Four billion dollars doesn’t buy what it used to. Workers at the World Trade Center Oculus claim the mall and transit hub continues to leak.
Rain over the past week resulted in puddles and slippery floors, the New York Post reported, and one maintenance worker says people are now having accidents.
“There are leaks on this side and that side, those two balconies, by the elevators, and then the back also. It’s a mess,” the worker told the newspaper. “We soak it up and drain it. It’s a lot of work. It’s nonstop.” He added that on the last rainy day a person slipped in a puddle and “almost broke their neck on the marble.”
However, a spokesperson for the Port Authority told the Post “there were no leaks at Oculus this week.” Earlier this month, the agency said nearby construction was causing some parts of the building to flood.
“Everything is not done so you’ve have to come back and do it,” said construction worker Shawn Cumberbatch, 41, who was caulking a seam in the main room that had been had been unsealed, according to the Post. “If they just took their time and got it right the first time, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
In February, a woman died in the Santiago Calatrava-designed building after she fell 30 feet from an escalator.
Westfield’s World Trade Center mall, which is inside the building, opened last August. The Australian real estate firm has sued several tenants for not taking space at the complex. [NYP] — Miriam Hall