WHY IS THE WTC PROJECT BILLIONS OVER BUDGET AND FACING ENDLESS DELAYS? BECAUSE IT'S THE GOVERNMENT, STUPID!

BBC:

The owner of the World Trade Center has abandoned the timetable for rebuilding work at the site of the 9/11 attacks, saying it was "not realistic". Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director, Christopher Ward, listed over a dozen issues that had slowed work and raised costs. New dates for the completion of a memorial, skyscrapers and a transit hub are expected to be issued in September. It is unclear if the centrepiece Freedom Tower will now be scaled back.

TIME:

Go to the website for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the government agency created after 9/11 to help redevelop Ground Zero and environs, and the first thing you'll see is a slogan that probably sounds a lot more defensive than intended: There Is a Plan for Lower Manhattan. Somebody tell that to Chris Ward. He is executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which, as Ground Zero's landlord, is just one of the 19 government bureaucracies with a say in rebuilding the World Trade Center. On Monday he gave New York governor David Paterson a progress report. The best thing to do, he said over 34 pages, is scrap the budget and timeline for the whole project. He did, however, set a deadline ... for setting deadlines. By September, he said, the public should find out which year this thing will be finished. The only thing that's certain right now is that it will take longer and cost more than you think. Oh, and that 9/11 memorial? It won't be ready anytime soon either. Not for this year's anniversary of the attacks. Not even for the 10th anniversary, in 2011.

NYTIMES:

On Monday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, issued a 34-page report listing the site’s problems, saying, “The schedule and cost for each of the public projects on the site face significant delays and cost overruns.” The Port Authority adamantly refused to offer new schedules or cost estimates, but some officials said the delays could run up to three years. The cost overruns could extend into the billions for a project whose total cost is now more than $15 billion. At the heart of the problem, the report said, were overly ambitious completion dates that were probably inaccurate from the day they were announced. Those dates were set at a time when former Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority wanted to convey the sense that this most politically, economically and emotionally significant of projects would be completed quickly. The report also illuminated in great detail just why that schedule was so inaccurate: The work entails more than two dozen projects, some of them large and extremely complex, all within the confines of a dozen square blocks. Nineteen public agencies, two private developers and 101 construction contractors and subcontractors are involved.

NY NEWSDAY:

Skyrocketing budgets and unrealistic timetables have forced the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to scrap the original blueprint for completing the World Trade Center's redevelopment, officials said yesterday.

• THE KEY TO THE WHOLE MESS IS THIS:
  
• THE FOLKS IN THE GOVERNMENT RUNNING THIS PROJECT AIN'T SPENDING THEIR MONEY; THEY'RE SPENDING OUR MONEY.
• THIS IS WHY MOST GOVERNMENT PROJECTS SUCK.
• THIS IS WHY PRIVATE MANAGEMENT IS ALWAYS BETTER: A PROFIT-SEEKING ENTERPRISE WILL PUSH TO GET RESULTS BECAUSE DELAYS COST THEM BIGTIME.
• THIS IS WHY -AFTER THE GOVERNMENT HAD FAILED FOR YEARS -TRUMP REFURBISHED NYC'S WOLLMAN RINK IN MONTHS.
• AND IT'S WHY HE OFFERED TO REFURBISH THE UN'S NYC HQ.
• THE PORT AUTHORITY SHOULD SELL THE SITE AND GET OF THE LANDLORDING BUSINESS.