New York’s Federal Reserve Bank pegs lower WTC cleanup cost

A report issued by the Reserve Bank of New York estimates that the cleanup and rebuilding cost in downtown Manhattan following the World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks could be US$6 billion less than what had been originally anticipated. The Reserve Bank has pegged a total cleanup/rebuilding cost of between US$25-US$29 billion, of which about 50%-60% of this amount is insured. The predicted cost-saving is largely due to a faster cleanup than had been expected in the fall of last year, says the bank’s president William McDonough.