Great piece of analysis and writing Nicole.

I just would like to see a map with where the new bridge will be vs. the old, extant one!! Where can I find that on line?

Hi Nicole - I work for the BuildTheBridgeNowNY.org organization and we're trying to rally support in Rockland and Westchester Counties to replace the Tappan Zee bridge. I would like to update you on where the organization is in this process and we would really welcome your active journalism on this issue. This article from 2011 is so very much on-point, quite amazing. Please let me know if we can talk. Thank you so much. Bridget 914-318-0348

why not a tunnel

AFTER HAVING READ THE ABOVE ARTICLE, I AM CONVINCED THAT THE PRESENT DAY TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE WILL GO CRASHING DOWN INTO THE HUDSON RIVER BEFORE THE WHOLE PACK OF BUMBLERS WHO ARE BLOCKING THE BUILDING OF A NEW ONE WILL ALLOW THAT CONSTRUCTION TO GO AHEAD!

Is this why the General Motors site in Sleepy Hollow has not been re-developed?

At the other end of the state. We have a bridge that connects Buffalo NY to Canada and the NYS Thruway, The Peace Bridge it is out dated and money is committed and study after study has been done. Yet no shovel are in the ground. The state will never strive again. Buffalo's economy is in desperate need.
We need to Build these Bridges and stop talking about it.Leave the politics out of it and put people back to work!!!

This project should be compleate by all American
Co and all American construction parts ! with billions of Americans out of work this will help
the USA and not some other country. Spend U.S.
dollars here at home !

THIS IS VERY SAD I JUST MOVED UP TO MONTEGOMERY AND NOW AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE I AM SO SAD AND CANT BELIEVE THAT THE GOVERNMENT CANT COME UP WITH A SOLUTION. THIS IS CRAZY AND NOW THE ECONMY IS IN BADBAD SHAPE SO NOW WE REALLY ARE GONNA SUFFER. I HOPE THAT THERE IS NOT ANY DEATHS BEFORE SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING. BECAUSE OVER TIME WEAR AND TEAR WILL TAKE A TOLL AND THE IT WILL BE A DIASTER U THINK THE ECONMY IS IN BAD SHAPE NOW LET THE BRIDGE GO DOWN IN THE WATER WITH PEOPLE ON IT OH MY GOD HOW WILL WE RECOVER HOW WILL WE REBUILD WHERE WILL WE START I JUST PRAY EVERY TIME I AM ON THAT BRIDGE GET ME TO MY DESTINATION SAFELY.

Excellent article. Thanks!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label

I was always afraid of this bridge. I am from upstate New York. I always felt it was not safe, took me 4 hours to get to the Bronx Zoo one summer because I tried to avoid that bridge. It is expensive to live in New York. You should see all the other ridiculous things we pay for. Hopefully we will fix it before a lot of lives are lost.

Political leadership is what's needed most: to mitigate political risk for private funders and builders of the bridge, to accelerate (not avoid) the NEPA process, and most importantly to build something sooner than later, as each month's delay adds millions to the total price tag of the project.

Hey...we're busy and we now have same sex marriage! No one can say we do not have our priorities!

It probably shouldn't have been built in the first place, given that it contributed to sprawl and damaged the city economically as much as it benefited Rockland.

BUILD THE BRIDGE!

We need a far longer term view that designs for adding capacity in various stages:

http://cos-mobile.blogspot.com/2011/06/tstc-shortsightedness-on-nys-tappan-zee.html

Government-funded infrastructures have problems, as well documented here and in the comments.

Now take privately-owned infrastructure like nuclear power plants. Both politically controversial and legally vulnerable, building them is practically at a halt.

I second the toll bridge. Those who use it pay for it.

New York should consider the environmental impact statement for O'Hare Airport expansion in Chicago. Doesn't even mention air pollution. Use the Chicago Way.

Enjoy. take care of the Tappan Zee

Thanks for the great article Nicole. As a note, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland side) was the bridge that failed during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Within a year (or two?) it was decided it had to be replaced. It was the old style steel-girder type bridge on the Oakland side while on the San Francisco side it was a more modern design suspension bridge. The Oakland side was the bridge you said your prayers as you crossed it, especially after the Loma Pieita quake. I moved to the SF area in 1998 and they still hadn't started building it. The California state engineering authority had "red lined" the bridge saying it would collapse in it's entirety if a Loma Prieta quake occurred again. It is now 2011, it is still not completed..... they have made progress, but still today, 20+ years after Loma Prieta, drivers still risk their lives crossing the Oakland side of that bridge.... needless to say, I moved to Orange County....

