Five projects are now underway, in North Bergen, at the Hoboken-Weehawken border, on the western edge of Manhattan and in the middle of the Hudson.

Several hours later, at 1:40 a.m., he was transferred to Elizabeth, New Jersey. At 11:30 a.m., he was driven to John F. Kennedy Airport, and at 2:45 p.m. boarded a flight to Dallas, Texas.

Most of the work by the 11,200 construction workers, who have faced sweltering heat and freezing cold, has been out of the public view.