Yesterday marked the completion of the foundations for towers three and four at the World Trade Center site downtown. The Port Authority was forty-eight days late in delivering the locations to Larry (no relation whatsoever to this blogger) Silverstein and will be paying his company over $14 million in late fees. Considering he pays over $200,000 a day for the lease, the late fees are a drop in the bucket.
From the AP:
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey finished excavating the land for the towers on Sunday, 48 days behind a deadline it set for itself in an agreement with Larry Silverstein. The agency paid $14.4 million in late fees to the developer. It said it partially made up for the cost by not paying the contractor a $10 million bonus it would have received for finishing on time.
The Port Authority worked for more than a year to build 80-foot-deep foundations for two towers that Silverstein will build, removing nearly 400,000 tons of concrete, soil and rock. Silverstein had said that construction would begin on the towers within weeks after the land was turned over.[...]
The skyscrapers, all at least as tall as the Empire State Building, are expected to be built in the next four years. Construction is under way at the site on a 1,776-foot building called the Freedom Tower, a Sept. 11 memorial and a transit hub.
Hmm, the AP might want to do their homework a little better next time. Not all the skyscrapers are going to be as tall as the E.S.B. uptown. Tower 3 is expected to rise 71 stories and tower 4 will be a little shorter at 64 stories. That is a far cry from the 102 stories that the iconic building on 34th St. rises. Regardless, the new buildings will definitely add more substance to the downtown skyline sooner rather than later.
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