United 93 Memorial - $58 million dollars??

[ChrisnSteph]

Let me start out by saying that I am 100% for building a memorial for the passengers and crew of United flight 93. I'm thrilled that congress will alocate $5 million dollars to buy land for the memorial. (Bill hasn't passed yet, but it looks like it will). Apparently that's not enough however, because organizers are saying they need $58 million. Can someone explain to me why so much money is needed for a memorial? The memorial will be on 1700 acres of land. Does land cost that much in rural PA? I'm trying figure out why a memorial needs to cost this much. Here's the article:

Congressman OKs $5 Million for Flight 93 Memorial
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, AP


AP
A subcommittee chaired by North Carolina Republican Charles H. Taylor approved the funds as part of a larger appropriations bill.

WASHINGTON (May 4) - A key congressman on Thursday agreed to allow the federal govenrment to spend $5 million for a Memorial honoring those killed when the hijacked Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001.

Rep. Charles H. Taylor, R-N.C., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department, had blocked funds for the project for the past two years, saying he was concerned that it would not receive sufficient private donations and that the federal government would be asked to bail it out.

The White House had requested $5 million to buy land for the project, and Taylor included that amount in a larger appropriations bill that his subcommittee approved Thursday. "This is a responsible bill," he said.

An additional $5 million is expected to be sought next year.

The measure still must be approved by the larger Congress. It has support in the Senate from Pennsylvania Republican Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter.

Plans call for the memorial to be built on a nearly 1,700-acre site outside Shanksville, Pa., where the plane crashed apparently after passengers rushed the cockpit in an effort to wrest it from terrorists.

Universal Pictures, which last week released "United 93," about the flight, on Wednesday donated $1.15 million toward the memorial. That brought to about $9 million the private donations raised.

Organizers hope to raise $30 million in private funding to build the memorial. The total cost of the memorial is estimated to be $58 million.

The flight was en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., when the hijackers took over, likely with the goal of crashing the plane into the White House or the Capitol. The 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers on board all died.

 

[rascalmom]

That does seem like a lot of money, of course no memorial could ever fill the void for those who lost loved ones.

After reading your post, I did a little Googling to find out how much the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial cost - around $29 million. That is the cost for the memorial and the adjacent museum. The memorial sits on the footprint of the Murrah building, so I'm not sure if there was land cost involved or if the federal government donated the site.

It is in a more urban area & I do believe the money spent includes an endowment fund that covers the some of the operating expenses of the museum. It is operated by the National Park Service.

It is truly moving - well worth a visit if you are ever coming through the area. Most of the victims and the surviving families were local residents, so having a memorial gathering place has been healing for them as well as the community.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Also not sure of the materials--but often stonework is used and that can get pricey. (thinking of the Vietnam Veterans memorial and the new WWII memorial).

As i read it, it is being funded privately. If they can raise the funds--then I do not have an issue with it.

 

[bsnyder]

You think that's expensive? Check this out:

Memorial Cost at Ground Zero Nears $1 Billion

By CHARLES V. BAGLI and DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: May 5, 2006
New York Times
The projected cost of building the World Trade Center memorial complex at ground zero has soared to nearly $1 billion, according to the most authoritative estimate to date.

Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking — "beyond reason" in the words of one member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board — and it is sure to set off another battle over development at the 16-acre site, with calls to cut costs, scale back the design or even start over.

The foundation, which had planned to start construction in March, has already quietly broached the possibility with some victims' families of moving important parts of the memorial out of the twin towers' footprints to ground level.

Only two or three years ago, the problems faced by the memorial, the spiritual centerpiece of the site, would have been unimaginable. The underground complex, with its pools, waterfalls and galleries, was the product of a worldwide design competition that drew 5,201 entries and inspired tremendous public passion.

It was supposed to be immune to the controversies that had engulfed the commercial rebuilding at the site, with its completion assured by an outpouring of good will and open checkbooks. But fund-raising has lagged, with just $130 million raised from private contributions.

The new estimate, $972 million, would make this the most expensive memorial ever built in the United States. And that figure does not include the $80 million for a visitors' center paid for by New York State. It is likely to draw unfavorable comparisons to the $182 million National World War II Memorial in Washington, which opened in 2004; the $29 million Oklahoma City National Memorial, which opened in 2000; or the $7 million Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, which opened in 1982.

The World Trade Center itself cost $1 billion in the 1970's, or about $3.7 billion in current dollars. Then again, everything at ground zero carries a big ticket, from the $478 million vehicle-screening center to the $2.2 billion PATH terminal.

The latest figure comes from a lengthy report by Bovis Lend Lease, the construction manager hired by the foundation to come up with a rigorous analysis of the projected costs based on forecasts of labor rates and market prices for steel and concrete, which have been rapidly rising in recent months.

The report includes expenses not previously enumerated, like $25 million in insurance and $22 million for museum exhibit design and construction, as well as a $22 million increase in the cost of the entry pavilion to the underground museum.

