Remnant of old Tappan Zee Bridge
NYACK – Hours after Governor Andrew Cuomo dedicated both spans
of the new bridge he got named after his father, the late Governor Mario
Cuomo, opening of the second span was cancelled because a section of the
old adjacent Tappan Zee Bridge was determined to be a hazard.
A celebration on the second span of the new bridge was held Friday morning
with all present praising the current governor for moving the project
forward, but the promised Friday night opening never happened.
As crews continued to dismantle the old bridge Friday night, “workers
heard a noise from the old bridge’s east anchor span, which triggered
an inspection of the bridge joints of the old bridge,” Tappan Zee
Contractors’ President and Project Executive Terry Towle said Saturday
night.
“A deviation in one of the old bridge’s joints was observed.
The flawed joint could possibly cause a part of the old structure to fail
and fall” resulting in the new second span remaining closed.
That has prompted questions about the timing of Cuomo’s celebration
less than a week before his Democratic primary election bid.
The Thruway Authority said Saturday morning a piece of the old bridge
became “destabilized and could fall (and) given the proximity to
the new completed span, out an abundance of caution, motorists will remain
in the current traffic configuration until a thorough evaluation by Tappan
Zee Constructors is complete.”
“Safety has to come above all else, and the governor needs to be
fully transparent about what happened here,” said Democratic political
opponent Cynthia Nixon. “A ribbon cutting ceremony should not have
been held if the bridge span was not yet safe. There are real, reasonable
questions about whether this bridge span opening was accelerated to aid
in the governor’s campaign,” she said, calling for an investigation.
Republican gubernatorial candidate, Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro
charged the bridge opening was politically motivated. “It’s
now clearer than ever that the bridge was opened to meet Governor Cuomo’s
political timetable without regard to public safety.”
Molinaro said the first priority “must be the safety of motorists
and to ensure that the entirety of the new bridge is safe and that deconstruction
of the old span can be completed without danger.”
Towle said Saturday evening that engineers are studying the failures and
modeling the current structural wellbeing of the old bridge while evaluating
options to address the situation.
