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Construction progress slow at World Trade Center site

Just north of the perpetually delayed building projects at Ground Zero, a billboard-size banner proclaims "World Trade Center 2012." For many of the 500 construction workers who punch in every day at the sprawling site, the sign now reads like a joke.

"They'll need a new sign," one construction worker said.

As of now, there is no shimmering glass skyscraper, no museum or public gathering place. The site's major projects are years behind schedule. But with a report due out next month detailing ways to shave construction costs and speed the building, visible progress nevertheless has been made as the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches.

The foundation and footings for the memorial are in place, and steel for the structure is to arrive next month.

The Freedom Tower is no longer just a seven-story foundation. It has risen 25 feet above the street, which means the entrance will soon take shape.

Foundations for the office Towers 3 and 4 are finished, and the same work for Tower 2 is nearly complete.

From behind a chain-link fence on Liberty Street, visitors from all over the world gaze at the vast, dusty field of concrete, iron and steel. Down below, like ants on a mound, workers move dirt, align steel beams and mix cement. At the site, security is tight. Visitors must be accompanied, have their driver's licenses photocopied and are required to wear a hard hat.

The construction workers aren't to blame for the chronic delays. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has attributed them to skyrocketing budgets and overly ambitious construction timetables.

Next month's expected report from the Port Authority, which owns the site, follows one released June 30 by Port Authority executive director Chris Ward. The report revealed that none of the major projects would be finished by the original completion dates. Included in those projects is the museum and memorial, which Sept. 11 victims' families had hoped would be open for the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

"Our hope is that it will be available for the 10th anniversary and the Port Authority, I think, is making every attempt to do so," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last month.

In his report, Ward said many of the projects are interconnected, so some developments cannot take shape until others are completed. For example, work on Tower 5 cannot begin until the former Deutsche Bank is demolished. Ward won praise for his apparently candid assessment of progress at Ground Zero.

"The plan was too unrealistic in the first place, but we will get the memorial built, we will get the buildings built, but we'll have to do it safely," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat whose district includes the trade center site.

Other major projects that won't hit the original target dates for completion include:

The Freedom Tower. It was scheduled to be done by 2012. Its completion date hasn't been updated.

The transit hub, with its elaborate winged dome, was planned for a 2009 finish at a cost of $2.2 billion. That date was later pushed back to 2011, with the cost estimate rising to more than $3.4 billion.

Towers 3 and 4 were planned for 2011. Tower 2 has a date of 2012. There has been no timeline set for Tower 5.

Larry A. Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties Inc., is the developer of Towers 2, 3 and 4.

"We are working with the Port Authority to help the agency evaluate the issues affecting projected completion dates for its infrastructure projects, which have an impact on the entire schedule," said Dara McQuillan, a spokesman for Silverstein Properties. "We are hopeful this process will yield an aggressive yet reliable timetable for rebuilding."

Meanwhile, work continues at the sprawling operation. Rimming the site are numerous flatbed trucks, bulldozers and air-conditioned trailers for contractors and engineers. The booming engines of the machines, and the shouting and occasional laughter of construction workers drowns out the buzzing traffic of the West Side Highway.

On a recent afternoon, signalman Tom Feretti, who has worked in construction for 29 years, was directing some of the 24 cranes working at the World Trade Center site. He has developed his own hard-hat shorthand to get the job done.

Feretti, 49, of Babylon, nicknames building materials so the operators can better locate them. The support beams for the future Path train tunnel are "whale bones" or "tooth picks." Other steel beams are "trombones" because they are shaped like the instrument's slide.

"If I say the third on the right, he knows what to look for," he said.

At one point, Feretti needed to coordinate the movements of two cranes posted near each other. He ordered one to lift a pallet loaded with scrap metal and told the other to lower a steel beam. The cranes, working perilously close, rattled and hummed as their operators safely rotated their booms in separate directions. "I make sure they don't hit," Feretti said.

As the crane landed its steel beam with a clunk, a bright smile formed across Feretti's sunburned face.

Related topic galleries: Regional Authority, Society, Ceremonies, Manhattan (New York City), Metal and Mineral, Local Authority, September 11, 2001 Attacks

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