New Tappan Zee Bridge Takes Shape
Fifty-one years after the opening of the Tappan Zee Bridge – the longest in the state—first connected a stretch of the Hudson across a three-mile breadth of the river between Tarrytown in Westchester County and South Nyack in Rockland County, a new massive bridge is now rising to take its place.
Slated to carry eight lanes of traffic between Rockland and Westchester Counties, the new, as yet unnamed bridge, which consists of two parallel spans, is a colossal work in progress.
According to a recent New York Times story, “dock builders on floating barges had used hydraulically driven vibrating hammers to pound 28 piles — steel tubes up to six feet in diameter and up to 300 feet long — into the bottom of the Hudson River, some drilled into bedrock, others held by the sheer density of the riverbed muck.”
Ultimately, approximately one thousand piles will be required. And that’s a good thing. By current estimates, the daily traffic could total 138,000 cars.
According to current estimates, the first 96-foot wide-span, is scheduled to open in just under two years. When all is good, the current bridge will be taken down. Then, as The Times reported, “the current bridge will be torn down and, by summer 2018, a parallel span — 87 feet wide — is scheduled to take its place just 40 feet south of the first span.”
The piece also noted that “each span will then be reconfigured to accommodate four lanes of cars, with traffic on the northern span heading to Rockland and traffic on the other to Westchester. Each span will also have an express bus lane and emergency shoulders, and the northern span will have a special lane for cyclists and pedestrians.”
It’s a big bridge indeed, with a price tag to match. The new bridge is estimated to cost $3.9 billion.
Category: Featured, General Update
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