In the 2015 Opportunity Agenda Plan, Governor Andrew Cuomo
stated a drastic need to address statewide infrastructure investments. The Hudson Valley recognizes how important
bridges are because they serve as a connection to the west side of the Hudson
River to the eat side, an essential link to New York City. Although maintaining and preserving the
infrastructures of the state are extremely important, the state’s budget does
not allocate much money to be spent on bridge upkeep.
The Tappan Zee Bridge, one of New York State’s major
infrastructures, connects Rockland County and Northern New Jersey to
Westchester County and New York City.
The bridge was initially opened on December 15, 1955, making it
fifty-nine years old. The bridge was
originally constructed to last fifty years based on the materials used. The original plan was also to reconstruct the
bridge to meet the needs of the increased traffic patterns. Currently, 138,000 vehicles travel over the
bridge daily, making it one of the most traveled roads in the area. Governor Cuomo states that it is inexcusable
that New York has a bridge that was on the History Channel’s “Crumbling
America.” Many have referred to the
Tappan Zee as a “hold your breath bridge” because engineers believe it could
collapse instantaneously with the occurrence of any small earthquake or
structural accident.
With a price tag of 3.9 billion dollars to reconstruct the
bridge, New York State has resorted to taking out a federal loan to help pay
for the construction of the bridge. On
top of the federal loan, Governor Cuomo is using nearly 500 million dollars in
taxpayer’s money to fund the project, which will be used primarily before the
federal loan. The planned construction on the Tappan Zee Bridge is to be
completed by the end of 2017; however, there is still a large amount of money
that needs to be distributed to the reconstruction project. It is a possibility that the already high
toll prices will increase, but ultimately, the Thruway Authority and Governor
Cuomo need to produce a plan in order to come up with a way to pay for the
remainder of the 3.9 billion dollar bridge reconstruction.
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