In early 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began work on the new “south bathtub” between Liberty and Cedar, and West and Greenwich Streets. The bathtub allows for mass excavation and construction of the new Vehicular Security Center (VSC) entrance and ramp into the main World Trade Center (WTC) site.
Work includes digging a trench on the west and south sides of the bathtub, where several steel rebar cages will be inserted before the slurry, a type of high-strength concrete, will be poured to create the slurry wall panels. On the bathtub’s east side, piles will be installed to form a secant wall. The existing west bathtub slurry wall along Liberty Street will be used as the south bathtub’s north wall. Once in place, the new bathtub perimeter walls will allow for excavation and VSC construction starting in 2010.
Click here for a tour of the rebuilding projects taking place in Lower Manhattan.
For more information about the World Trade Center site’s redevelopment and to contact the Port Authority, please visit its website at www.pathrestoration.com.
In April 2010, the state Department of Transportation (SDOT) reconfigured the Liberty Street Bridge so the Port Authority can excavate the new “south bathtub.” SDOT removed the eastern-extension tube that landed at Washington Street, and created a new extension that sends pedestrians to a new stairway and elevator to the south, at Cedar and West Streets.
The bridge modification allows Port Authority crews to complete slurry wall installation in the south bathtub. The temporarily reconfigured Liberty Street Bridge opened April 21, 2010. It will be modified again in several years, once the Port has built the proposed park that will occupy the area between Liberty and Cedar Streets.
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