the organizing committee, events authority, with your leadership, we can be sure that the promises of economic benefits are real to this city, reflected right here in this moment. has monique said, it is kind of like that gust of wind we will see in the race. this is continuing to be the competition we have in the world. we are in competition with london, shanghai, paris, on whether or not we will be that international city that competes at the highest level, for business, attraction, an investor confidence. i want to thank the port. their vision of having a world- class cruise ship liner station right here, which i look forward to in 2014, you and i will be welcoming thousands of passengers with our crew ship

terminal. we will look back and say thank you to the designers and everyone else that has gotten us this far. i love these top of ceremonies because all of us want to see whether the delivery is as real as the promises that were made, and this is real. this is one of those topping off ceremonies, like at the general hospital, with our financial partners, whether they be the general public or the combined public-private partnership, for a reflection of our implementation of the 10- year capital plan. i know this is very dear to monique. i have had those discussions come as i was a city administrator. even our current city administrator gets in those prolonged discussions on whether

we can really deliver on things or not. at the end, we have these moments where we can say we are delivering on those promises. i know this is the third time that we have tried to get a cruise ship terminal to the pork. not only are we finishing that cruise ship terminal which is so now able to future generations, $40 million to protect business every year after this is constructed, 300 ongoing new jobs, but this is also designed with the northeast wharf plaza, another invitation to our waterfront. it is so important to our state land, our partners on the waterfront, that we honor the lifelong commitment that we have that a port should bring more people to the waterfront to experience things, and that we have done it in the right way with the right investments. so many reasons to celebrate this moment. again, it is an opportunity to

thank everyone involved and to remind folks, when we make a commitment like the 34th america's cup, there is more to it than just the race. it is really the excitement, the economic that can connect with it, and how we're doing it smartly. we are laying out not just the race but the opportunity to share in a world-class event with world class structures with the invitation for more jobs, participation of so many agencies. i also want to thank the general public and all the volunteers, all the people that have invested personally as well as their time, that they know this is more than a dream that can be delivered on, if we continue to build the consensus, a focus and i have been trying to do at the board, in the mayor's office, with all of our community partners and agencies. we can get a lot more done if we

build consensus around the vision and if we get people's roles intact. i am here to celebrate and think everybody but also to put in perspective, this is another promise delivered. a great partnership that we have. we will put this beam on the top, and how fast is this going up? even as we speak, it is appropriate to hear the banging, the connecting, the welding that is going on. we are not allowing anyone to stop our time frame on this because it is about jobs. keeping the promise. men and women in labor, we are honoring them, of course, with the naming of james herman cruise ship terminal. i am so proud of the work of san francisco. now it is their moment in concert with the america's cup,

to celebrate this momentous occasion. thank you, everyone for your dedicated leadership. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. it is now my pleasure to introduce supervisor leslie katz. she began at the board of supervisors in 1996. she has chaired six committees, including the land use committee and finance committee. you can imagine how valuable her assistance has been to us. she is a senior attorney advocate. please welcome commissioner leslie katz. [applause] >> nothing highlights today more than hearing the list of people that made today possible. as director monique moyer stated, in her thank you's, it

went on and on. that is a demonstration of how we do things in san francisco. i also want to thank you and others. i cannot begin to think the court staff for all the hard work they had put and to get us to this day. as a former supervisor, i remember a couple of those failed attempts. it is wonderful to see how far we have come and what is going on behind us. i also want to thank our executive director monique moyer, whose stewardship got us to this point. it is no easy task to bring everyone together. of course, turner construction for making sure that we stay on time and budget. the architects as well. i also want to thank mayor lee and borrow a bit of a moniker that has been applied to him. he gets it done.

what better example than what we are seeing today. thank you, mayor, for making that a reality. [applause] those of us who knew jimmy herman new habra -- know how proud he would have been to see this. he was one of the people that embody the best of san francisco, bringing people together and making sure that we do things as well as possible, that we create jobs can bring people along as we move forward. this is such a fitting tribute to a man that embodied those goals for all of us. you have heard about all the wonderful things here taking place. job creation, we have exceeded goals in terms of local participation. another thing that is near and dear to me is creating a sustainable and green structure. we have done that here with our cruise terminal. it will be the most green cruise terminal, i think, in the world. we recycle the gray water,

