water, the site’s project owners ;gured out what to
do. Logistics played a determining role, Mr. Clarke
says. “All of the World Trade Center projects got
;ooded out, and we couldn’t pump water out of one
site unless all the project teams worked together
and we pumped it out of all of them.”
;e project leaders held daily meetings to deter-
mine how to draw the water out of the entire site
and into the sewer system slowly enough that it
wouldn’t overwhelm the infrastructure.
After 10 days, team members ;nally got back inside
the museum—and started tearing everything out.
“We had to throw it all away and come up with a
new plan,” Mr. Santos says.
Fortunately, the museum artifacts were rescued
and cleaned, but everything else—including all of
the electrical components, ;oors, walls, elevators,
escalators and most of the construction
equipment that had been on-site—had
to be replaced.
As a result of the disastrous ;ood-ing, the museum’s opening date was
pushed back from September 2013 to
May 2014. ;e completed museum
features artifacts from the towers and
an exhibition that explores the day of
the attacks.
“It feels bittersweet now that it is
done,” Mr. Santos says. “;ere were
times when it seemed like this project
would never end, but it has.”
“It’s an amazing facility,” Mr. Clarke
adds. “Millions of people from around
the world will come to this site and see
what we’ve accomplished. Our com-
pany will forever look at this project
with great pride. It was probably the
toughest project I’ve ever worked on,
but it was an honor to be a part of it.” PM
ANOTHER SETBACK
By early October 2012, the team had completed all
of the drywall for the museum and installed most
of its electrical systems, elevators, escalators and
main artifacts.
;en, with the project end in sight, bad weather
struck again. In late October, Hurricane Sandy,
the deadliest storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane
season, ;ooded much of the city—including the
museum. ;e storm ;lled the nearly ;nished space
with 8 feet ( 2 meters) of water.
“It wiped out most of what we had in place,” Mr.
Santos says.
For days, while the site remained ;lled with
“We didn’t need
to motivate
[workers].
Everyone wanted
to be a part of
this project.”
—Neil Clarke, right
The plaza in front of the main
entrance to the museum
PH
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