9/11 Museum Opens After a Bumpy Road to Completion
Fought over, stalled, reconceived and finally built, the 180,000-sq-ft National September 11 Memorial Museum has followed a tortuous path since it was first proposed in architect Daniel Libeskind's 2003 master plan for Ground Zero. While nearly every part of the redevelopment effort at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan has generated debate, the mostly subgrade museum, which opened to the public 20 months late on May 21, has been a lightning rod for a flood of criticism and controversy. Superstorm Sandy inundated the entire WTC site in 2012.
N.J. Regulators OK State's Largest Storm Mitigation Plan
New Jersey regulators gave the state's main utility a green light last month to move ahead with a $1-billion, scaled-back version of a program to harden gas and electric infrastructure from severe storms. While the Public Service Electric & Gas Co. (PSE&G) initially sought $2.6-billion for its program, regulators said they had to balance the need for infrastructure hardening with potential impacts on both service reliability and customer rates. The plan includes $620 million for 29 switching stations and substations damaged by recent storms and $350 million for 250 miles of cast-iron gas mains.
