Ground Zero in New York City is a magnet for patriotism, skepticicm and frustration; underground, it continues to be a very costly challenge. Excavation preparatory to rebuilding is moving so woefully slowly that New York's Port Authority has accrued late fees of $300,000 a day since Jan. 1, with penalties of over $13 million due to Silverstein Properties, which will build two office towers on the site.
The delays are typical of the authority, says a former director, "thanks to the bureaucratic maze that exists there." But the current director says “paperwork” isn’t the problem; rather, “it was the challenge of doing a project of this scale in this short a time.” Work on the 6.7-acre “East Bathtub” has cost $250 million thus far. (More World Trade Center stories.)