Text size:

WTC hub faces financial crunch

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

6:55 PM EDT, April 24, 2008

Port Authority head Anthony Coscia acknowledged yesterday that the cost of the World Trade Center transit hub was ballooning, and said that the agency must adjust to new financial realities.

On Thursday, it was reported that the cost of the soaring Santiago Calatrava designed transit hub was ballooning to more than $3 billion, close to $700 million more than the agency had originally budgeted.

"We remain very committed to retaining the cost of that project as much as possible," Coscia said at an agency board meeting.

The initial plan is in danger of being scaled back but officials would like to keep the grandeur of the architect's original vision.

Coscia said the success of the transit hub was vital to the future of Lower Manhattan, comparing its presence there to that of Grand Central Station on the East Side.

"That transit hub has a variety of different features to it that we think will have enormous generational benefit," he said, adding that the agency must project for needs decades away.

The agency chief also reiterated Thursday his commitment to finishing the Sept. 11 memorial in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

"We are not going to start rolling back down that hill again," he said. "Dates that are out there are dates that we have to meet."