Region 1 Spring Assembly – Tarrytown, NY
“The New NY Bridge Project”
By: Sarah Dinwoodie
2,000 feet from the shore on either side. They
continued with the construction of the
northbound span and successfully tied into NY
Route 287 in South Nyack and Tarrytown. Traffic
was redirected from the Tappan Zee Bridge to
the northbound span. Presently, the future
northbound span is being used for two-way
traffic while the Tappan Zee Bridge is demolished
and the southbound span is tied into land.
Some other interesting facts related to the
construction and design:
Photo Credit: https://www.equipmentworld.com/photos-aerial-shots-show-progress-on-
tappan-zee-bridge-replacement/
Tying into South Nyack
The super crane used during construction
has a lifting capacity of 1,800 tons and a
boom length of 328 feet.
Three floating batch plants were
constructed for pouring concrete. They
used more than 240,000 cubic yards of
concrete.
The main span of the bridge is 1,200 feet
long and has a 1,042-foot horizontal
clearance.
The towers are constructed of 8,000psi
concrete.
192 stay cables were used, 24 in each
tower. Each stay has 36-90 strands and
there are 7 wires per strand.
The $3.9 billion bridge replacement is one
of the largest single design-build contracts
for a transportation project in the United
States.
Noise
Being so close to so many residences and
businesses, noise was a major concern. The
NYSTA replaced windows in many apartment
buildings on the Tarrytown shore with noise
reducing glass. While hammering the piles, they
also had to consider noise levels underwater and
potential impacts to aquatic life. “Bubble
curtains” were used to reduce hammering noise
underwater by 10 decibels. Air is pumped into
aluminum rings which produces a ring of bubbles
in the water around the pile.
Photo Credit: https://www.enr.com/articles/39059-the-new-ny-bridge-over-the-hudson-
river-is-halfway-to-finish
Bubble Curtain
Two cool cats from NH interrupting a wedding
photograph session at the Tappan Zee Bridge outlook
in Tarrytown, NY.