The foundation has started briefing officials at City Hall, in the office of Gov. George E. Pataki and at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land. A person involved in meetings about the memorial provided The New York Times with a copy of a confidential foundation memorandum, dated May 2, that summarizes the Bovis findings.

Even before the official release of the new estimate, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that he had spoken to both Governor Pataki and Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey about escalating costs.

"Both governors and I think that $500 million is the amount of money that they're going to have to learn to figure out how to deal with," the mayor said. "We want to build the memorial, but we have to realize that there are conflicting demands in this city."

John P. Cahill, Mr. Pataki's chief of staff, who is overseeing rebuilding at the trade center, issued a statement yesterday saying, "We remain committed to the creation of a prominent, powerful and moving memorial that our nation can be proud of. Generations to come will come to see this tribute. However, we must ensure that it is financially achievable, while remaining consistent" with the original vision.

The report estimates the cost of just the memorial and its related museum at $672 million, up 36 percent from $494 million only four months ago. In addition, the latest projections include $71.5 million for an underground cooling plant, up from $41.5 million four months ago.

Bovis also identified $300 million in site preparations and infrastructure — nearly triple the previous $110 million estimate by the foundation, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority — that would be necessary before construction could begin. It contends that the Port Authority must deliver a "buildable site" and should bear those costs.

The authority will almost certainly contest that assertion. Last month it agreed to provide $100 million, based on the prior estimate, as part of a major realignment of the plans to build four major office towers on the site. It also took on financial responsibility for the troubled $2 billion Freedom Tower. Yesterday, some state and Port Authority officials expressed misgivings about the validity of the jump in infrastructure costs, but said that did not want to say so publicly until they had been briefed.

The ensuing debate over costs and potential design changes may once again raise the possibility that the Port Authority will take over construction of the memorial. Last fall, both Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg seemed to endorse the idea. In the last week, state officials have expressed a lack of confidence in the foundation's ability to build the memorial complex.

The matter is complicated by what some officials regard as the foundation's anemic effort to raise donations, more than four years after Sept. 11. In addition to the $130 million the foundation says it has raised, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has put up $200 million, which, added to $100 million from the authority, would bring the total amount raised to $430 million.

The foundation has yet to address how it will handle the annual expense of running the memorial and the museum, which could reach almost $60 million.

Foundation officials attributed the earlier estimate, $494 million, to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, but Stefan Pryor, the corporation's president, said, "In both instances, the two agencies have worked together."

Early this year, the foundation solicited contractors to build the footings for the complex. Peter M. Lehrer, a construction consultant working for the foundation, and Roland W. Betts, a former director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, became alarmed when the responding bids ranged from $29 million to $61 million, two to four times higher than expected.

The foundation then withdrew the contract and asked Bovis for a new cost analysis of the entire project. That analysis is summarized in the confidential memorandum, which mentions design changes that better reflect the complexity of the project and "additions to the scope of the project."

Knowing that the cost of the complex was becoming politically unpalatable, the foundation's executive committee met on April 18 with representatives of some victims' family groups, including Anthony Gardner, a leader of the Coalition of 9/11 Families, which has sued to block the memorial design, as well as Edith Lutnick, Patricia Riley and Sally Regenhard. In an attempt to cut costs and appease critics, the executives suggested broad changes to the design, according to three people who attended.

In the current design, the names of the victims would be inscribed 30 feet below street level, on a parapet in galleries surrounding underground pools within the footprints of the towers. Officials said that eliminating the galleries and moving the inscription of the names to plaza level would save money and resolve some security issues.

"We've always made it clear to the foundation and to L.M.D.C. that we do not support this memorial as it stands now," Mr. Gardner said yesterday, although he refused to discuss the April 18 meeting.

But supporters of the current design objected to what they said would be a major revision to appease some critics. "I don't think it's appropriate to go back and start from scratch," said Jeff H. Galloway, a member of Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan. "The memorial design wasn't thrown together in some haphazard way. It's the result of a thorough and amazingly inclusive process."

Monica Iken, a member of the foundation board and a champion of the original design by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, expressed her dismay at what she called a "leadership failure."

"Fund-raising would not have been a problem if the memorial and memorial museum was a priority in the first place, which it has never been," she said. "If the original design hadn't been treated like a Tinker Toy, we may have not have had these problems."

 

[caitycaity]

sounds like this is being privately funded, so it's a different issue, but...

if people actually investigated how much money was spent on stuff like this by local, state, and the federal govt they would be astounded.

the name change of national airport to ronald reagan national airport ended up costing the metro system in dc almost half a million dollars. there are all kinds of crazy things that $$$ gets spent on. it used to upset me, then i realized it was never going to change, so why bother getting upset.

 

[Kycha]

It doesn't say in your article, but perhaps the high cost is for maintenance of the memorial and not just the building of it. Also, it might include costs to upgrade roads and such. The crash site is in a very remote area and it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere. The road that takes you to the site is a 2 lane country road. There is a makeshift memorial there now. It is quite moving.