Underground parking planned for WTC site

Investors take note; structural engineers sharpen your pencils. Recently released plans for the Liberty Park planned for the Grand Zero site in Manhattan show that beneath the site will be a four-level underground garage, including truck access to a number of critical subsurface loading areas and a parking area for eighty tour buses. With the first WTC bombing and Oklahoma City well in mind, security is of course a major issue. “The security center will provide off-street screening of buses, trucks, and automobiles entering the WTC site,” the Federal Transit Administration explained in a recent notice, estimating that at mid-day there might be as many as 207 truck deliveries in progress. “Once vehicles have been properly screened, those that comply with security standards will be directed to a common ramp structure.” Not everyone is in agreement with the plan. “It’s stupid,” said attorney David Dean, who sued the Port Authority after the 1993 disaster. “While not as potentially reckless as that which existed before 1993, they still should not do it. If they’re going to have parking, let it be offsite.”