Replace the Tappan Zee Bridge - Archive

Cuomo Pushes for New Tappan Zee Bridge at Budget Signing

April 5th, 2012 | Posted by dcostello in Blog - (0 Comments)

Purchase, N.Y. (APRIL 5, 2012) – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo today emphasized the need to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge during a ceremonial signing of the 2012-2013 New York State budget at Manhattanville College.

“They’ve been talking about replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge since I think I was in diapers. I remember all the conversations about the Tappan Zee – it was temporary, it’s got to be replaced, it’s dangerous: we’ve literally been talking about it for decades. We’ve just never gotten the ability to get to ‘yes’ and to make it happen. Development has been paralyzed – it’s been frozen,” Cuomo said. “Well, those days are over. We’re going to rebuild the Tappan Zee Bridge, we’re going to do it now, we’re going to create jobs, and we’re going to make it safe and better for the people of the state of New York.”

The New York State budget, passed last week by the Legislature, focuses on infrastructure as a way to reinvent state economic development and put New Yorkers back to work. Among other initiatives, the launch of the New York Works Task Force will create tens of thousands of jobs by coordinating comprehensive capital plans, overseeing all investment in infrastructure projects, and accelerating hundreds of critical projects across the state.

BuildTheBridgeNowNY.org thanks the governor for his vision, leadership, and execution in delivering a budget that is not only fiscally responsible, but also creates jobs and strengthens communities across the state.

“The Tappan Zee Bridge is beyond its lifecycle and needs to be replaced now. Gov. Cuomo’s support of this project has been vital, and we applaud him for making this one of the country’s most important infrastructure projects,” said Ross J. Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc., and treasurer of BuildTheBridgeNowNY.org, a statewide collation advocating to build a new Hudson River crossing. “Gov. Cuomo understands that by putting boots on the ground and hardhats on hundreds of jobsites statewide, it will inject billions into the New York economy.”

budget, buildthebridgenowny.org, Cuomo, manhattanville college, New York, new york state budget, purchase, Tappan Zee Bridge, Westchester

HGAR Briefed on New $5B Tappan Zee Bridge Project

March 7th, 2012 | Posted by mpepe in Blog - (0 Comments)

From realestateindepth.com
Direct Link: http://www.realestateindepth.com/atf.php?sid=174
Written By: John Jordan

Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc., of Tarrytown, presented the case to move forward with the expedited plan to build a $5.2-billion replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge.

WHITE PLAINS – Construction industry association executive Ross J. Pepe briefed members of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors on Feb. 28 at the HGAR offices in White Plains on the plans being advanced by state and federal officials to build a new $5.2-billion Tappan Zee Bridge.

Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc. and the Building Contractors Association based in Tarrytown, said that if all goes according to plan a Design- Build contracting firm will be selected this summer and a Record of Decision reached by the end of August or early September with construction starting shortly thereafter. The project calls for the construction of a new bridge that would support mass transit at a future date.

Approximately 50 members of HGAR attended the joint session of HGAR’s Commercial Investment Division and its Legislative, Legal and Political Affairs Council.

After the session was completed, the Legislative, Legal and Political Affairs Council met to discuss the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project and approved a policy statement in support of the new bridge plan.

HGAR in its policy statement noted, ”Considering that building a new bridge is now among the highest infrastructure priorities at both the federal and New York State levels, that we have the commitments of the Obama and Cuomo administrations to commence the project, and that there is serious consideration of fundraising options by those parties, it does not make sense to risk all that by tacking on an untold number of years to plan and review the transit options. Our preference as an organization is that the project stay on its current fast track and in transit-capable mode.”

The Legislative Committee stressed that its position in support of the expedited plan “is not to be interpreted as a less than enthusiastic endorsement of the mass transit component, but rather a pragmatic seizure of an opportunity that may not reoccur. We do in fact strongly support mass transit, and we urge that every effort be made to start planning for it right now, so that a final configuration could be in place when the bridge construction is completed, if not sooner.”

The committee noted that prior studies have amassed a tremendous amount of information concerning a mass transit

The new bridge would be built just north of the existing span. Four firms are vying for the Design-Build contract to build the new bridge and at least for now, demolish the existing span.

component on the new span. The committee stated, “The Federal Highway Administration and the New York State Thruway Authority and Department of Transportation should assist local governments in the I-287 corridor with program grants and other resources to complete the corridor study as a separate project. County governments in the corridor could perhaps be the coordinating entities; Westchester and Rockland both had advisory groups for the former project. In short, we recommend that there be two tracks, the mass transit capable bridge, and the mass transit redesigned I-287 corridor. Neither must wait for the other, the need is too urgent.”

