It took eleven years for One World Trade Center to exceed the height of the Empire State Building; it took over 13 years for it to open. Granted, it's a larger, more complex building—but still, that's a remarkably long time.
Human life simply isn't priceless: it's obviously not worth $1 trillion to save a random person. Nor is it worthless: it's obviously worth 50¢ to save almost anyone. Somewhere in between, there's an economic balance. I recall reading that from numerous estimates of the value that people place on their own lives (through insurance purchases, risk ratios when pursuing various activities &c.) that we tend to value our lives at about $1.5-2 million.
A safety regulation which costs significantly more than that to save one life is, quite literally, not worth it.