The project to build a new Tappan Zee Bridge is one step closer to receiving a $1.5 billion federal loan.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced March 9 that the loan process is moving forward, as part of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). If the loan is approved, it will lower any potential toll increases.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will conduct a credit review of the project prior to finalizing the TIFIA loan. As part of the next step of the TIFIA process, New York state is required by U.S. DOT to pay $100,000 for financial advisors to review the project.

In addition to the potential funding from the TIFIA loan, the state continues to seek additional financial support to reduce costs from federal, state and local sources, and will use the Toll Task Force to identify alternative financing sources and keep tolls low.

The Toll Task Force will examine a series of options to keep tolls low once the final financing on the project has been established, including expanding discount programs, seeking financial mechanisms that lower the cost of credit and borrowing, and ensuring any increase in tolls on the bridge goes solely to the bridge and regional transportation.

The new Tappan Zee Bridge will include eight general traffic lanes plus emergency lanes and extra-wide shoulders for immediate express bus service, and will be transit-ready for bus rapid transit, light rail or commuter rail.

Written by Sam Barron, Westchester County Business Journal, 3/11/2013

Here’s a commentary on the frequently debated subject of highway tolls.

TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE

Toll Roads News: The Five Biggest Lies About Highway Tolls

Jim Cameron:
Mar 05, 2013

Like it or not, get ready to pay tolls on our Interstates and Parkways (here in Connecticut.) Transportation officials in Hartford say there’s just no other way to raise badly needed money for over-due infrastructure repairs. Tolls may not be popular, but neither are collapsing bridges.

In the last decade’s debate on highway tolling, here are the five biggest lies that opponents have used to stall the return of highway tolls:

1)The Federal Government Won’t Let Us:

Also known as “We’ll have to return millions in federal funding”. Not true, as US DOT officials told us at a SWRPA-sponsored meeting in Westport years ago. The federal government regularly allows tolls to be used as traffic mitigation and revenue raising tools.

2) Our Highways Should Be Free:

So should ice cream and donuts. Nothing is free, including the cost of repairing I-95 and removing snow from the Merritt. Gasoline taxes come nowhere near to raising the needed revenue. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It should come with a cost.

3) Tolls Will Slow Traffic:

It’s not 1965 anymore. Tolling doesn’t require highway-wide barriers with booths and gates. Just look at the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, where barrier-free tolls using EZPass allow you to pay at 55 mph.

4) Tollbooths Cause Accidents:

See #3 above. This happened once, 29 years ago, in Milford, and was used as an excuse to end tolling in the state. If toll barriers are unsafe, why don’t fiery truck crashes happen daily at the hundreds of other toll barriers around the US?

5) Highway Tolls Will Divert Traffic to Local Roads:

This may be true, for about the first week. If people would rather drive for free on the Boston Post Road than pay 50 cents to save an hour by taking I-95, let ‘em. Few drivers are that cheap, or stupid.

Trust me, I know about tolls and toll booths. I spent three summers in college working as a toll collector on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Back then the toll was only 50 cents to cross the mighty Hudson, but people still didn’t like paying it. (Today the toll is $5).

Connecticut pioneered toll roads as early as the late 18th century. But today our state is facing billions in over-due bridge and highway repairs. And federal aid for transportation may be cut by a third. So why are we in this current mess? Who’s to blame? Us!

We’re the ones that stupidly pushed CT lawmakers to cut the gas tax 14 cents a gallon in 1997. And we’re the ones making it political suicide for legislators today to say they support tolls, even though they know tolls are inevitable.

Pick your poison: “free” driving on pothole-filled highways with collapsing bridges… or pay a few bucks for a safe, speedy ride.

I vote for the tolls.

THE WRITER: Jim Cameron is a NBC News reporter/anchor turned PR adviser/media-trainer but he writes a syndicated column “Talking Transportation” that arises out of his position as chairman of the CT Metro-North Commuter Council, a legislative appointment.

He has commuted for over 20 years from Darien CT to jobs in midtown Manhattan.

