Subway Gets Elevated!

By TOM TOPOUSIS
Last Updated: 10:50 AM, November 16, 2009
Posted: 4:04 AM, November 16, 2009

Welcome to Ground Hero.
As the Freedom Tower makes its ascent into the city skyline, rising alongside it atop a crane will be a Subway sandwich shop that will turn out subs for hungry hardhats who can't spare the time to head back down to the street. The shop, expected to be in place by the end of the month, will be fitted into a shipping container-like structure fixed to one of the tower cranes, alongside a bathroom and construction offices for the project managers. The concession stand will rise with the tower, eventually stopping near the 105th floor -- at roughly the height of the old Twin Towers, or about as high as the former Windows on the World restaurant was, Port Authority officials said.

PA spokesman Steve Coleman said having the concession near the top of the construction project would speed up the work. "This will allow construction workers to stay in the tower throughout their shift rather than having to go up and down," Coleman said. The sandwich shop is being built at a steel-fabrication plant in South Plainfield, NJ, and will be installed at the Freedom Tower by the end of the month. And workers will get a view along with their subs -- the concession stand will come with windows, Coleman said. He added that the steel containers that will house the shop, bathroom and offices are also designed to provide structural support for the crane, connecting it with the tower's core as it rises.

"They will rise as the building rises," he said. With 24 jumbo steel columns now in place, the tower, formally known as 1 World Trade Center, is finally making a dent in the skyline after years of work below street level.
PA officials expect that the 200-foot base will be done by February. "The next year will bring recognizable progress to this signature building as the public sees it rise higher and higher. It will serve as a tangible reminder that the site is no longer a pit," PA Executive Director Chris Ward said. Once the base is complete, officials expect that the tower will rise a floor a month, till it tops out at 105 floors in December 2011. A spire will follow, bringing the tower to 1,776 feet.