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.

So Much For Openness: Gov. Christie Blocks Bill That Would Require Port Authority To Hold Hearings Before Toll Hikes

In the wake of an outcry from commuters around the New York City metro area about proposed toll hikes at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey bridges and tolls, both Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo acted swiftly to force the agency to pare back the increases.

Both also claimed that they would push for more accountability and fiscal responsibility from the bistate agency.

Well, it looks like the charade continues.

Governor Christie killed a bill that would have required the agency to hold hearings before implementing toll hikes.

The developments illustrated Christie’s tight control over the Port Authority and his administration’s insistence on reforming the agency from within, despite Democratic attempts to harness anger generated by recent toll hikes on the agency’s bridges and tunnels.

Christie’s veto of a proposed state law that would have forced the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to hold public hearings before future toll increases drew an immediate rebuke from the bill’s sponsors, who said Christie killed their effort to bring more transparency and accountability to the Port Authority. The bi-state transportation agency is jointly controlled by Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Democrats have called for more legislative oversight, audits and investigations. But Christie has said his administration is already fixing a “dysfunctional” agency that he inherited, and he has dismissed outside efforts as politically motivated.

Christie’s strategy has included stocking the agency with loyalists who will enact his agenda, and that trend continued on Thursday with the Port Authority’s announcement that failed Supreme Court nominee Phillip Kwon, a former Christie colleague in the U.S. attorney’s office, would take over as the agency’s deputy general counsel starting Monday.

“In effect, the governor announced that reform at the Port Authority will not happen under his watch,” said state Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Fair Lawn, a lead sponsor of the proposed bill, along with Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood.

Christie told state lawmakers that the bill should be altered to focus on hundreds of smaller independent authorities, boards and commissions — what he has called the state’s “shadow government.”

Sorry, but the Port Authority is a shadow government in its own right and the open hearings law should have applied to all agencies. The Port Authority is a bistate monstrosity that is accountable to the governors of New York and New Jersey alone. There's no oversight, and both states see the Port Authority coffers as a bank from which they can draw upon for infrastructure projects without having to directly raise taxes. Instead, the agency can and does issue more and more bonds using the tolls and fares to back them.

That isn't to say that toll and fare hikes aren't warranted. They are; the Port Authority has significant projects it has to carry out over the next few years and that costs tremendous sums of money. From the Bayonne Bridge span height increase to replacing hangers and cables on the George Washington Bridge to a replacement span for the Goethals Bridge and the PATH terminal at the World Trade Center, the agency has a huge capital load on its plate.

But the agency must do more without raising fares and tolls. There has to be more accountability and holding public hearings on which these issues can be made known would have been a good first step.

Christie doesn't want to lose the governors' tight grip on the agency, which includes selecting individuals for key positions.