Business Council of Westchester hosted a Reception on March 5th to introduce the Tappan Zee Constructors team.  The event included a presentation of the new design and an opportunity for business members of Westchester County to meet the team responsible for this long anticipated project. Pictured (Left to Right): Thomas J. Madison Jr., Executive Director of New York State Thruway Authority; Joanne R. Deyo, Vice President of Facilities, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Ross Pepe, President of Construction Industry Council; Marsha Gordon, President of Business Council of Westchester; Walter Reichert, Tappan Zee Constructors Project Manager; and Brian Conybeare, Special Advisor to Governor Cuomo.

Ross Pepe, President of Construction Industry Council and Treasurer of BuildTheBridgeNowNY.org, commented “Our work on BuildTheBridgeNowNy.org has been an incredibly rewarding initiative. We look forward to working with Tappan Zee Constructors on this important project.”

BuildTheBridgeNowNY.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 support and applaud the broad efforts to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge with the New NY Bridge.

For more information, contact George Drapeau at the Building Contractors Association of Westchester & Mid-Hudson, Inc., Tarrytown, NY at (914) 631-6070 or by email at cicwhv@aol.com.

ELMSFORD, NY — More than 100 members of organized labor in the downstate region met for the first time today with team leaders of the design-build joint venture, Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC, in Westchester to discuss key aspects of the $3.9 billion project to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Over the five years of building the new dual-span bridge, the project will employ thousands of construction workers, and it is expected to have a significant impact on indirect employment in the region. The two-hour meeting at the union offices of Teamsters Local 456 in Elmsford focused on key issues identified in the prehire pact, known as a project labor agreement (PLA), that will serve to guide labor activities on the project.

Among those organizing and leading the meeting today were, from left: Walter Reichert of Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC; Ed Doyle, Sr., of the Building & Construction Trades Council of Westchester & Putnam Counties, Inc.; Darrell Waters of Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC; John Maraia of the Rockland County Building & Construction Trades Council, Inc., and IBEW Local 363; and Ross Pepe of the Construction Industry Council and Building Contractors Association.

For more information, contact George Drapeau of CIC and BuildTheBridgeNowNY.org at (914) 631-6070 or by email at cicwhv@aol.com.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The design-build contract for the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing was approved recently by the New York State Thruway Authority Board of Directors. HDR is the lead designer, and a subcontractor, for Tappan Zee Constructors, a consortium that includes Fluor Enterprises, American Bridge Company, Granite Construction Northeast, and Traylor Bros.

As lead designer, HDR is responsible for overall design project management, overall quality control including peer review and independent design check process, detailed design elements including deep foundations, main span and approach span structures, highway elements including alignments, tolling and ITS, utilities and facility design.

The bridge is designed for a 100-year service life and will be mass-transit-ready for bus rapid transit on the span, or for commuter or light rail on structures between the two spans.

Key features will include:

• Twin 3-mile structures with 1200-foot cable stayed main span bridges carrying eight general traffic lanes plus emergency lanes and extra-wide shoulders for immediate express bus service when opened.
• A new toll plaza with at least three highway speed E-ZPass lanes and a dedicated bicycle and pedestrian path on the northern span.
• Safe scenic overlooks, with anti-climb fencing and security cameras to be monitored 24 hours a day.
• Strength and capacity provisions to accommodate various mass transit modes.

HDR is a global employee-owned firm providing architecture, engineering, consulting, construction and related services through our various operating companies. Our more than 8,000 professionals are committed to helping clients manage complex projects and make sound decisions. Learn more at hdrinc.com.

Contacts:

HDR

Jackie Fox, 402-926-7058

jackie.fox@hdrinc.com

Dear Members:

Today marked another significant milestone of the Tappan Zee Bridge project with the announcement that Peter Sanderson has been engaged as Project Director. Peter brings incredible construction industry experience and has led many successful bridge infrastructure projects including the replacement of the I-35w bridge that collapsed in Minnesota, a design-build project that earned him significant recognition. Mr. Sanderson has been President of three major bridge projects, and brings significant global background and perspective to this project. This is another example of how the New New York Bridge attracts the best talent to move our state forward.

