Construction To Begin On 9/11 Memorial
August 4, 2006 Associated Press
NEW YORK -- The memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will start taking shape at ground zero in the coming weeks when construction begins on its foundation, after a cost-cutting redesign of the memorial put off the project for months.Preliminary work on the "Reflecting Absence" memorial began in March and stopped in May after contractors said that the cost was approaching $1 billion for the huge reflecting pools that will mark the destroyed World Trade Center towers' footprints.
The memorial and underground Sept. 11 museum was redesigned, this time at a $510 million budget, and the two organizations in charge of building it on Thursday awarded a $17 million contract to begin creating the foundations.Work by the construction company E.E. Cruz, of Holmdel, N.J., will begin in the next few weeks.The trade center site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, last month agreed to take over building the memorial and contribute up to $195 million of the cost. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which will run the memorial, said that it would focus on fundraising and the design.The foundation, which had suspended fundraising, needs to raise $170 million more to pay for construction and another $49 million for each year after its opening in 2009 to cover operating costs.The foundation's acting president, Joseph Daniels, said last week that it was exploring options such as a federal appropriation each year, like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum receives, or a fee to enter the museum to pay for operating costs. The foundation also was working on a plan to reduce the operating costs, he said."The institution is going to need a recurring revenue stream," Daniels said. The cost to operate the facilities is "a nontrivial amount of money, and we have to raise it every year."The state legislature in June approved bills that would bar any state money from going to the museum if a fee is charged. Gov. George Pataki has said he would veto the measure.
NEW YORK -- The memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will start taking shape at ground zero in the coming weeks when construction begins on its foundation, after a cost-cutting redesign of the memorial put off the project for months.Preliminary work on the "Reflecting Absence" memorial began in March and stopped in May after contractors said that the cost was approaching $1 billion for the huge reflecting pools that will mark the destroyed World Trade Center towers' footprints.
The memorial and underground Sept. 11 museum was redesigned, this time at a $510 million budget, and the two organizations in charge of building it on Thursday awarded a $17 million contract to begin creating the foundations.Work by the construction company E.E. Cruz, of Holmdel, N.J., will begin in the next few weeks.The trade center site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, last month agreed to take over building the memorial and contribute up to $195 million of the cost. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which will run the memorial, said that it would focus on fundraising and the design.The foundation, which had suspended fundraising, needs to raise $170 million more to pay for construction and another $49 million for each year after its opening in 2009 to cover operating costs.The foundation's acting president, Joseph Daniels, said last week that it was exploring options such as a federal appropriation each year, like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum receives, or a fee to enter the museum to pay for operating costs. The foundation also was working on a plan to reduce the operating costs, he said."The institution is going to need a recurring revenue stream," Daniels said. The cost to operate the facilities is "a nontrivial amount of money, and we have to raise it every year."The state legislature in June approved bills that would bar any state money from going to the museum if a fee is charged. Gov. George Pataki has said he would veto the measure.
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