http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/203443
Firm supports Freedom in N.Y.
By Tom Knapp, Staff
Intelligencer Journal
Apr 27, 2007
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - A local company is working behind — or, in this case, below — the scenes to change the New York City skyline.
Greiner Industries has been hired to fabricate steel column bases for Tower 1, also known as Freedom Tower, of the new World Trade Center in Manhattan.
"This is work that nobody will see," Rick Bockey, manager of quality control for Greiner, said Thursday.
"But it all goes up from here. This supports it all."
Greiner is subcontracting for Tishman Construction Corp. of New York, which is the general contractor for the massive project, Bockey said.
"It's a high-profile job. Everybody's looking at it in regards to what it's replacing," he said.
"The work itself is nothing new to us, but where it's going has some significance."
The first World Trade Center was destroyed Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists flew a pair of airliners into the Twin Towers, causing both to fall. The four smaller buildings in the WTC plaza sustained heavy damage and were demolished shortly thereafter.
An estimated 2,749 people died in the terrorist attack. Cleanup of the site took nearly nine months.
The original Tower 1 rose to a height of 1,727 feet, including the antenna and spire. Freedom Tower will be a little taller, peaking at 1,776 feet.
Its construction, which began in 2006, is in the northwest corner of the 16-acre site. The new World Trade Center is expected to open for business in 2012.
Bockey said Greiner Industries is fabricating six sublevel base columns for Freedom Tower. He described them as "heavy weldments" that will provide structural support for ground-level columns.
"They are the main base for the entire structure ... and the heaviest columns that you're probably ever going to see," he said.
Each beam is 30 feet long and weighs about 28 tons, Bockey said. The beams range in thickness from 3 to 5 inches, with studs and 10-inch-thick base plates welded along their full length to reinforce them.
"We're contracted to do six of these pieces at this point. We may get more at a later date," Bockey said.
"There's going to be a lot of this going on. This work is going to entail numerous fabricators. ... It's a multiyear project, obviously."
Bockey said he isn't sure how many beams of this type will be used to support Freedom Tower, but said other subcontractors in Virginia and Ohio are making similar pieces for the project.
"I don't have the erection plan for the structure," he said. "We work off fabrication drawings ... that don't show us the whole arrangement of the structure."
The beams will likely be imbedded entirely in concrete, he said.
"And then they build up from there. It's the foundation of the tower."
Fabrication of the beams began earlier this month and should be completed by late May or early June, Bockey said. Dennis Warner is the project manager for the job.
The first two pieces are already completed, Bockey said.
"There's potentially a lot more of this coming this way," he said.
"We specialize in this type of work — heavy columns for skyscrapers. It requires special certification."
Greiner, he said, is certified by the American Institute of Steel Construction for fabricating supports for steel structures and bridges.
Quality control manager Rick Bockey shows one of the finished foundation beams, which has already been loaded for delivery to the World Trade Center work site.
Greiner Industries employees Tony Miller, left, and Will Gibson weld pieces of steel together to form foundation pieces for Freedom Tower, the tallest of the new World Trade Center structures being built in New York City.
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