by David W. Dunlap
More decontamination and abatement workers will be reporting for duty at the
ravaged former Deutsche Bank building opposite ground zero, the Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation said, after the city Department of Buildings
lifted a prohibition on Wednesday that had been in force since a
deadly fire in
the tower last summer.
The practical effect of the city's decision on Wednesday is that
decontamination chambers can be used throughout the building, rather
than on the ground
floor alone.
That will effectively allow the work force to grow to 300 from 200.
"We have entered a new critical phase that will enable us to bring a hundred
additional workers on to the building to finish abating it, taking us a step
closer to completing this project," Avi Schick, chairman of the development
corporation, said in a statement.
Demolition of the 41-story building at 130 Liberty Street, which was damaged
and badly contaminated on 9/11, was originally supposed to have been
completed in 2005. The schedule was readjusted to meet a 2008
deadline. But a fire on
Aug. 18, 2007, killed two firefighters and threw the project into further
disruption. It is now supposed to be finished by 2009.
While many factors were to blame for the fire, the decontamination barriers
were implicated, as the blaze was fueled by plywood and polyethylene sheets
that isolated floors where potentially hazardous dust was being cleaned. The
barriers also complicated firefighters' movements and may have
prevented escape
for the two who died.
Since February, the development corporation said, LVI Environmental Services
has been restoring enclosures, constructing two interior fire-rated
stairwells, building fire-resistant decontamination chambers of sheetrock and
improving fire control measures within the decontamination chambers,
among other
measures. The building's structural materials must be cleaned before they are
taken apart and removed.
A spokeswoman for the buildings agency confirmed that the stop-work order had
been lifted.
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