The Business Council of Westchester looks forward to welcoming Peter Sanderson and creating many bridges for him to our members and the community.

Please also join us on March 5 for a special VIP welcome reception for the Tappan Zee Constructors team; invitation to follow.

Marsha Gordon

THRUWAY AUTHORITY NAMES PROJECT DIRECTOR
FOR NEW NY BRIDGE

Peter Sanderson has extensive experience on infrastructure megaprojects;
will be responsible for keeping project on schedule and within budget

To help ensure that the New NY Bridge to replace the Tappan Zee remains on schedule and within budget, the New York State Thruway Authority has named Peter Sanderson project director for the multi-billion dollar project, Thruway Chairman Howard P. Milstein announced today.

Sanderson will be responsible for leading a blended team of state employees and private sector design and construction experts to complete the new structure. He has more than 40 years of experience working on cable-stayed and other large and complex bridges throughout North America and around the world, including design-build infrastructure projects.

“The project director will be responsible for keeping the New NY Bridge on schedule and within budget, and Peter Sanderson is an outstanding choice for this role because he has extensive experience and a proven track record,” Milstein said. “Hiring an experienced project director is necessary and expected for a project of this size and complexity, and is generally viewed as an industry best practice.”

Sanderson was project manager for the design-build contract to replace the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed in 2007. The new bridge was opened to traffic just 11 months after the tragedy and three months ahead of an already accelerated 14-month schedule. He was also principal-in-charge for the Sagadahoc Bridge connecting Bath and Woolwich, Maine, the Maine Department of Transportation’s first design-build project, as well as the Clark Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge in St. Louis, Missouri, that was completed ahead of schedule.

“Peter Sanderson was a tremendous project manager for the new I-35W bridge at a very critical time in Minnesota’s history,” said Tom Sorel, who was Minnesota Department of Transportation Commissioner when the bridge was being constructed and is currently president and CEO of the American Automobile Association in Minneapolis. “Not only did he lead the delivery of the project in an exceptional manner, he realized that the building of the new bridge represented a healing process for an entire community and did all he could to rebuild public trust and confidence in the transportation industry.”

“Given the scale of the New NY Bridge project, hiring a project director is a proven method to control costs and keep a project on schedule, and has been used effectively on many major transportation infrastructure projects around the country in recent years,” said American Road and Transportation Builders Association President and CEO Dr. Peter Ruane. “The project director will play a vitally important role not only with the design-build team, but also with the community and other stakeholders. This project has worldwide importance and I commend New York State for recognizing the need for experienced, professional management.”

“Peter Sanderson brings an incredible breadth of knowledge, experience, and leadership to this Tappan Zee Bridge project,” said Business Council of Westchester President & CEO Dr. Marsha Gordon. “This is another example of how the new New York attracts the best talent to lead our state forward. The Business Council of Westchester looks forward to welcoming Peter Sanderson and creating many bridges for him to our members and the community.”

“The appointment of Peter Sanderson as Project Manager for the Tappan Zee Bridge and the wealth of industry experience he brings to this crucial project is another significant step forward toward the long overdue replacement of one of New York’s most critical pieces of transportation infrastructure,” said Mike Elmendorf, president & CEO of the Associated General Contractors of New York State. “We applaud Governor Cuomo, the Thruway Authority and New York State Department of Transportation for their dogged commitment to moving this project forward with unprecedented speed, as well as the bright light this process has shined on our significant infrastructure needs throughout New York.”

“The Hudson Valley region’s construction industry is thrilled with Thruway Authority’s appointment of Peter Sanderson as New NY Bridge Project Director, continuing the campaign to assemble world-class bridge builders who will deliver a Hudson River crossing to serve New York State taxpayers, road and mass transit users over the next century and beyond,” said Construction Industry Council of Westchester and Hudson Valley President Ross J. Pepe.

“With the addition of Peter Sanderson to the New NY Bridge project, Governor Cuomo and the Thruway Authority have taken another major step forward,” said Secretary of the New York Roadway and Infrastructure Coalition Stephen Morgan. “The New York Roadway and Infrastructure Coalition commends the administration for reaching out and getting the best team to build this most exciting and needed project.”

