By Andrew Tangel and Keiko Morris 

Commuters dashing through a new World Trade Center train station will soon be treated to a grand view if they look skyward.

Long delayed and about $2 billion over budget, the centerpiece of a transit hub linking the PATH and New York City subways is set to open early next month, nearly 15 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The "Oculus" of arched steel ribs and glass was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to resemble a bird flying out of child's hand, a symbol of hope for a scarred city.

"We tried to do something that inspires optimism," Mr. Calatrava said Friday on a tour of the station, describing it as a civic monument that captures New Yorkers' tenacity to rebuild.

The World Trade Center station will become lower Manhattan's answer to Grand Central Terminal, in a city where many still mourn the 1963 demolition of the original New York Penn Station.

The price: $3.9 billion, double its original estimate, also making the new station a poster child of runaway construction costs.

In recent years, friction between Mr. Calatrava and officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, has spilled out into open. During a discussion last year over who might design a new bus terminal in midtown Manhattan, John Degnan, the agency's chairman, quipped: "Maybe not a Spanish architect."

On Friday, Steven Plate, the Port Authority's chief of major capital projects, brushed aside questions over previous disagreements.

He noted the agency's work on the overall 16-acre Trade Center site was on track to meet a 2012 budget estimate of $14.8 billion to $15.8 billion.

Mr. Plate hugged Mr. Calatrava and heralded the hub as symbol of resilience.

"We haven't just built a project," Mr. Plate said. "We've fixed a wound that was deep in the heart of New York."

On Friday, workers were removing plywood and foam covers of the hub's floors of white marble from northern Italy. In coming months, stores and restaurants are expected to open.

A connection to nearby Fulton Center, where riders can hop on several subway lines, is expected to open this summer.

The public will experience what nearly $4 billion can buy at a yet-to-be announced date the first week of March.

Civic leaders predict any sticker shock will soon fade.

"You are building with bricks and marble, but ultimately you are building something far greater and the investment in the human spirit and potential is priceless," Gina Pollara, president of the Municipal Art Society of New York. "We have to take the long view."

Added Thomas Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association: "Was the George Washington Bridge delivered on budget or over budget? The answer is nobody cares."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2016 19:47 ET (00:47 GMT)