WTC Memorial Won't Be Finished Until 2011

Construction of the memorial and underground museum commemorating the terrorist attacks of September 11 will be finished in 2011, two years later than originally planned, officials said yesterday.

Officials had said for years that September 11, 2009, would be the opening date for the museum and the "Reflecting Absence" memorial, which surrounds two waterfall-filled pools marking the World Trade Center tower footprints with a plaza of sweetgum and oak trees.

The builders of the memorial adjusted the timetable last year, saying the above-ground plaza would open in 2009 and the underground museum open a year later. Steve Plate, who oversees the rebuilding of the trade center site for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said yesterday that the schedule would be pushed back another year.