By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — When this caterpillar bursts out of its cocoon, it will stand 1,776 feet tall.
A $9 million cocoon made of fire-resistant netting will cloak One World Trade Center during construction, it was revealed at a Port Authority meeting Tuesday.
The innovative safety system will wrap the top 20 floors of the skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower, in the hope of preventing tools and construction materials from hurtling down onto passerby or other construction workers below.
“It’s the first of its kind to be used on a steel superstructure in New York City,” said Steve Plate, the Port Authority’s director of World Trade Center construction.
DCM Erectors is now installing the cocoon and will move it up the tower as the construction progresses, Plate said.
Since the netting will become more prominent as the tower rises, the Port Authority plans to make it into a billboard, displaying the Port’s logo, the tower’s name and the website wtcprogress.com on all four sides.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the Port Authority approved a $2.8 million payment to Silverstein Properties, the most concrete indication yet that the feud between the two World Trade Center builders is nearly over.
The grant will help Silverstein with Tower 2 at the corner of Vesey and Church streets. The tower, itself, will not rise in the near future, but the underground portion contains key infrastructure for the PATH station, including exits, which need to be built now.
The $2.8 million payment is pending a final agreement between Silverstein and the Port Authority on the future of the site. The parties reached a preliminary agreement in March.
The Port Authority also announced an agreement on Tuesday to pay the Metropolitan Transportation Authority up to $10.5 million to reopen the downtown R/W station at Cortlandt Street. The uptown platform at the station reopened last fall, and the downtown platform is scheduled to open in September 2011.
