MEGA-PROJECTS

Some six years after the destruction of the World Trade Center, the rebuilding is finally underway. Since 2002 several hundred workers have been preparing the site for new construction, carving out a 75-foot-deep, 700,000-square-foot excavation by removing 300,000 tons of soil and rock. But as work begins on the Freedom Tower and the site's other new buildings, the first of nearly 10,000 hardhats and engineers - and 142,000 tons of steel and one million tons of concrete - will begin to arrive. It is a hugely ambitious project for just 16 acres of land: The new site will have two streets, five towers, a transportation hub, a museum, a visitor center, and a memorial park. The western half of the redeveloped site will be home to the 1,776-foot-tall centerpiece Freedom Tower and the preserved footprints of the original towers. The eastern half is owned by developer Larry Silverstein, who bought the property for $3.2 billion just six weeks before 9/11. It will have three new commercial towers, with a combined 170 floors of offices and 420,000 square feet of retail space. If rented to capacity, the offices could employ 100,000 and generate $15 billion of yearly revenue. But the road to completion is rocky: Already the Port Authority is behind schedule in completing the excavation. And so far no businesses have signed on as tenants.