Contractor from World Trade Center Restoration Heads Colorado State’s Cleanup on Schedule

The same man who led recovery efforts of the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombing is coordinating flood repair at Colorado State University.

Project manager Bill Boss was vice president of sales and marketing for the main restoration contractor hired to handle the recovery from the devastating World Trade Center bombing. His crew of 3,000 cleaned and repaired the buildings in 16 days, much of it damaged from fire. Boss has been involved in many other recovery efforts nationwide.

Boss, president of Boss & Associates, said university cleanup efforts are running smoothly. He is coordinating six main contractors to ensure that Colorado State is put back in order as quickly as possible. The crews, about 600 workers in all, are at or ahead of schedule with the repairs of almost all of the 39 buildings on campus that were damaged, some minimally, during last week’s flood.

"We have moved quickly into the rebuilding stage, which is always a good indicator of how well a project is moving along," said Boss. "This means the initial debris removal and cleaning are coming to a close and sheet rock and carpet are starting to go back into some of these buildings."

Historic Spruce Hall, among the top priorities, is entirely cleared of debris and cleaned, and is about halfway through the drying process. Boss said cleanup of the two most heavily damaged buildings, Morgan Library and the Lory Student Center, are on schedule and will be ready for the fall semester.

"In my 20 years of dealing with situations like this, this university staff has been one of the easiest to work with," said Boss. "Because of the cooperative staff here combined with qualified specialty contractors, things are moving along smoothly."