Gov. Cuomo Sets Course For Reelection Campaign With Tax Cut Gambit

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is hoping to win over some voters upstate with a plan that would cut somewhere from $2 to $3 billion in New York State taxes and fees.

In a surprising announcement scheduled for Wednesday morning, Cuomo will appoint former Gov. George Pataki and former Democratic state Controller Carl McCall to head a task force charged with finding ways to cut between $2 billion and $3 billion in taxes next year, a source with ties to McCall said Tuesday night.

Cuomo wants to announce an aggressive tax-cutting plan as he heads into his reelection run next year.

On the face, this makes perfect sense. New York has a reputation as a high tax state, but when you look under the hood, the tax cuts would do New Yorkers a tremendous disservice. There are several high profile projects around the state that are in dire need of funding, and some or all of the money to be cut would go a long way to funding those projects.

I'm talking about critical infrastructure improvements.

In New York City alone, there's Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway that needs to be funded so that the East Side of Manhattan commuters get relief beyond a stub line. Throw in bridge repairs and infrastructure improvements in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and there's a pretty long list.

Then, there's Gov. Cuomo's pet project - the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement. It's waiting on confirmation of a federal loan program to fund the project, and the state has already borrowed nearly a billion dollars to get the project off the ground.

Upstate infrastructure needs significant investments, including sewer and water treatment facility upgrades, road rebuilding, and bridge repair or replacement.

Instead of cutting these revenue sources altogether, redirect some or all to fund infrastructure projects that will help modernize the state's crumbling infrastructure and to protect its residents from the effects from tropical storms and hurricanes.

Three Designs For Tappan Zee Replacement Span Unveiled

The NYS Thruway Authority announced that the designs for the Tappan Zee bridge replacement span have been released. The release includes some key details, including costs and timeframe to complete.

I'm not particularly impressed with the designs, which all appear to be some form of a cable stayed span, but the second plan appears to have the best aesthetics. The Thruway Authority was looking for a signature span, and only the second design fits the bill. The first and third designs look derivative and far too busy.

Moreover, the third design would not only be the most expensive design at $4.059 billion, but would require more money to make it ready for mass transit capabilities down the road. The other two designs would be built for $3.142 billion and $3.99 billion respectively.

Thruway Bridge Design Presentation

At least all the designs are coming in at under the $5 billion that Gov. Cuomo and the Thruway Authority thought necessary to build out. Now, if the companies behind the plans can stick to their budgets and get it done in a timely fashion we'd have something to work with here.

Gov. Cuomo seems to be leaning towards option 1 - the $3.142 billion plan. It would also have the benefit of being the plan that has the quickest construction time and requires the least amount of dredging.

Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement Gets Thumbs Up From Federal Highway Officials

The $5+ billion plan to replace the Tappan Zee bridge got the thumbs up from federal highway officials, paving the way for New York to award the contract for a design-build to begin work on the bridge.

The federal record of decision confirms the project has met requirements under state and federal environmental law, including completing an environmental impact study, a 10,000-page document that details how the state would protect nearby communities and river wildlife during construction. A dozen federal and state agencies contributed to the document, and the draft report received more than 3,000 comments from the public.

Cuomo last week announced the creation of a selection committee, made up of artists, architects and community representatives, to evaluate each of the proposals and make a final recommendation to the Thruway Authority’s board of directors. A design-builder is likely to be selected before the end of the year.

While federal approval lets the project proceed, possible lawsuits still threaten to hold it up.

The Hudson Riverkeeper, which has criticized the plan for not adequately addressing how river life will be negatively affected, has said it would wait for the federal decision before deciding whether to take legal action.

The state must still provide a detailed financial plan, but officials have said they are hoping a low-interest federal loan will cover about half the project cost. The rest would be paid for through toll-backed bonds.

While the approvals are good news, it isn't clear to what extent mass transit - whether bus rapid transit or commuter rail, will be incorporated into the designs other than the potential to build out those components at some future point in time. The time to build in the bus rapid transit is at the outset, and while it would only address the bridge span and approaches, the entire Rockland-Westchester corridor could be adapted to bus rapid transit in phases as the state's economic situation improves.

Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement Gains Key Approval

Despite concerns that the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council was violating state law, or at least stretching the notice requirements so as to allow a vote on the Tappan Zee replacement project without giving proper notice, the Council did hold its emergency meeting today.

Backed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Council unanimously approved the project, even though there's still no concrete design and the final costs are still not known.

The 9:30 meeting was streamed from the state Department of Transportation website, but had no audio during the 40-minute program, which included public comments from Riverkeeper and Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a presentation by the board.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a steadfast advocate of a new Tappan Zee, is expected to comment on the milestone vote at a news conference in Piermont at 1 p.m., his office said.

