NY Daily News
Port Authority says 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero will open in 2012
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 7th 2008, 1:51 AM
The World Trade Center Memorial will not be fully open to the public in time for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It won't even be finished.
Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward made that admission Tuesday at a City Council hearing on the status of the much-delayed Ground Zero rebirth.
Ward admitted the memorial plaza will open briefly for the historic observance - then be mostly shut down for construction for "about a year."
EARLIER: P.A. SAYS EXTRA $75M NEEDED TO FINISH MEMORIAL BY 9/11/11
It won't be until late in 2012, 11 years after the attacks, that visitors will at last gain full access to the heart and soul of Ground Zero.
"It would be wrong to have open access throughout the site" in the period between Sept. 11, 2011, and completion of the complex construction project, Ward said.
City Councilman Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan) pressed Ward to say when visitors could expect unimpeded access, asking, "Will any part of the site be generally open to the public to simply walk into without any prescheduling?"
Ward said that would be "unlikely."
The PA boss said the memorial plaza would open for the 10-year commemoration, which would be an epic event lasting days or weeks and drawing presidents and world leaders.
Twin waterfalls would thunder into two reflecting pools, the plaza floor would be finished and the parapets around the site would be inscribed with the names of the honored dead.
After the anniversary, below-grade construction would continue, the entrance pavilion would have to be built out, and plaza landscaping would be finalized.
Efforts would be made "to get some people onto the site," assuming safety and security issues could be addressed, Ward said. But he added, "You have to remember, it is going to be a construction site."
Joe Daniels, the president of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum, was more optimistic. "It is possible to have the entire memorial finished by the 10th anniversary, but if we can't get 100%, we'll get as close as we possibly can," Daniels said.
Meanwhile, there was a glimmer of good news as the PA said it had finally finished excavating the Church St. site of Larry Silverstein's Tower 2 and would turn it over to the developer later this week.
The agency has been paying fines of $300,000 a day since July 1, when it was supposed to hand off the site, meaning it has paid Silverstein some $29.4 million.
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