Construction of the long-awaited World Trade Center transit hub could take a year longer than even the latest deadline set by the Port Authority, pushing the massive $3.2 billion project’s completion date to 2015, a new report by the Federal Transit Administration has warned.
The review by the feds, obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request, gives the PA just a 25 percent chance of getting the massive project done by the authority’s latest target date of mid-2014 — a deadline three years later than originally planned.
The FTA’s analysis also warns that even the feds’ mid-2015 projected completion date could also falter because of unresolved delays in building two of Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein’s soaring office towers planned for either side of the transit hub.
“Construction of Towers 2 and 3 could become the most significant source of risks associated with the [transit] project,” the report found.
Silverstein and the Port Authority are now in talks over how to move forward with construction of his WTC towers. They have about a month to reach an agreement.
Port Authority engineers are now working on plans to allow them to build the transit hub ahead of the towers — a complex task because of the enormous warren of infrastructure and a major pedestrian retail mall below street level.