The unanimous vote in favor of the $5.2 billion project was expected, after the county executives from Westchester, Rockland, and Punam announced last week they supported the governor’s plan to replace the Tappan Zee. To ensure the state could compete for federal funds for the project, today’s meeting was quickly organized on Friday afternoon.

That drew sharp criticism from major interest groups which argued that a last-minute notice prevented the public from getting involved.

Veronica Vanterpool, executive director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign, attended Monday’s vote and questioned whether the project will be able to secure federal funds. Last week, a state comptroller report blasted the Thruway Authority for poorly managed finances. The Thruway Authority owns and operates the Tappan Zee.

“In order for this to be a competitive project, there are a lot of red flags raised, by the comptroller and by the credit agencies,” Vanterpool said. “That needs to be addressed. You want it to be the best project so it will receive federal funds. How can it be the best project if the finances are so shaky?”

Even the county officials in Rockland and Westchester are left with only assurances that mass transit (whether bus rapid transit or commuter rail) will eventually be included in an I-87/I-287 corridor project to come after the bridge is built with capacity to handle eventual construction.

We'll probably get our first crack at viewing the bridge designs once the winning bids are announced next month.

Still, the biggest question is how the bridge construction will be funded. Approximately $2 billion will be paid for via a federal loan. The remainder will be funded from user tolls. The last couple of weeks have seen the Governor's office release a toll structure that would nearly triple tolls, but then Governor Cuomo admitted that the tolls seem to be high.

He's trying to play the tolls both ways. On the one hand, his office put out those numbers knowing what it would take to cover the construction and debt costs. By their reckoning, those tolls are needed to fund the construction if the state is incapable or unwilling to pony up the money directly so as to cover the debt costs and construction costs directly. On the other hand, the Governor can claim that he's now concerned that the numbers would produce such high tolls and he'd look into it.

However, that could mean that the transit options get shelved indefinitely, even though they have the potential to take the largest number of vehicles off the road and reduce congestion throughout the I-87/I-287 corridor. That, however, is a direct competitor to the Thruway Authority's need to stimulate tolls that generate revenues for the Authority to fund both capital projects and operating expenses.

One of the rationales for hiking the tolls to their stratospheric levels is that it would match the George Washington Bridge's new tolling. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense since the Port Authority's come under fire itself for hiking tolls when the perception that the money isn't going to fund transportation infrastructure but rather World Trade Center work. Mind you that the gap in the Port Authority's budget is due almost entirely to the cost overruns associated with the PATH transit hub at the WTC - $1.2 billion in overruns nearly matches the money expected to be realized from the toll hikes.

What gets lost in all this is why infrastructure projects costs as much as they do when compared to European or Japanese projects of similar scope. There's no reason they should cost as much, and yet project after project has seen overruns and cost estimates that boggle the mind.

Bids For Tappan Zee Replacement Come In Under $5.2 Billion

I'm not quite sure that we should take this as good news: bids for the Tappan Zee bridge replacement have come in under $5.2 billion. The good news is that the building conglomerates think that the bridge could be built for less than the NYS Thruway Authority and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have estimated.

The bad news is that the bids could simply be underestimating the amounts so as to win the bid, and that the costs will end up being at or above the $5.2 billion level.

One has to wonder just how stringent the Thruway Authority will be in determining how accurate the estimated costs will be, and whether everyone inflated costs on the project. After all, one has to wonder why construction costs are as high as they are, when we aren't getting as much for our money as we should expect.

If, and it's a huge if, the bids can keep to their budget of under $5.2 billion, it should keep the overall toll increases down, and should provide an opportunity to include bus rapid transit to be rolled into the construction phase, rather than waiting until some indeterminate point in the future to have a second construction phase to link bus rapid transit or commuter rail on the bridge.

The state and Thruway Authority need to impress on the New York Congressional delegation to make sure that the federal government provides funding for the bridge, which is integral to the Interstate system and a key link across the Hudson River (the closest Interstate links are 30 miles south (George Washington Bridge) and 35 miles north (Newburgh Beacon Bridge). That makes the bridge essential to interstate traffic and it's a major bypass for truck traffic looking to avoid traffic on the George Washington Bridge heading into New England from New Jersey and points south.

Thus far, it appears that the state is hoping to get a $2 billion federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to help cover the cost, but the bulk of the financing is going to come from bonds backed by toll hikes.

Toll hikes across the entire Thruway Authority are possible, but there's opposition to hikes across the entire system, even though the benefits are spread across the entire system. Toll hikes are also a concern since much of the currently imposed tolls are going to debt service that was rolled over and extended rather than allowing the tolls to expire across the state.

