With World Trade Center cleanup progress well ahead of schedule, site management has begun its official shift to contractor-run operations. But cleanup participants are now anticipating, with some nervousness, the start of a fast-tracked reconstruction of damaged subway lines under the WTC site, while environmentalists howl over New York state plans to seek air quality waivers for new city transportation projects.

Bovis Lend Lease lmb, one of the WTC's four original prime contractors, is now moving into the site's lead management role, along with fellow site contractor AMEC. Bovis will have an approximate 60% management stake in the job, and AMEC 40%, says Paul Ashlin, Bovis vice president. Tully Construction Co. Inc., the third remaining quadrant contractor, will become a subcontractor responsible for most excavation and trucking operations, he adds.

BURIED Damaged PATH train under site debris awaits start of system rehab work. (Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR)

The city's Dept. of Design & Construction will remain at the top of the site pecking order, but its onsite staff will shrink from a peak of 70 to about 25. The agency's key executives in charge to date will remain, sources say. Bovis Senior Vice President James Abadie will become principal in charge, adds Ashlin. Bovis-AMEC will manage most payment and safety issues.

At least one site subcontractor says the new streamlined management structure will be beneficial. "It will make contractor payment issues uniform throughout," he says. "A sub for Bovis won't get a different answer than one for Tully."

Site executives now predict completion of virtually all cleanup work by Memorial Day. Close to one-third of 700 "essential" tiebacks have already been installed on the site slurry wall "bathtub," including three tiers along the southern side, says George Tamaro, principal of Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers. But he says crews may have to add 400 to 500 more on the bathtub's northern side because of unanticipated instability of WTC 6 building slabs caused by its demolition. "When they shook down [the building], it knocked out existing floor slabs when it came down, so there is less support of the wall," says Tamaro.

PROGRESS Site cleanup is now set for completion by the end of May. (Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR)

Coordinating excavation will become more of a challenge as the New York City Transit Authority ramps up efforts to rebuild the damaged 1 and 9 subway line, much of it under Ground Zero. NYCTA Chief Engineer Mysore Nagaraja says the agency wants the work completed by October on the line from Chambers St. to south of Rector St. An in-house design was set for completion by Jan. 15, with a contractor to be selected a month later. Earlier this month, the agency prequalified five potential contractors: Slattery Skanska, Schiavone Construction Co., the joint venture of Halmar/Granite, Tully Construction Co. and A.G. Pegno. "We picked the contractors based on their experience with us and their capacity to do this kind of work," says Nagaraja. Work could start as early as March.

But cleanup site managers worry about accommodating logistics of what could be a $200-million subway job, such as schedule and material storage. "They will need to be putting $1 million worth of work in place a day," says one. "There are a lot of issues associated with building a subway in lower Manhattan." Further challenges will come as the Port Authority begins rehabilitating its under-site PATH line tunnels, as early as next month.

Other issues include reaction to the state's plan for the four-year waiver from federal air quality rules for state transportation projects. Environmentalists say it would set a bad precedent. They raise concern about air quality in the Ground Zero area.