Is There a Good Reason Why It's Taking So Long to Rebuild the World Trade Center?
Not according to this Time mag story:
Even given its size and complexity, the World Trade Center has taken an unusually long time to rebuild. If everything goes according to plan, the site won't be finished until 2016. That's nearly 8 years longer than the initial projections offered by New York's then governor George Pataki in 2003. To give you an idea of how long that is, the original towers were completed in just five and a half years.
"It's easy to ask, 'What's taking so long?'" says Chris Ward, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, "but it's harder to say, 'O.K., this is how we build it.'" The World Trade Center construction site is a $20 billion venture — according to Ward, it is the biggest public-construction project that has ever been undertaken in the U.S. It is a vastly complex partnership between the Port Authority, a bistate government organization that oversees the regional transportation between New York and New Jersey; a private real estate developer named Larry Silverstein; and dozens of smaller companies and organizations that have been brought on to help design, build, fund and oversee everything from the subway and commuter-train center to a performing-arts venue. The site has suffered repeated delays, budget overruns, design changes and several serious lawsuits. After 9/11, it took nearly a year and a half for the city to even decide upon a rebuilding plan.
According to the Wikipedia, the original WTC complex (not counting building 7) took about 4 1/2 years to build once construction began. If it comes down to believing Time or the distributed intelligence of Wikipedia…well, you do the math.
Reason's Matt Welch was in Manhattan on the 10th anniversary. Read his take here.
Reason.tv's Meredith Bragg and I on "9/11, The World Trade Center, & New York's Next Skyline":