Gov. Cuomo Still Trying To Have It Both Ways On Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement

After justifying that the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement will hold off on bus rapid transit or commuter rail so as to hold costs to roughly $5 billion, it was announced that tolls would nearly triple to $14 from a current $5 toll so as to cover the new bridge. The tolls are imposed by the New York State Thruway Authority, which is the lead agency and is the operator of the existing bridge.

Now, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is saying that he's looking for ways to reduce the tolling, but his solutions do not include the state kicking in funds to reduce the need for the Thruway Authority to borrow the money. Instead, he's proposing panels to consider how to make the tolls lower.

He has proposals for two new panels: One, a blue ribbon committee to choose the design and bidder for the bridge project. “The panel could include architects, historians of the river towns, international design experts, as well as local officials from Westchester and Rockland, regular citizens, and of course the appropriate technical experts that Thruway has identified.”

The other a panel would federal agency representatives to examine financing options and ways to make the project cheaper.

“I want to reduce the toll predictions,” he said. “We have four or five years while the bridge is built” to figure out how to drive down the amount needed to pay for the bridge.

His letter to Thruway Chairman Howard Milstein and Director Thomas Madison says: “I request that you work with my administration to convene a task force of Thruway, state, federal and local officials to explore ways to reduce these increases. We have done this successfully in similar situations where a bridge crossing is a necessity for local residents. For example, we recently developed a discount program for Staten Island residents that significantly reduces the toll burden of interstate bridges.

What Cuomo is suggesting is additional bureaucracy to select the winning bridge design, rather than allow the Thruway Authority to make the choice. We are talking about a critical portion of the Interstate Highway System through the Lower Hudson River Valley and federal funding should be considered as a critical component of the overall plan. After all, the Thruway Authority is already working with federal, state, and local officials to get the bridge done.

Maximizing the value for the project needs to be considered and bus rapid transit maximizes the amount of people that can cross the bridge from the outset, and Cuomo's inflated the costs by tacking on costs that are outside the immediate construction of the bridge with bus rapid transit lanes. It isn't necessary to build an entire bus rapid transit corridor through the entirety of Rockland and Westchester County to get bus rapid transit on the bridge. Rather, it's necessary only to build between Tarrytown and Nyack at the outset. Once the bridge is built, and additional funds are made available, the corridor could be built out.

Tolls to Top $14 on Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement

The Tappan Zee replacement span will cost north of $5 billion, and the New York State Thruway has to figure out how to pay for the cost of the span. The Thruway Authority is selling bonds to cover the costs, and the tolls will back those bonds.

The Thruway Authority is expected to nearly triple the existing $5 toll to $14 to cross the span. That's a huge blow to commuters and businesses that rely on transiting the span on a regular basis and have to pay $5 each way (or less with various discount programs).

It would also likely spur more drivers to head north to the Newburgh Beacon Bridge on the I-84 corridor. The George Washington Bridge, which is the most heavily traveled bridge in the world, has tolls expected to rise to $17 by the time the Tappan Zee is replaced.

Tolls imposed by public authorities are the easiest way that the state can get the necessary funds to build the bridge because it isn't nearly as easy to raise taxes to cover the same amount. Tolls hit those who are directly using the span, even though the benefits are felt throughout the region (lower pollution due to less idling in traffic jams, more efficient travel corridors, etc.).

The state should be kicking in more money to cover the construction, as should the federal government since the Thruway is part of the Interstate highway system.

That's essentially the justification for higher tolls, but the high cost for infrastructure construction should get higher scrutiny from media outlets and from the government itself (both within and outside state agencies). There's no reason that construction costs for these kinds of projects should be so much higher than elsewhere in the world (particularly Europe or Japan). The high costs means that there's fewer projects that can be contemplated because the size and scope of the projects (and the inevitable cost overruns) reduces public support for projects, regardless of how critical they are.

Potholes Along the Way For a New Tappan Zee Bridge

Everyone who has ever traveled across the Tappan Zee bridge or has been following infrastructure issues in the New York City metro region knows that the Tappan Zee is functionally obsolete and that it would take billions of dollars to keep it functionally obsolete without collapsing.

It lacks breakdown lanes so that if there's a minor accident, traffic can back up for miles, especially during rush hour. It wasn't built to handle the capacity it sees today, and it was built to a 50-year lifespan; a lifespan that was already exceeded a decade ago.

So, everyone understands that the bridge has to be replaced.

The battle is over shaping what its replacement will look like and what should happen to the old span.

I'll address the latter part first.

The old span should be largely dismantled. Trying to turn it into a green space ignores the point of replacing the span - it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain and converting it to a new use as a park similar to a railroad trestle in Newburgh ignores that building the new span and maintaining the old span would present a navigational hazard in the river, as well ongoing costs to maintain an obsolete span.

