“T
IMAGEs COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY AUTHORITY.
he look of the bridge was important,” Project Director The bridge is the first crossing to be built in the New York area on such Jamey Barbas said to her alma mater, Columbia a colossal scale since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge linked Brooklyn to University’s School of Engineering Staten Island in 1964, and is the largest bridge project in New York and Applied Sciences. “We knew we state history. In addition to its hefty price tag, the bridge made wanted to have a signature structure.” news a year ago when one of its cranes collapsed. In what was As a native New Yorker, Barbas had termed a miracle, no lives were lost. Sadly such miracles were a personal interest in creating an not available during construction of the Brooklyn, Verrazanoinstantly recognizable icon. Narrows, and original Tappan Zee bridges, when 20, three, and Costing $3.98 billion, the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge one person, respectively, perished. is named for the three-term 52nd governor of New York, The first span is scheduled to open in late summer/early fall, who happens to be the father of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. and the new bridge is on schedule to fully open to traffic in It was Andrew who set the project in motion, saying at 2018, says New NY Bridge Project Director of Communications the time that, after 10 years of delays, it was a sign that Khurram Saeed. Still to come: A one-and-a-half-inch coating government can still get things done. The elder Cuomo of state-of-the-art asphalt, LED lighting poles, digital died in 2015, knowing the project was well underway. message signs, and stainless steel fencing to deter jumpers. The bridge is expected to be completed in 2018. Saeed points out that 220 million pounds of American steel The first time Andrew Cuomo, a native of Queens, is being used to build the new bridge. N.Y., heard his father use expletives, he recalled to The The Tappan Zee is the longest and most complex New York Times, was on a bridge, although not the crossing in the New York State Thruway system, serving Tappan Zee but the frequently congested Kosciuszko, as a vital artery for residents, commuters, travelers, and itself undergoing replacement. commercial traffic. The name Tappan Zee combines a “The [Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge] will replace a reference to the Tappan tribe of indigenous Americans, critical piece of our crumbling infrastructure, create and the Dutch word for sea. Opened in 1955, it was thousands of jobs for New Yorkers, and help continue designed to support 100,000 vehicles a day, but current Project Director Jamey Barbas an economic resurgence across Westchester, Rockland, traffic exceeds 140,000 a day. and the Hudson Valley region,” the governor said when construction In addition, narrow lanes and the lack of emergency shoulders create began in 2013. unsafe driving conditions and, as a result, the bridge has twice the average
The eastbound main span will soon connect to the Westchester approach.
september 2017
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