Developments on the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing have come fast and furious. In fact, later in the day of the HGAR session was the first of two public hearings on the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the new bridge project that found no adverse environmental impact. The Feb. 28 public hearing was held at the Palisades Center in West Nyack. On March 1, a session was scheduled at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown.

Proponents of the project were expected to be out in force for the project that is expected to create more than 10,000 construction jobs and thousands of other jobs. Also predicted to have large contingents at the sessions are those that are pushing state and federal officials to have some form of mass transit (bus rapid transit or commuter rail) be part of the bridge project upon completion. Among those mass transit advocates are Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino and Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoeff.

On Feb. 7, the New York State Thruway Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation announced they had selected four design-build consortiums as qualified bidders for the new bridge project.

State officials reported that a request for proposals (RFP) would be issued to the four bidders in coming weeks. Thruway Authority officials noted that a total of five design-build partnerships expressed interest in the new Tappan Zee Bridge project, but only four were deemed qualified based on what they said was a “thorough multiagency technical review.” The identity of the firm not deemed qualified was not released.

The four groups that will be sent RFPS for the project are:

Hudson River Bridge Constructors

(a group including Dragados USA, Inc., Flatiron Constructors, Inc., Samsung C&T, E&C Americas, Inc., and Yonkers Contracting Company, Inc.)

Kiewit-Skanska-Weeks Joint Venture

(Kiewit Infrastructure Co., Skanska USA Civil Northeast Inc., and Weeks Marine, Inc.)

Tappan Zee Bridge Partners, a Bechtel/Tutor Perini Joint Venture

(Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation and Tutor Perini Corporation)

Tappan Zee Constructors

(Fluor Enterprises, Inc., American Bridge Company, Granite Construction Northeast, Inc., and Traylor Bros., Inc.)

In relation with the new bridge project, the New York State Department of Transportation announced that Trevcon Construction Company, Inc. of Liberty Corner, NJ was the apparent low bidder at $17.9 million for test pile installation across the Hudson River as part of the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing project. Work has already begun on the pile project.

Approximately 50 HGAR members and guests attended the joint session of the association's Commercial and Investment Division and the Legislative, Legal and Public Affairs Council.

Pepe explained that the design of the new bridge would either be an arch style or “cable-stay” with two towers. Both design options would be a twin span (two decks) each featuring four 12-foot traffic lanes (for a total of eight lanes), a left shoulder and emergency access, a right shoulder, and barriers along the decks’ edges. The left and right shoulders would serve as disabled vehicle lanes. The left shoulder would also provide emergency vehicle access. A bicycle lane would also be provided.

He also noted that the expedited project is being advanced under the “Design- Build” process, which was passed by the New York State legislature last year, where the private sector competes to offer the most innovative, cost effective designs for the new bridge. Rather than the state mandating a specific bridge design and construction method, qualified firms are now competing on their respective designs for the replacement bridge. The designbuild process permits an expedited construction schedule compared to traditional state contracting, and offers significant cost savings with less risk to state taxpayers of design changes and resulting cost overrun, state officials have said.

In October 2011, President Barrack Obama announced that the Tappan Zee Bridge project was one of 14 megaprojects across the nation to be fast-tracked in an expedited approval process. The project team, which includes the Federal Highway Administration, the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Thruway Authority (the owner of the bridge that connects Rockland and Westchester counties), are now working on the environmental approvals and design for a new span to be built just to the north of the existing structure. The project team issued a Request for Qualifications to interested contractors in November of 2011.

The Federal Highway Administration, which is now spearheading the project, rescinded the prior environmental studies that were underway, which included a number of designs for a new span as well as bus rapid transit and commuter rail to be possibly incorporated into the project. Cost estimates ranged from $8 billion to $16 billion for a full build-out that included commuter rail in a more than 30-mile study area that began in Suffern and ended in Port Chester. Instead, the new fast-tracked study now involves a little more than three miles from Nyack to Tarrytown, and is focused solely on building a new bridge that “does not preclude transit in the future.”