Supporters of the idea advocated modeling the old 3.1-mile bridge after Manhattan's High Line park, converting an outdated structure into a green space in the sky and a unique link between Rockland and Westchester counties for bikers and pedestrians. The proposal seemed to get a boost in February, when Mr. Cuomo called it "an exciting opportunity that we are going to be exploring."

But the federal review—a mandatory environmental-impact statement that had to be performed before construction—said the vision wasn't "prudent or feasible." Others said they weren't surprised, given the roughly $50 million a year the state spends on the bridge's upkeep. "I never thought it was a realistic idea," Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef said.

Instead, the span, built in 1955, will be documented for historic and educational purposes as it is demolished over a period of 12 to 18 months, the review said.

The details were among many contained in the report from the Federal Highway Administration, which also laid out a series of strategies to reduce the disruption, noise and mess from the enormous project.

The new span should have pedestrian paths to allow walking or biking across the span. But, more importantly, it should have bus rapid transit lanes incorporated at the outset.

Governor Cuomo hasn't just tried to punt on the issue, but has actively sought to thwart building mass transit infrastructure into the new span as it is being built. He's claiming that the costs for building a rail and bus rapid transit would more than double the bridge costs and that rail could be added later (with additional billions in costs). The problem is that Cuomo's claims don't bear out.

Building in the bus rapid transit wouldn't require building out an entire bus corridor along I-87/I-287 through Rockland and Westchester. Costs could be minimized by building the initial link from Tarrytown to Nyack, allowing future phases to expand bus rapid transit on the Rockland side out to Suffern on the Rockland side. On the Westchester side, the I-87/287 service roads that run parallel to the highway could be appropriated for bus rapid transit at a minor cost pending a permanent solution using the highway's existing right of way (but not necessarily an elevated busway similar to how the JFK Airtrain operates above the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens). It's the elevated busway that would add billions to the costs; Cuomo incorporates all the infrastructure through both counties in inflating the bridge costs rather than focusing on the bridge and its immediate landing sites.

Moreover, Cuomo has expressed that there's opposition to mass transit where no such opposition exists. Bus rapid transit could get done - and done cheaper than he is willing to acknowledge, all while keeping the overall cost of the new span to around $5 billion.

Initially, four teams were expected to bid on the replacement project but only three did so: 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); and Tappan Zee Constructors (Fluor Enterprises, Inc., American Bridge Company, Granite Construction Northeast, Inc., and Traylor Bros.)

A fourth team, Hudson River Bridge Constructors, withdrew from the process because one of the members of the group, a Colorado contractor, Flatiron (which built a replacement span across Lake Champlain) didn't approve its submission.

Review of the proposals is expected to be completed in September and a notice to proceed should be issued in October. That means that we will have to wait until then to see the ultimate design for the replacement span and its iconic/signature design elements.

Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement Project Gets Labor Agreement

The Tappan Zee Bridge, which is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority, is scheduled to be replaced. Part of the costs associated with the project are labor costs, and the state just signed a Project Labor Agreement with a number of unions that are supposed to save nearly $500 million in costs over the life of the project.

Replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge represents one of the largest public infrastructure project in the nation, and the agreement reached today will allow thousands of New York’s working men and women to secure good jobs building a new, safer bridge,” Governor Cuomo said. “This agreement will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, while putting in place important protections for our workers. For too long we have talked about replacing the Tappan Zee, and we cannot wait any longer. Now is the time for action.”

Key provisions contained in the PLA include:

• A standardized 40 hour straight time work week for all trades and the flexibility to schedule four 10 hour work days to optimize construction for a combined estimated savings of $122,956,095 million;
• A higher ratio of apprentices to journeypersons than typically allowed in collective bargaining agreements, saving an estimated $59 million;
• Giving workers that arrive one hour prior to their shift $25 a day rather than an hour of overtime, saving an estimated $59 million;
• Standardized holidays that eliminates overtime for service trades saves an approximate $2.6 million.

The PLA also creates employment opportunities for union members across the Hudson Valley and New York Metropolitan Region, assures payment of fringe benefits, and acts as a mechanism to settle jurisdictional disputes through an organized grievance process. A stipulation of the agreement states that lock-out or other work disruptions, including renegotiations of area Collective Bargaining Agreements, is not permitted.

The project is still expected to cost $5.2 billion, which makes the agreement a considerable effort to contain costs. The final design has yet to be agreed upon, and while it is supposed to provide for mass transit options, it will not be built with either light or heavy rail or bus rapid transit. That means that the cost will be lower at the outset but it also means that commuters through the Lower Hudson Valley will have no new cross-river mass transit options.

Work is already underway to ascertain riverbed conditions and the kind of piling and foundations that will need to be built across the river.

However, bond ratings agencies have downgraded the Thruway Authority's rating on the outlook for revenues to cover the construction. That affects the Authority's costs for bonding the new bridge work, and suggests the need for higher tolls systemwide to cover the construction.

