No end in sight for demolition of so-called Tombstone at Ground Zero.
Nearly two months into the resumed demolition of the former Deutsche Bank tower near the World Trade Center, the agency responsible for taking down the building says it still cannot predict when the project will be done.
Crews resumed deconstruction of the former bank tower, critically damaged and rendered toxic in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, on Nov. 16. But so far, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has promised only that the building will finally be gone sometime this year.
“What we’ve been told [by general contractor Bovis Lend Lease] is that they’re confident that the building will come down in 2010,” LMDC spokesman Errol Cockfield told a Community Board 1 committee at its Jan. 11 meeting. “There are all kinds of variables, and we remind anyone who asks [for a date] about those unknowns.”
Since the deconstruction resumed in November, crews have demolished three of the remaining 26 floors.
“I think anyone who is familiar with this project will agree with me that safety has to be our number one priority,” Cockfield said, adding that between Nov. 16 and Jan. 11, work was stopped at least 14 times for weather-related reasons.
Legal troubles, fires and other accidents had already put the demolition of the once-40-story tower years behind schedule. A seven-alarm fire in 2007 killed two firefighters and brought deconstruction to a halt at the 26th story. The project is currently under a partial stop-work order from the city’s Department of Buildings because of a fuel spill on Jan. 4, and has been flagged nine times since the beginning of November for site safety issues. On Nov. 10, a worker dropped a wrench from the top of the building, striking another worker in the knee and sending him to the hospital. On Dec. 22, workers were cited for using blowtorches to steel columns too close to a fuel tank.
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