“Until last October, it would have been a safe bet that a new crossing would not be started or built for at least a five to 10-year period,” Pepe said. “The (prior) process that was engaged had reached nearly a decade with little movement to success.”

He charged that the prior study involved a 30-mile area and included bus and commuter rail options with little financing available to fund the nearly $20 billion project.

The expedited plan could allow a groundbreaking for this project to be held prior to Election Day in November.

Pepe said that under the new plan the state has been or will be applying for approximately $3 billion in federal (TIFA) loans and TIGER grants. The balance of the project will be financed via traditional bonding (likely to be issued by the bridge’s owner The New York State Thruway Authority) and toll increases. State officials have also said that pension fund and other private investment could be possible.

The New York State Department of Transportation has hired Jeffrey A. Parker Associates of Philadelphia to provide financial advice and analysis on the financing of the new span. A report on financing options is expected to be released soon.

Pepe later in the day was part of a press conference orchestrated by ReplaceTheTZBridgeNow. org, a statewide coalition of major employers, transportation professionals, civil engineers, and labor organizations representing more than 300,000 employees and 15,000 employers, in support of the expedited bridge plan.

In a press statement, Pepe said, “Based on the assessment of the project’s limited funding opportunities for the foreseeable future, the decision to exclude the complete build out of a mass transit program was a wise decision. Based on the reality of the funding that is now available, the new Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project will not preclude the planning, design, construction or consideration of future transit modes through the TZ corridor. In other words, the final bridge design will not preclude future transit operations.”

Bridge, CIC, HGAR, Ross Pepe, Tappan Zee, Tappan Zee Bridge

Mission Critical: Statement by Marsha Gordon in favor of replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge

February 25th, 2012 | Posted by dcostello in Blog - (0 Comments)

I am Marsha Gordon and I serve as president of the Business Council of Westcheter. I thank you for the opportunity to add our opinions and views at this hearing today. On behalf of the Business Council’s board of directors and many executive committees that serve more than 1,000 employers in the region, I want to underscore several reasons why it is essential to move forward with a replacement Hudson River crossing project at this time.

Our leadership and board of directors have long been on record in support of the replacement bridge program currently being considered. As we all know, the current bridge was originally designed to handle much less traffic than it is now being asked to serve. Among the myriad of reason to build a new crossing, let me list just a few. The current bridge does not conform to current interstate standards. Conditions that contribute to traffic accidents and tie-ups will persist no matter how much money we spend to repair the exiting span. A new bridge will be designed and built to current standards of lane width and deck pitch that will rectify conditions that are now a major reason for traffic accidents and delays. And in doing so – by reducing repair-related traffic delays – the new crossing will add emergency breakdown lanes to avoid tie-ups and thus contribute to better air quality in the corridor in both Rockland and Westchester counties.

Finally, I want to add that the Business Council of Westchester is opposed to any course of action that will stall, postpone or even kill this vital project for the most obvious reason: The existing span is already many years past its design life. The Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS), issued last month, clearly pointed to the need to replace the bridge and that doing so will have no negative impacts on local communities. We call upon the Thruway Authority, State DOT and the Federal Highway Administration to build a new Hudson River crossing that will eventually accommodate mass transit to the bridge. Insisting that mass transit be part of the new bridge on first day the new bridge opens will delay the project by years. Please do not let this occur.

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Welcome to ReplaceTheTZBridgeNow.Org

February 20th, 2012 | Posted by admin in Blog - (0 Comments)

Today we stand at a decisive moment in the history of New York State. With funding now available to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge, bold action is required to begin what will be the largest public works project ever undertaken in state history.

ReplaceTheTZBridgeNow.Org is a broad statewide coalition of major employers, transportation professionals, civil engineers, and labor organizations representing more than 300,000 employees and more than 15,000 employers. Together, we are calling for replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge this year with a new Hudson River crossing.

We carry the message that our communities, commuters, stakeholders and conservation organizations must hear. We urge local, state and federal government officials to keep up their measured support. We stand against those who are now calling for more unnecessary delays, superfluous environmental studies and needless extra costs.

The Hudson River crossing project will energize an economic resurgence, create jobs, and provide safe and efficient travel for the more than 140,000 vehicles crossing the bridge every day. The new structure is also the first step to addressing long-term commuter needs, including future public transit.

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