A joint venture titled Phoenix Constructors has won a $1.1-billion contract to build a new transit center at Ground Zero in Manhattan. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey announced Jan. 26 that it awarded the contract to a team of Skanska, Fluor Enterprises, Granite-Halmar Construction and Bovis Lend Lease, says Steve Coleman, port authority spokesman. Designed by Santiago Calatrava in conjunction with DMJM + Harris and STV Group Inc., the station will serve the Trans-Hudson subway that runs between New York City and New Jersey and also New York City subway lines via underground passages linking to the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys Fulton Street Transit Center. Up to 250,000 daily riders are ultimately expected to use the station.

Rendering of Santiago Calatravas New York City transport center.(Photo courtesy of Port Authority of New York & New Jersey)

The contract, scheduled to begin later this year and finish in 2009, includes construction management oversight of $1.1-billion in construction. This includes the building of the glass and steel station, which will feature two wing-shaped sections rising about 150 ft above the ribbed-arch retractable roof. It also involves an underpinning project that will consist of installing minipiles and structural steel framing within and around the subway box in order to create a support structure. According to the Port Authority website, (www.panynj.gov) crews will install cores into the subway box roof and invert to facilitate installation of minipiles between the tracks and through the platform areas. Drill rigs will then be positioned on the subway roof to auger a passageway for the minipiles to be installed to the rock subsurface. Structural framing will then be installed to connect to the minipiles and existing subway box framing, allowing the subway box to eventually be supported by the framing.