The Freedom Tower will rise above street level by the end of this year and it, as well as neighboring Towers 3 and 4 at the World Trade Center site, are now expected to top out by the end of 2010, project officials said yesterday while addressing the New York Building Congress.

Developer Larry Silverstein, owner and CEO of Silverstein Properties, and Anthony Shorris, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, both spoke yesterday at a luncheon hosted by the Building Congress, and each stressed that physical work on the site is ramping up.

“In the coming months and years, the 10th floor of Seven World Trade Center will be filled with contractors, subcontractors, engineers, architects and skilled trades working side by side to ensure that this city’s biggest simultaneous construction project is done soundly and efficiently,” said Silverstein.

Shorris told the packed room at the Ritz Carlton in Battery Park that, to date, 320,000 tons of rock and dirt have been moved off the site, 20,000 cu yds of concrete have been poured into slurry wall, and steel erection for the Freedom Tower is about 70 ft up from the foundation.

“What is falling into place is an incredible construction coordination machine unprecedented in its complexity,” he said.

The excavation and preparation of Tower 3 and Tower 4 was recently completed, a task that had caused friction between the agency and Silverstein after the Port Authority failed to hit its self-imposed deadline to deliver the site earlier this year. The delay cost the Port Authority as much as $300,000 per day.

“I think it’s no secret we’ve had challenging negotiations over the years with Silverstein,” he said. “It is always difficult to have someone be your largest tenant and your largest landlord at the same time.”

In addition to the Freedom Tower’s progress, 2008 will also see the PATH Station operating in Lower Manhattan, as well as the pouring of the foundation for Towers 3 and 4.

At the end of 2009, the oculus infrastructure will be visible, steel erection for the WTC emorial will be complete, and towers will be rising all across the site.

At the end of 2011, the oculus will be finished, the visitors center will be complete and Tower 2 will be in the last stages of construction. Construction is scheduled to be completed site-wide by 2012.

When all is said and done, according to Silverstein, Towers 2, 3, and 4 will contain 96,000 tons of steel, 393,000 cu yd of concrete, 144 elevators and 3,105,000-sq-ft of curtain wall.

In addition to his five-year forecast, Shorris also addressed the issue of inflation in the construction industry. “It has been a constant source of pressure, and adjustments have been made, none of which will affect the outcome of the project.”

“We’ve bid out more than $2 billion in contracts a lot to the folks in this room and 90% of the work associated with building the Freedom Tower itself,” said Shorris.

Developers of the Meadowlands Xanadu project in New Jersey are attempting to redeem themselves after controversy surrounding the emerging colorful buildings at the site.

Although the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority approved the plans for the development in 2004, the agency recently summoned architects and developers to discuss the internal and external changes which do not match the original design plans. Larry Siegel, president of the Meadowlands Development, hinted that a new “entertainment anchor” that will soon be announced will cause the plans to be altered yet again before the project is complete.

“In a project like this, design always changes, because uses change,” he said.  “When we announce this new large entertainment anchor that is going to sit on [Interstate] 95, it will change the design of the building, it will change the way it looks out front and there storefront will change the way it looks inside. But most of what was originally promised is being built.” Meadowlands would not reveal the identity of the anchor.

Dan Haggarty, senior vice president of Xanadu, echoed Siegel’s insistence. “The land plan is very similar to the first land plan around the time of the RFPs,” he said. The primary difference, he pointed out, was that all public spaces were simply re-themed.

Both representatives of Xanadu claim these design concerns will not affect the opening plans in November 2008.

The mammoth Meadowlands project in East Rutherford, New Jersey includes construction of the new $998 million Giants/Jets stadium, Continental Airlines Arena, Meadowlands Racetrack and the $2 billion entertainment and retail component Xanadu as well as a $150 million New Jersey Transit addition to accommodate visitors.

The Department of Buildings recently published a list of the city’s top ten elevator safety offenders and is recommending legislation to saddle violators with $1,000 daily penalties.

“Lack of access to working elevators presents a major safety risk that those living in elevator buildings should not have to face. The Elevator Enforcement Program is about forcing owners to perform timely elevator maintenance or else face tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for failing to do so,” said DOB Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

The Department posted the list—which was gathered from field inspection reports, complaints and maintenance filings—on its website as part of “a shame campaign” to enforce reliable elevator service. Those named will remain on the website until building elevators are in compliance with DOB safety rules.