Members of the state's Congressional delegation are hoping to get federal funding for the bridge replacement but with Congress essentially deadlocked on any kind of new/additional funding, that's a tough task. Infrastructure spending has long lasting benefits to economic development, including more safer and more efficient transportation, reduced congestion, and the immediate benefit of jobs for construction and associated trades.

Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement Takes Hit When Federal Funding Dries Up

The Tappan Zee bridge needs replacement. That much is clear to pretty much everyone. The new span is expected to cost at least $5.2 billion. It would cost a whole lot more if it is built with heavy rail to connect the Metro North lines on either side of the Hudson River, so the fast-track plan put forth by Gov. Andrew Cuomo omitted that plan but would have the bridge built with the capacity to handle heavy rail added at some later point.

Now, the federal government has put the kibosh on all that. They're saying that they don't have the money to let the project move ahead - to provide a $2 billion loan to get construction going:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that he is considering new ideas for paying to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge after the federal government initially rejected a $2 billion loan application because it doesn't have enough money at this time.

Partnerships with private companies that could provide financing based on fares are among the many possibilities, though Cuomo didn't disclose any new approaches. Cuomo downplayed rejection of the loan by the Obama administration on April 26. He said there will be future rounds of the competitive loans and New York will have a strong application for the next opportunity. The $5.2 billion project would build two spans to replace an aging, overcrowded bridge across the Hudson River in New York City's northern suburbs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Duane Callender said in a letter to the state that the bridge project scored well in its review, but the federal department didn't have enough money for it this spring. Instead, smaller projects were chosen to compete for $13 billion in funding.

Callender said that if federal funds are significantly increased, the department will create a list of projects to be expedited. Although Callender didn't say the Tappan Zee Bridge would be on that list, another application was encouraged while noting lending could still be "constrained" even with more funding.

To get around the loss of federal funding, Gov. Cuomo is putting together a task force to help get major infrastructure done in the state.

It will be co-chaired by Denis Hughes, the former president of the state AFL-CIO labor federation, and Felix Rohatyn, the Vienna-born investment banker and former U.S. ambassador to France who played a key role in the rescue of New York City during its 1970s fiscal crisis.

The panel's first job will be acquainting itself with the large infrastructure projects already under way, including the mammoth construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge, Cuomo said. The panel has no specific deadline for recommendations, unlike other panels. Instead, it will function on a rolling basis.

The legacy of Gov. Al Smith, the Democrat who reinvented state government in the 1920s, was mentioned several times during the introductions: Margaret Tobin, who is the panel's executive director, said its work would help the state outshine Smith's record of building big things.

Cuomo called Smith's ability to change the shape and direction of government "profound," and celebrated his ability to maintain the trust of the public while fighting "the mismanagement, the atrophy" of state institutions.

A task force is all well and good, but without the state or feds putting up the funds (for an interstate highway project like the Tappan Zee bridge replacement), this is just window dressing to tackle a problem that everyone understands can only be rectified with money.

If the state wants this project to go ahead, it's going to have to belly up with more money for its transportation budget and shift priorities elsewhere.

In the meantime, the Thruway Authority is continuing to rehabilitate the existing bridge to keep it in a state of working order, but that means ongoing lane closures.

New York Selects Companies To Bid on Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement

The Tappan Zee replacement bridge project is underway, and one of the first steps involves picking the companies that can bid on the project.

The state has released the list of four qualified competitive bidders for the new Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River.

Statements of qualifications were received from five design-build consortiums and four groups were deemed qualified after a thorough multi-agency technical review.


The qualified bidder groups include:
• 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, comprised of Kiewit Infrastructure Co., Skanska USA Civil Northeast Inc., and Weeks Marine, Inc.

• Tappan Zee Bridge Partners, a Bechtel/Tutor Perini Joint Venture, comprised of Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation and Tutor Perini Corporation

• Tappan Zee Constructors, comprised of Fluor Enterprises, Inc., American Bridge Company, Granit Construction Northeast, Inc. and Traylor Bros., Inc.

After design-build proposals are submitted and reviewed, one of the four short-listed consortiums will be selected later this year to construct the new bridge.

Many of the companies involved are major contractors with business throughout the New York City metro area, but one name sticks out - and not in a good way.

Dragados USA was booted from significant portions of the MTA's East Side Access project, and that move is expected to cut two years off the construction of that multibillion dollar project.

I would be leery of this particular bid, but the other consortium involve major transnational contractors. For instance, Kiewit was involved in the Willis Avenue Bridge reconstruction effort and structural refits on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge but it's also involved on the Oakland Bay Bridge project.

What we have to look for is a low-ball bid that is designed to win the bidding, although the costs will end up far higher than anticipated. We should also look for performance based milestone bonuses.