“Peter Sanderson’s vast engineering and construction experience, combined with his decades of experience leading complex infrastructure projects, make him the perfect chose to head the new NY Bridge initiative,” said New York Building Congress President Richard T. Anderson. “We at the Building Congress applaud the Cuomo administration for selecting an industry veteran with a sterling reputation for completing major projects on time and on budget. No single infrastructure project is more important to the long-term economic vitality of the entire downstate region than the construction of a safe, modern and larger capacity crossing to replace the obsolete Tappan Zee Bridge.”

The official project budget and schedule will be available on line at www.newnybridge.com starting in May. This will give the public the ability to track progress on the project and monitor the delivery team’s performance. Project costs will be updated and compared with the budget on a quarterly basis.

The New NY Bridge project is the largest transportation design-build project to date in the United States and the largest single construction contract in New York State history. Under the design-build process, engineering and construction firms join forces to compete for a single contract that covers both design and construction, and bids are selected based on best value offered. Design-build contracts foster private-sector creativity and innovation, shift risk, limit project delays and keep costs down.

NEW NY BRIDGE DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISES FORUMS
TO BE HELD IN WESTCHESTER FEBRUARY 14 & ROCKLAND FEBRUARY 15

Governor Cuomo has made a commitment to ensuring that businesses which qualify as federally certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) have a large presence in the contracts associated with the New NY Bridge. These meetings will introduce DBEs and Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) to the team from Tappan Zee Constructors and provide detailed information for businesses looking to certify as DBEs or MWBEs. Information will also be provided on the New York State Surety Program, a bond assistance program that will provide financial assistance in the form of credit support to help MWBEs and DBEs secure surety bonds and state contracts.

Thursday, February 14 – 8:30 a.m.
Westchester Marriott
670 White Plains Rd.
Tarrytown, NY 10592

Friday, February 15 – 8:30 a.m.
Crown Plaza Suffern
3 Executive Blvd.
Suffern, NY 10901

Please let us know if you plan to attend these events by sending an email to:  NewNYBridge.Community.Events@thruway.ny.gov.  Please be sure to indicate location and date of the meeting you plan to attend.

For updated information, check our calendar at www.NewNYBridge.com

NewNYBridge Hotline: 1-855-TZBRIDGE (1-855-892-7434)

Follow us on Twitter at @NewNYBridge

To receive TRANSalert emails with information on Thruway traffic incidents and other timely information, go to: http://www.thruway.ny.gov/tas/index.shtml.

To see real-time webcam views of the Thruway, go to: http://www.thruway.ny.gov/travelers/map/index.html?layer=cameras .

To see an interactive map including Google traffic conditions for the Thruway and other roadways in New York State and beyond, go to: http://www.thruway.ny.gov/travelers/map/index.html?layer=traffic

The new Tappan Zee Bridge will bring many job opportunities for many years, spokesman Brian Conybeare says

“The door is just opening, and it will be open for years,” says new Tappan Zee Bridge spokesman Brian Conybeare on job opportunities to come with the newly approved multi-billion rebuild project.

Conybeare assured Patch that these jobs would not only come, but in abundance and diversity.

Unlike projects of this scope in the past when the team is ready to go with all their subcontractors in place, this project, notes Conybeare, was approved at only “20 percent design.”

Meaning there’s many more months of design work to be done before any official construction begins, with many subcontracting jobs left to be filled.

In fact, Conybeare says only a small percentage of these subcontractor positions are hired out, leaving “a ton of opportunities out there.”

Just what sort of jobs and how many?

Although he couldn’t offer numbers at this point, he said the positions will be “very wide ranging” from manual labor to office work: they will be looking to hire accountants, security guards, iron workers, “all kinds.”

Tappan Zee Constructors, the design-build team, was just selected several weeks ago and met the public officially Monday night at the Tarrytown Marriott.

“They just got notice to proceed two weeks ago,” said Conybeare, “so they’re not about to hire this week. Things will become more clear in days and weeks to come. The window is wide open on this.”