energy efficiency. i am not sure what kind of leed certification we are going to get, but it is a model of public buildings that such a high standard. on behalf of the port commission, i want to thank everyone that participated, the america's cup of that authority, and everyone that has helped make this a reality. i remember when we tore down the wall, it seems like yesterday, and now we have a structure going up behind it. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you, a commissioner. next it is my honor to introduce the director of the department of public works muhammed new rule -- nuru. muhammed has dealt with just about every element of public works and streets to you can imagine. mahomet is a landscape

architect. he has worked in the u. s, africa, and saudi arabia. he tears numerous committees and interfaces with our local and federal partners on our behalf. we could not have a better person help lead this important project. please welcome mohammad thank you for the great introduction and thank you for being here today. i want to begin by saying how proud i am with the partnership we have with the port authority. we have been working hard to get this project to what you see today. there has been a lot of challenges, many agencies mentioned here. i think what is great about it is the leadership that mayor lee has brought to our city where we are now working together, all city agencies, on many of our bond and capital projects, delivering great projects. every week, we go from different neighborhood to another neighborhood and there is some

groundbreaking or opening of the project. i am just proud to be part of the city family and the partnership that we have with you, monique. i also want everyone to know that on this project, dpw is providing the project management, the mechanical engineering, and a landscape architect, you heard about the alliance with the park. i want to thank the partnership that we have with turner, knb architects, and the rest of the team getting a project this far. as you heard, we are on schedule so far. we do plan on delivering substantial completion of the project in march. today we will be topping. following that is work on the floors and then the curtain wall and then pretty much the structure is all there.

we are in a very good place at this moment. this is a special moment. finally, tracking jobs. you have heard from many speakers, we are doing pretty well. the jobs will involve over 1000 jobs. we are already at 182 people that have benefited from the project. thank you, mayor lee, for your vision for jobs for san franciscans on many of these projects. we are also pretty close, 90%, it all the contractors working with us. we have exceeded our lbe goals and hiring goals. the jobsi am very happy to be dg the project and i want to assure you the project will be completed on time and we will be able to accommodate those big

ships bringing thousands of people to san francisco. thank you for the opportunity to speak. [applause] >> thank you, muhammed, everyone at dpw. my job is really fun. i get to meet some of the most fascinating people around the world. the one that fascinate me the most have to be the one that spend their lives at sea. so i want to reduce next the president of metro crew stores. -- cruise tours. he is a sea captain graduate from the arena university in genoa, italy. he has sailed world wide for many years. he has worked for princess cruises and crystal cruises before joining metro services. he has a master captain's license. he is a member of thepeople to . thank you for the opportunity to speak. [applause] >> thank you, u.s. coast guard area maritime security committee. he is also a member of the international cruise line council security. we could not have a better

partner. please welcome step in now -- stefano. >> on behalf of metro crews services, a business that has been doing business here since the 1800's, we are so excited to be here today to see this incredibly -- coming an exciting project. as everyone said, san francisco is an incredible city. most of all, in addition to that, san francisco is an incredibly deeply rooted maritime city. the waterfront is in san francisco's blood, maybe more than any other city around the world. as a sea captain, i can tell you that. it is an exciting place for a sea captain to sail into and away from. so it deserves, maybe more than any other, a world-class

facility that allows us to deliver to customer satisfaction that every guest, quite frankly, expects coming in and out of san francisco, and we will be able to do that. i want to thank one person more than anyone else for this. there is a reason why so many times we have tried guest, quita terminal in san francisco but never got one. that is because monique was not there before. she is here now. [applause] it is quite obvious to everyone here what is the fundamental reason of why we are going to get this facility. we are looking forward to record business here. we will get almost 50 calls from princess cruises in 2013- 14, which is our longest and most esteemed partner. that is a record. we have not had as many calls from them, such a large commitment, and certainly not as many guests coming through

because of not only the number of a terminal in san francisco but calls but the number of passengers on each of the large ships they will bring in. they will be here, they will bring jobs to our partners around the city. they will bring excitement, they will show san francisco to first-timers' to the city. they will be able to view this and understand what san francisco is all about. most of all, they will do that in style because of the new facilities that are being built. thank you to all of our partners. we are excited to be here today. we look forward to the future. it is an incredibly new facility. thank you to everyone here today. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you for the personal complement. next, it is my honor to

introduce the general manager of turner construction san francisco and oakland operations. turner construction is the nation's leading general builder. they do about $800 million each year of construction here in the bay area. turner and 13 have been phenomenal. they have hit the ground running. we have thrown challenge after challenge at them. they have had a terrific, open attitude about it. he leads an excellent team whose unique experiences have really helped us to problem solve. one of the things i am most proud of them doing is, this steel behind me is american steel, produced in arkansas and indiana, shipped to san leandro and fresno for assembly, and put in place. you can see them all around. i hope you will stay around and say hello and congratulate them