Details Emerging About Proposed Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement

Since the Federal government pushed to expedite the Tappan Zee bridge replacement, details have been limited as to what the bridge will look like and what kind of accommodations for mass transit will be included.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHA), which is behind the project, set the budget at $5.2 billion and the bridge will actually be two separate spans north of the current span. The termination points on either shore of the Hudson will be the same but the bridge will take a new alignment. Each new span will have four 12-foot wide lanes plus a full sized shoulder for emergency service/breakdowns. The current span lacks a breakdown lane, which means that any disabled vehicles results in massive traffic jams during rush hour or peak travel times.

To arrive at $5.2 billion, mass transit is not being included. That means no rail connections or bus rapid transit, although federal planners say that the bridge design could include structures designed to allow rail or bus rapid transit to be built at a later date.

The existing span is overcrowded and deteriorating after 56 years of use. Earlier this month, the Obama administration helped jump-start replacement plans for the Tappan Zee Bridge, declaring it eligible for fast-tracked federal approvals.

However, one aspect of the proposal will not be going forward, at least not yet. The mass transit aspects of the new bridge were dropped, which helped trim the cost to $5.2 billion from as much as $21 billion. The document only talks of future mass transit.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino thinks that leaving mass transit off the current design is short-sighted. "I am troubled by the proposed design's absence of a mass transit component that would help alleviate congestion," he said. "A new bridge — without a mass transit component — would already be at capacity on the day of its opening."

The plan calls for two separate four-lane spans, separated by a 42-foot gap — which is where a future mass transit component could be included. It would be built just north of the current bridge

The scoping document supersedes all the work done to date on a design that would incorporate mass transit in some form in a Rockland-Westchester transit corridor upgrade that would run to nearly $30 billion if fully built. The bridge component including mass transit was likely to run to $10 billion.

The main criticisms levied at the new expedited proposal is that it provides for no mass transit when the bridge is completed and the promise of building mass transit at a later date is cold comfort for those who have to make the trip at present. I am generally in agreement that mass transit needs to be included in some form, but I don't think heavy commuter rail is needed. The MTA might want to expand its service and connect its east of Hudson and West of Hudson service areas across the replacement bridge, but it has had limited ridership on its existing service (and a significant portion of the Port Jervis branch remains largely out of service due to Irene).

Second Avenue Sagas thinks that the state and federal government are making a mistake by killing the mass transit portion along the lines of the ARC tunnel cancellation by Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey. In fact, they think that it's an even bigger mistake.

In a way, then, this decision is worse than New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s move to cancel the ARC Tunnel. There, he simply let the status quo stand. Here, Cuomo and the Feds are on the verge of funding something that will move transit-oriented progress backward in time. Even if the state or D.C. eventually found the money to add transit to the middle of the bridge, a wider roadway already in use won’t move the region forward.
It’s not too late for the Tappan Zee. The public comment period on the scoping document will last another three weeks, and already the public is making its voice heard. Yet, government officials say they had no choice. The money, they say, simply wasn’t there. Yet, New York could probably get away with tearing down the Tappan Zee and building nothing if they spent the $5.2 billion on improving rail service. That’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

They can't tear down the bridge, which is a critical component of the NYS Thruway and is a vital north/south connector through New York and a major hub for east-west traffic that seeks to avoid congestion through New York City.

Bus rapid transit makes far more sense since it requires less infrastructure to accomplish and could set the stage for rail to supplant rapid transit in the future. I don't think commuter rail component for the corridor is truly viable when better options would be for the expansion of the Spring Valley line into Rockland that take commuters into NY Penn/Hoboken via Secaucus. It's far more cost-effective than trying to build a completely new route with the hope of building the connectors at a later date. The MTA can barely complete repairs to the Port Jervis line, so where is it coming up with the funds to provide service across the bridge?

At the same time, it shows that the federal govenrment is unresponsive to the needs for mass transit and is unwilling to pay for it; it refused to take on the potential and likely cost overruns on the ARC tunnel that New Jersey taxpayers would have had to endure despite this being an interstate project. The federal DOT refused to budge on backstopping New Jersey on the cost overruns, so Christie killed the project before taxpayers took a huge hit; and the replacement Gateway tunnel proposal is better aligned for high speed rail, NJ Transit gets and cost overruns will be backstopped by the feds rather than New Jersey or New York taxpayers solely.

The feds are looking to spread money around as much as possible, and that means that they aren't funding projects that are truly deserving - such as incorporating the mass transit into the bridge design. Yet, there is a solution here within New York's grasp.

It means having the state pony up the difference to make sure that the federal portion gets utilized while incorporating the transit segment. That will take political capital from Albany and Gov. Cuomo doesn't appear willing to put that kind of money aside for mass transit. Neither is Westchester or Rockland capable of putting up money necessary for transit improvements through their respective counties.