There’s a job seminar this week at the Greenburgh Public Library, but Conybeare notes, “that’s not our event, but the library’s monthly forum they asked us to speak at.” He said the bridge will hold its own job seminars and fairs and make announcements on that front as information comes. Some meetings will target minorities and the disadvantaged, he said.

A rough timeline on the work in the near horizon:

• They plan to get into the water as soon as late March with test boring.
• Test pile driving by late May or June.
• Dredging within a tight three-month required window as per the FEIS, starting in August.
• There’s no official groundbreaking date set, Conybeare said.
• Design work could continue for another year.

Despite hosting 96 public meetings already under his brief tenure, Conybeare said they will keep at it to continue to give the public more information as it comes and get feedback.

So far, we know the bridge’s price tag ($3.14 billion) and its footprint but many particulars within that framework have yet to be determined.

Tonight, it’s time to meet the design team “we’ll be spending the next five years with,” Conybeare said.

Brian Conybeare, a former News 12 anchor who was recently named a special advisor for the project by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Credit Adam Littman

Written by Krista Madsen, New Rochelle Patch (NewRochelle.Patch.com), 2/6/13

Builders plan to open north span in 2016

Jane Fitzpatrick of Port Chester looks at a model of the New NY Bridge which will replace the Tappan Zee Bridge was on display at the public briefing on the new Tappan Zee Bridge construction at the Marriot Hotel in Tarrytown Monday evening. Kelly Marsh/For the Times Herald-Record

The first signs of construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge are likely to become visible next month, when the design-build team begins making test borings in the Hudson River.

At the same time, the team, Tappan Zee Constructors, will start outfitting construction staging areas beneath the existing bridge and along the New York State Thruway on state-owned property.

By June, the team will be installing test pilings north of the old bridge, along the route of the new one, and by Aug. 1, it will be dredging the river bottom, a process limited to a three-month window every year to protect the spawning of two endangered species of sturgeon.

Help Wanted

Tappan Zee Constuctors, the consortium that won the $3.1 billion contract to design and build the new Tappan Zee Bridge, will be seeking workers, materials and services during the next two months.

Thomas Madison, the Thruway Authority’s executive director, and Brian Conybeare, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s special project adviser, outlined the still-rough construction timetable for the public Monday in Tarrytown Monday and Tuesday in Nyack.

The men also introduced representatives of Tappan Zee Constructors, the consortium that won the coveted design-build contract with a bid that, at $3.1 billion, was almost $1 billion lower than those of its two competitors.

“Our team is ready,” said Walter Reichert, vice president of Tappan Zee Constructors and the project manager, in describing the team’s efforts during the past year to devise the best and most economical bridge possible.

He and four other representatives described themselves repeatedly as “excited” about this “once in a lifetime opportunity.” The consortium is composed of Fluor Enterprises, Granite Construction Northeast, American Bridge and Traylor Brothers.

‘Negligible’ traffic disruption

Reichert said construction will begin on both three-mile long spans at the same time, starting in the middle of the river and working toward the shores. He predicted any disruption to traffic in the corridor would be “negligible,” in part because materials and workers will be transported by boat.

Toward that end, Tappan Zee Constructors will utilize a mammoth floating crane with a 328-foot boom to install prefabricated sections of the new bridge — and dismantle the old one — from the river. Fluor and American Bridge used the crane, known as the “Left Coast Lifter,” in their work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. That crane is en route to New York now.

Learn more

The state has activated multiple community outreach programs to keep the public informed about the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge:

• Online

The project website, newnybridge.com, has a link for sending questions and comments via email. Responses can be expected within 24 to 48 hours. The site, a trove of information, has a new video of a virtual ride across the new bridge and will have real-time noise and air-quality monitors once construction starts.

• By telephone

The project hotline, 1-855-TZBRIDGE, will be monitored around the clock. Calls, like email, will be returned in 24 to 48 hours.

• In person

The project’s twin outreach centers have opened, at 303 S. Broadway in Tarrytown, and 142 Main St. in Nyack. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends.

Written by Judy Rife, Times Herald Record (RecordOnline.com), 2/6/13
judyrife@gmail.com