Ecellent article!!! Please make sure that Gov. Coumo get a copy. I have been using the Tappan Zee for years. It's a desaster waiting to happen.
O. von Bradsky,P.E.

The George Washington Bridge opened in 1931 and carries 106 million vehicles a year. Notwithstanding this interesting article, I would like to see an exhaustive exploration of possible alternatives to a completely new bridge.

This article is quite thorough in the presentation of political and financial machinations it will take to build a new Tappan Zee Bridge. it is imperative, however, to point out that this project is not isolated bridge construction -- it reaches far beyond the two points touching on each shore. The article minimizes the affect that building of the first TZB had on Nyack and does not mention the impact the expansion will have on the river village and town residents along the I-287 corridor. Already awash in traffic problems, these locales will be unalterably changed for the new, improved features of the new TZB bridge. The expansion of the bridge will create the need for more stations and parking lots to accommodate the Bus-Rapid-Transit and new commuter rail lines. Neighborhoods north and south of the bridge will be chewed apart by eminent domain and by the tunnel digging needed for rail tunnels slated to run through and under them. New train stations and bus terminals will be strategically located along the shore of South Tarrytown with many a "fly-over" ramp heading for White Plains and Portchester along a widened 287. After lifetimes in their homes, where are homeowners expected to move? Many of these long-time residents in smaller homes will be priced out of Westchester and Rockland. Hopefully the Environmental Impact Reviews will treat residents-to-be-displaced with a respect and protection equal to if not better than the fish in the Hudson! A new bridge is needed, but without the bells and whistles that dispose of citizens on either shore as collateral damage.

This Nicole Gelinas article is superb, a real education.

We will find increasingly difficult to rely on private cars and trucks to move people and goods across the region, because of the costs and density. We should look at moving more drivers and riders to mass transit by extending one or more NYC transit or Metro North lines across the Hudson. A branch of the No. 7 subway due west to Lincoln Harbor Weehawken and Secaucus Transfer would alleviate commutation problems for many New Yorkers as well as New Jerseyans. See SubwayToSecaucus.com for details.

Ms. Gelinas nailed just about every difficulity in getting the Tappaen Zee replaced. That bridge is a microcosm of the U.S. infrastructure problem. As Gelinas observes, important and expensive bridges, like the Tappan Zee, often fall between the stools of State and local interest group politics. The result? It will take catastrophic failure of this bridge, and many others, to summon the will to get it done. Let's hope the bridges are declared unsafe and closed before the loss of lives and property. One more thing: Why not a word about congestion pricing to manage demand (and generate revenues) on the Tappan Zee? It's a market approach that warrants a mention in a market-oriented journal.

It's a toll road, it has always been a toll road. If the state wants to build a new Tap, they should fund it 100% with tolls. I'm surprised a conservative-leaning publication like this one would have the audacity to demand that $3 billion or more in taxpayer funds be used to subsidize people who want to drive to the most transit-friendly city in North America. If they want to drive, let them drive, and let them pay.

I might add that funding a new Tap 100% with tolls would also eliminate the need to go through the NEPA process, as no federal funds would be involved.

I think this story is intense, and not only is the Tappan Zee Bridge falling down, but the roads and highways are crumbling at the hands of our greedy New York Politicians. Where is all the taxpayers money going? Westchester County is the highest taxed County in the United States, and the potholes and cracks in the roads are the size of craters.

Why is it that when you visit another state the roads are like gold, but, once you hit New York State, the roads are in deplorable condition? It's Political Corruption and Greed!!!

I just can't get past the fact that all politicians are responsible for the deterioration of America's Roadways. Where is all the taxpayers cash? Where is all the toll cash going? It's going in New York State Politicians pockets.

If, the bridges are not safe than close them down.

The Westchester News
http://thewestchesternews.com

It is an absolute shame that nothing has been done to construct a new crossing. Someone has to take the responsibility for building a new structure across the Hudson River to New York. If New York State continues to drag its feet, perhaps the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey should.

NEPA should be repealed and court review of infrastructure projects greatly curtailed if not eliminated entirely. Community concerns including those for the so-called enviornment (actually the consciences of those so concerned) are of value; I did not establish community leagues united accross every neighborhood of my 1 million population home town for nothing. But let these concerns be presented through the political process, as are normal desires to control the expenditure of other peoples' time and money.

USA/ New York will fail to rise to the challenge.

down with homework!

I am all for it if they use non-union labor. There it is - I just saved 5 or 10 years in the construction duration. And about a BILLION Dollars for the tax payers, I deserve a medal. thw