Higher tolls along the NYS Thruway were going to be part of the state's bridge replacement plan, but that should still be incorporated in the project to make sure it gets built with a full-incorporated and built transit component.

Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement Gets Fast-Tracked?

The New York Times is reporting that the Obama Administration is set to fast-track funding for a replacement bridge at the Tappan Zee. The existing bridge, which is part of the New York State Thruway - I87/I287 corridor and a key route for trucks avoiding traffic across the New York region, dates back to the 1950s and is in dire need of replacement.

The bridge is functionally obsolete and deficient structurally and the Thruway Authority has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars on repairs to keep the span open.

A replacement span has been in the works for years but the cost would range into the tens of billions of dollars, particularly if heavy commuter rail is included in the span design or if a tunnel is chosen over a bridge.

The Tappan Zee project is one of 14 projects around the country getting fast-track funding.

For two decades, local politicians have been trying to get the aging bridge repaired or replaced, and a number of options have been suggested. Transportation experts originally said the project could cost $9 billion to $16 billion, depending on whether the state included a bus and rail line.

The bridge, which was built in the 1950s, has cost the state $100 million a year in repairs and $83 million in studies about how to replace or fix it, said the Westchester County executive, Robert P. Astorino. When he took a boat tour beneath the bridge with other elected officials in July, Mr. Astorino said, the paint was peeling, there was rust on its joints and spans, and netting covered up much of its underbelly.

Mr. Astorino feared that if the bridge were not repaired or replaced, it could one day simply be shut down — forcing drivers, who make about 170,000 crossings each day, to find alternatives.

“This is a major economic artery for the entire region,” he said.

Citing the bridge’s deteriorating condition, the federal Department of Transportation decided it would let the state go forward with the project as long as it streamlined its earlier plan to make a new bridge a centerpiece of a $21 billion, 30-mile transportation corridor. The federal agency said it would help speed up the process for the state to build a $5.2 billion eight-lane bridge, to which mass transit could be added in the future.

John D. Porcari, the deputy transportation secretary, said the expedited review process would allow different government agencies to work concurrently, shaving two and a half years off the building process. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called the fast-tracking “a shot in the arm for the project and a major step forward to restoring this key piece of infrastructure and putting tens of thousands of New Yorkers back to work.” The governor personally lobbied William M. Daley, the White House chief of staff.

The state will pay for the project by issuing $3 billion in bonds against its toll revenues; the remaining $2.2 billion will be financed with loans from labor pension funds and the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.

This is a huge project that would improve traffic flow across the Hudson River and help insure that a major arterial highway in the New York region doesn't suffer from structural collapse or closure (a problem seen elsewhere in the country).

The four alternative bridge plans that have survived the public review process would all include transit components, whether is dedicated bus rapid transit lanes, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and/or heavy commuter rail line extensions from Suffern, New York running to Tarrytown across the Hudson - providing an Upper Hudson River transit point.

At the same time, critics are complaining that the replacement span may not well include heavy rail mass transit, and commuters wont have any choice but to drive. It would also likely result in higher tolls at the bridge.

The concerns are well founded in that once the bridge is built, the political will to add mass-transit and the added cost would be prohibitive. Adding the transit at the outset would be forward-thinking and more costly up-front, but would end up saving money in the long run.

Yet, the higher up-front cost could result in enough political opposition that the project might get killed even though the need is dire.

Overall, this is a project that would benefit upwards of 170,000 commuters daily and that number is expected to rise as the Rockland-Westchester corridor population increases and traffic patterns shift in the suburbs.

Debate Continues Over Tappan Zee Replacement

While New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has all but killed outgoing New York Governor David Paterson's proposal to have the Port Authority get involved in building a new Tappan Zee bridge, and much of the focus has been on the rough and tumble language Christie used, it's useful to remember how and why the Tappan Zee was built where it was.

The Port Authority, a bistate agency, wanted to retain a sphere of influence 25 miles in circumference from New York City (and which has since been extended to include the Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, New York). Thus, instead of locating the Tappan Zee at a point where the Hudson River was narrower, it forced the bridge to be built at one of its widest points.

That decision decades ago means that any replacement span will cost billions more than had a narrower site been chosen. The New York State Thruway Authority is the responsible for the construction and maintenance of the bridge and the Thruway (I87 and I287 in this part of the route).

The preferred design, which incorporates 8 lanes of vehicular traffic, bus rapid transit lanes, and heavy rail, would cost $16 billion. That includes not only the cost for the bridge itself, but the heavy rail and bus rapid transit approaches along the entire Rockland/Westchester County alignments and connections to Metro North rail lines in both counties.

Second Avenue Sagas parses out the costs and notes that Christie is ignoring that New Jersey, via the Port Authority, would get to keep half the toll revenues.

