New York Wheel Starts to Take Shape as Base Installed

ST. GEORGE — The base that will hold the legs of the massive New York Wheel was put in place on Staten Island's waterfront Tuesday.

Four 90-ton pedestals — the first above-ground features of the Ferris wheel — will hold the legs of the 630-foot-tall structure. They arrived from Canada, where they were made, last month.

One of the pedestals has been fully set already. Workers plan to install the others by the end of next week, developer Rich Marin said.

"This is just the first of several of these interim steps," Marin said.

"In a long, hard project like this, we've got to find the things to celebrate and this is one of those celebratory moments."

The pedestals were built by ADF Group, located outside of Montreal, and transported over the Hudson River because they were too heavy to go on highways, Marin said.

Starting next month, crews will transport the 2,220 ton legs from the Brooklyn terminal where they're being stored and begin putting them into place.

Crews have been working on the $590 million observation wheel — which will be one of the tallest in the world — for more than a year and expect to finish construction in October of next year.

Developers pushed back the first ride of the wheel until April 2018 to give them more time to test the attraction's safety.