The Dark

I think I can answer that question for you;

The few trucks and people that you speak of working there late at night under the bright spotlights ARE the ones prepping that spot for the foundations or footings for the Freedom Tower's massive columns which will soon be hammered and anchored deep into the bedrock about 25 - 30 feet down from its surface.

That explains the weekend closings of the Hoboken - WTC service on one of the PATH lines, announced last weekend. Holes for the columns are being dug there adjacent to the tracks.

The trucks are more than likely hauling off dirt or old concrete / steel rods form the former WTC complex being excavated for those holes. There should be construction machinery down there also, making the holes.

As with the former Twin Towers, part of the PATH train lines will run through the underground portion of the Freedom Tower's lower base. As prep work begins to heat up, you should see more and more trucks and workers converging over to that portion of Ground Zero - signifying that the foundation work is well underway.

The tower's underground base or infrastructure itself will be tied or anchored to the "bathtub" (slurry wall) as the Twins once were.

Incidently, as you've asked, Silverstein HAS ALREADY taken control, has overridden the politicians who have been poking their noses into Ground Zero for so long, barreled past Pataki, Blooper and the NJ governor, and has commanded and intiated the startup and prepwork for the Freedom Tower's foundations to start being built.

And according to info received some time ago, actual construction of Tower 2 will not begin until such time as the Freedom Tower is well underway, possibly when the structural steel has risen at least to mid point.

like what ebola says, we need more renderings!

but then again, those pathetic losers probably have yet to make any headways on the designs of the other towers east of the greenwich st. line. they said that they're getting other architects to design the rest, but im really skeptical that they have even made any further progress beyond that announcement. so, if they're to release any renderings now, it's still gonna be the same thing as a year ago...

all i can say is that at this rate, by the time pataki leaves office in 2007, the only things that possibly can be under construction is the FT and the memorial. and if the new governor thinks of the rest of the buildings east of greenwich st as junk, then we might get a radical redesign of the area, which hopefully will include a badly needed twin to the FT.

say, when are they gonna get the memorial started anyways? the victims families will definitely cry foul if all silverstein's doing is getting the FT going and forgetting about the memorial itself (possibly a reason why the construction's starting with no fanfare at all). though i don't like the underground-oriented design of the memorial, it just doesn't make sense to simply proceed with the rebuilding and leaving the remembering behind.