That's not quite accurate. The Thruway Authority gets 100% of toll revenues now. If the Port Authority gets involved and shares the costs 50/50 with the Thruway Authority, New Jersey would get 25% of the revenues (a toll amount to be determined but likely much higher than the current $5 toll ($4.75 for EZPass). The Thruway Authority would have to be compensated for the lost revenues since that helps fund the Thruway's operations statewide (the Authority doesn't receive state funding and is self-funding). It would significantly increase the pressure on the Thruway Authority to increase fares elsewhere in the state.

The Port Authority would also have to curtail some of its other capital projects to focus on the Tappan Zee project. Moreover, the benefit for New Jersey commuters for the Tappan Zee project are extremely limited at best. Few New Jersey residents are going to go North into New York to cross the Tappan Zee to go to Manhattan when the Tappan Zee is regularly riddled with traffic jams. Instead, most take the Palisades Parkway to the George Washington Bridge to go into Manhattan as the rail options are poorly scheduled and limited by local opposition to more frequent trips - particularly on the Pascack Valley line and bus options are only slightly better. Opening up a heavy rail option without a corresponding provision for adequate funding of those rail operations makes little sense and is likely to be severely underutilized.

The Port Authority is already committing money from the killed ARC tunnel project to improve its infrastructure at the George Washington Bridge, Port Authority Bus Terminal and Lincoln Tunnel helix replacement. Considering that the commuter buses handle more traffic than rail traffic into Manhattan on a daily basis, this is a far more cost effective use of the funds.

Indeed, the Tappan Zee replacement is likely to be a phased project, where the bridge is built to handle rail and bus rapid transit, but will be built for vehicular traffic first. Thus, when the additional funding is allocated, the bus and rail options will be added on at a later date.

Replacing the Tappan Zee

This past Friday, the NYS Thruway Authority and the state Department of Transportation announced that they would go ahead and build a new Tappan Zee Bridge to replace the existing span. They found that it would cost as much to repair the aging Tappan Zee bridge as it would to replace the bridge. Repairing the bridge would have meant rebuilding nearly 80% of the structure to make it meet current building practices.

However, has anyone actually looked at the price tag? $16 billion? How exactly is that going to be paid for in the current economic climate? That, above all else, will be the question that has to be addressed.

If you do manage to get the financing (and the bridge replacement was first floated in 1999 by Gov. Pataki), what exactly are we getting for this? We're supposed to get a new and improved span that will handle regular vehicle traffic plus bus rapid transit plus the infrastructure to run heavy rail over the span at a later date. That breaks out to $6.4 billion for the new span, $6.7 billion for the commuter rail component, and $2.9 billion for bus rapid transit and highway improvements. So, we're still talking what will likely be $10 billion for just the bridge and bus rapid transit along with the associated improvements to the highway along the Westchester/Rockland corridor. The costs are likely to go up from there because of demand for materials in the region with other major projects underway.

The I-87/287 corridor between Westchester and Rockland counties has become heavily congested, and the idea is that the Tappan Zee will include bus rapid transit plus a heavy rail component so that commuters could have a 1-seat ride into Manhattan from Rockland county and reduce vehicle traffic. The span was critical in cross-Hudson traffic in the days following the 9/11 attacks when all bridges and tunnels to the South along the Hudson were closed. However, the bridge suffers from numerous flaws, not the least of which is a lack of breakdown lanes that means that accidents or vehicle breakdowns will block active lanes of traffic causing significant backups.

As great a supporter of mass transit, I think the commuter rail component is a misguided approach at best. One-seat rides make sense when you have a critical mass of commuters who will travel the route. That isn't likely here. What would encourage more people to take mass transit is two-fold. A one-seat ride is already promised for

Increase the amount of parking at train and bus stops where people are already clamoring for additional spots. Increasing the frequency of trips, both off-peak and during rush hour will encourage people to get out of their cars because they will have more flexibility in their commutes and not worry about waiting 30-45 minutes or more for the next bus/train to arrive.

At the same time, New Jersey and New York are in the process of building a new multibillion dollar rail tunnel alongside the existing Northeast corridor rail tunnels into Midtown, and that comes with the expectation that riders from Northern New Jersey and Rockland and Orange counties would have one-seat rides to Penn Station at some point once the connection is made. That means that the Tappan Zee span would be redundant and not necessarily cost effective.

I suspect that the Tappan Zee span's multiple uses will be pared down to car and bus rapid transit, skipping the commuter rail precisely because there is insufficient train traffic to warrant this. There is one way that the new span should include heavy rail - and that's if it serves as a high-speed connector that goes up to Stewart Airport to link the airport to Midtown and reduce traffic congestion at the other three NYC area airports. However, it doesn't look like the proposal includes a Stewart Airport link.