Safety fears prompt bank demolition delay.

The LMDC's projected January 2005 date to begin the decontamination of the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street has put on hold to assure the safe deconstruction of the building.

In a public hearing hosted by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation January 20, professionals from the Louis Berger Group, that was commissioned by the LMDC, said that the latest sampling report confirmed that shafts, ducts, conduits and upper elevations of the exterior have a presence of high levels of asbestos, lead and other contaminants.

About 60 people attended the meeting held at St. John's University on Murray Street. Some questioned whether LMDC is preceding with enough safety precautions in decontaminating the building. "The Louis Berger Study found dust throughout the building that contained silica, PAHs, dioxins, PCBs and heavy metals, in addition to asbestos," said Kimberly Flynn, of the 9/11 Environmental Action group.

Flynn and other environmental groups insist there should be one agency in charge of the decontamination and deconstruction. She added. "EPA's oversight and enforcement would provide the necessary safeguards to the public and also, with OSHA coordination, the workers carrying out the demolition work."

EPA officials said they are overseeing the project by coordinating the efforts of other agencies and will continue to do so.

"While we are not singly overseeing the deconstruction, we are coordinating with other agencies to see that it is done in a safe manner," Mary Mears told Real Estate Weekly.

"The EPA is reviewing the LMDC's plan. We will be getting them our detailed comments by the end of the month. LMDC said they will work with us to make improvements to the plan."

The decontamination will begin when comments are received and the final plan drawn up. Phase I will involve abatement of identified interior ACBM, cleaning and removal of specified World Trade Center dust within the building, and "soft strip and interior gut" of most interior non-structural materials, as well as the erection of the tower crane and hoist on the site.

Phase II will include the abatement of identified Asbestos Containing Building Materials (ACBM) associated with the exterior of the structure, the disassembly and removal of some remaining interior non-structural materials, removal of rooftop mechanical equipment and the remaining building envelope, and then finally the structural components of the building.

The actual timeline and plans for the cleaning and the steps necessary to deconstruct the building will be finalized after the Phase I and Phase II Deconstruction Plans have been approved by the Regulatory Agencies.