoices billed and is holding the rest, says William Cote, a consultant who has managed World Trade Center administration for DDC since last September. "Everyone will be made whole," he insists. "But we are caretakers of public monies."