HIGHLAND – Traffic and revenues on all five bridges over the Hudson River operated by the New York State Bridge Authority were up in December by six percent each, bringing 2014 to a positive close.
For the 12 month period, traffic rose by 0.55 percent to 58.7 million crossings while revenue increased 0.64 percent to $55.2 million.
Authority Executive Director Joseph Ruggiero is pleased with the turnaround after the recession took its toll on the agency’s performance.
“We saw a pretty deep dip in traffic in 2008 and there was a little comeback for a while but then when gas hit around $4 a gallon a couple of years ago, we saw a dip in traffic and therefore a dip in revenue,” Ruggiero said. “But to the pretty mild beginning of the winter in December with the lower gas prices we have seen traffic rebound to surpass the 2013 numbers and that means we easily met out revenue projection for 2014 and exceeded that of 2013.”
December 2013 was weaker as there were several snow storms that month, the busiest shopping month of the year.
In 2014 compared to 2013, The Rip Van Winkle Bridge saw the greatest increases in revenue, up 3.07 percent, and traffic, up 2.47 percent.
The Bear Mountain Bridge saw revenue increase by 1.23 percent and traffic rise by 2.03 percent.
Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge traffic year over year rose by 0.66 percent while revenues increased by 1.21 percent.
Mid-Hudson Bridge traffic increased by 0.36 percent while revenue rose by 0.80 percent.
The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, the busiest of all five structures, saw annual traffic down 0.20 percent with revenues off 0.01 percent.
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