Major construction progress is being made to build the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, which will serve 250,000 people daily, including preparations to install massive Santiago Calatrava-designed arches to form the roof of the Hub's mezzanine level and the floor for the 9/11 Memorial.

At its monthly meeting Oct. 21, the Port Authority Board of Commissioners were given an update on the WTC Transportation Hub, which expects to hit several construction milestones in the upcoming weeks. The commissioners were told that the massive arches and steel that will support the PATH Station roof - including some as large as 80 tons - would be installed beginning in December. These steel members are being manufactured and fabricated in various locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Canada and Spain.

More than a dozen smaller Calatrava arches - known as "backspans" - have already been installed to form the southern portion of the PATH mezzanine's roof and, in turn, the floor of the Memorial's Pavilion, which will serve as the public's entrance to the Memorial's underground museum. As a result of the Hub's progress, the Memorial Pavilion's steel has been erected to 80 percent completion, ahead of schedule.

In November, work will begin to build foundations for the Transportation Hall and Oculus, the most visible part of the Hub. The roof of the Oculus will start to be installed after the Hub's main concourse reaches street level in 2012.

The Hub work is following a top-down construction method to literally "build the roof first" of the Hub in order to ensure that the Memorial Plaza is open by the 10th anniversary. This involves building the roof of the Hub first because it serves as the floor for the Memorial. The top-down design was developed during the Port Authority's 2008 Assessment to prioritize the completion of the 9/11 Memorial. The construction is being done around the existing PATH Station to allow around-the-clock service to continue.

At the meeting, the Board awarded two Hub construction contracts for miscellaneous metals and hoisting and scaffolding equipment.

When complete, the WTC Transportation Hub will represent the most integrated network of underground pedestrian connections in all of New York City, seamlessly linking the public to PATH service, 13 different subway lines, the Battery Park City Ferry Terminal, Fulton Street Transit Center, the World Financial Center and all of the new office and world-class retail space at the WTC site.

Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia said, "With the award of more than $1 billion in contracts for the Hub so far, we're well on the way to building this transportation facility that will transform Lower Manhattan."

Also, the Port Authority Board of Commissioners took the following actions:

* Authorized $3 million for planning and preliminary design work for the development of an intermodal container transfer facility at the Greenville Yard-Port Authority Marine Terminal.

* Authorized a permanent easement agreement with the City of Jersey City, which is necessary to implement certain security improvements at the PATH Exchange Place Station.