Deutsche Bank Building - Deconstruction

Deconstruction

The cost of this deconstruction had steadily increased to $75 million by the Bovis Lend Lease construction company as large amounts of toxic dust associated with the collapse of the World Trade Center, asbestos, dioxin, lead, silica, quartz, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chromium and manganese had been found in the building.

In 2004, an agreement was announced to settle the disposition of the building and insurance claims. Later that year as part of this agreement, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation acquired the land and commenced its deconstruction.

An Associated Press December 7, 2006 report indicated that the building would be dismantled. The report indicated that area residents were fearful of possibly toxic dust associated with the two towers' collapses within the building.

Deconstruction began in March 2007. However, due to a fire on August 18, 2007, that claimed the lives of 2 FDNY firefighters, work was suspended. A city stop-work order was lifted in April 2008 and decontamination work began again in May of the same year.

Deconstruction was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008, and later by the end of 2010. In October 2009, it was announced that deconstruction of the building would finally resume.

Delays in taking down the Deutsche Bank at Ground Zero have forced the Port Authority to roll back the expected completion date of a crucial vehicle-security center by a year, to 2013. Repeated delays at Deutsche Bank had added roughly $100 million to the cost of rebuilding the World Trade Center.

Deconstruction of the building finished, for the most part, on January 20, 2011. The basement was deconstructed in February 2011. It was the last part of the building to be taken apart.