for being our partner as well. [applause] >> thank you. this is an exciting day to day. it is an exciting time american . as part of the construction industry, i can tell you there are some fabulous projects going on in the city, and planned. hats off to the political leadership and industry leadership. with the jobs that are created, the opportunities created are fabulous. let me focus on something that is even more unique to this project, from our perspective. for us, not only is the completion of the project important, but also the journey. our customers are the people that we take with us. i remember at the port commission the contract was approved and i talked about the journey that we would have. the people from turner that

helped with the journey, seven years ago, i could not say when i'm about to say. one of the reason this is a success is because of the vision of the project. . as part ofcindy is a dpw projec. that is our customer. tina smith, our senior project manager. madison, one of our engineers. nicole. she is one of our engineers. manny is a superintendent. seven people on the job running the show, five of them are women. two of them, denis and pete, they are still men. we will see. thank you for the opportunity and we look forward to the ribbon-cutting. [applause] >> thank you very much for noticing that and mentioning to

all of us. it is my pleasure to tell you that i have the only all-woman port commission out of all four conditions in the united states. you have come to the right place. mr. mayor, it is finally time. please do the honors.

>> hello, welcome to the faa sfo control tower groundbreaking. thank you will for being here. i like to begin by acknowledging our special guests, ra ylahood, michael huearta and mayor ed lee. we have other vips to introduce. supervisor dave fine, bill withacomb, faa district manager

andy richards, and from the san mateo trade council, bill mack. jackie perkins from jackie sears' office. our federal security director, and a couple folks with the architectural firm that led to the design and alex legadda. and vernon allen from the allen group. a round of applause for the vips, think you for being here. >> everyone is very excited with this work now proceeding.

this has moved along at a very quick place. it is a unique partnership between the faa and the airport. for the first time, an airport will be leaving the building of the tower and will be following the direction of the faa and their detailed guidelines for our construction. we are using a design build approach to get six-eight months of the normal cycle and we will be using a formal part during model that we found very helpful and very successful. we are excited that the control tower project will be fully integrated into the terminal complex in both the design and the construction. the tower will fit seamlessly into our recently renovated terminal to, and are soon to be

renovated terminal one. the construction job will bring hundreds of jobs for construction workers, engineers, architects as well. we are excited about the job creation aspect as well. we are excited the project will allow us to work side-by-side with our partners, the most seismically sound and technologically advanced air traffic control tower in the world. i would like to know introduced the secretary of transportation to give a broader perspective on this project as it relates to infrastructure as a whole. it is my great pleasure to introduce the secretary of the department of transportation. mr. secretary. >> good morning, thank you all for being here. special thanks to michael, who you will hear from in just a

minute, our outstanding acting faa administrator, had to our very good friend, someone we think so much of, your outstanding mayor, thank you for being here. it is great to be in san francisco, which is no stranger to the power of thinking big and building big. 75 years ago, our forebears' built one of the most iconic symbols of america's vision. the golden gate bridge. it celebrated 75 years strong amidst the struggle of the great depression and in the face of fierce opposition. it would have been too easy to give up and abandon the project, but they did not do that. they listened to the naysayers, and they also listened to those that wanted to move forward. and those are people that had

big ideas about building a bridge that expands over 4,000 feet. 20 billion cars across the bridge since it opened in 1937. it reminds us that infrastructure investment is the greatest gift we leave to the next generation. what we are celebrating on the site is the next generation, and michael will talk about this, of technology for guiding planes safely in and out of this airport. the this will be the next- generation tower for the next generation. that is what we leave. that is what we do. that is what leaders do. they think about the next generation. this critical infrastructure will create hundreds of good paying jobs. that is the part i really like, particularly for those in the construction vests.

they and their colleagues will be the ones that will benefit in terms of the jobs that will be provided. ho wanted to be here today to really congratulate all those that have provided the leadership for this. it contributes $1.30 trillion in total economic activity and accounts for 5.3% of the total of the supports over 10 million jobs. that is what these kinds of construction projects really create. the president signed a transportation bill last friday at the white house. the two-year bill, and in large measure, thanks to the leadership of people from your congressional delegation. i want to single out senator boxer. she was the chair of the committee, the environmental committee