Tappan Zee

How much worse can it get?

 

Thank the Lord that most of my deliveries there have been at the lovely 0300-0500 red-eye times.

Good point.

 

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/nyregion/crane-collapse-tappan-zee-bridge.html?_r=0&referer=https://duckduckgo.com

N.Y. / Region

‘Nothing Short of a Miracle’: No Serious Injuries in Tappan Zee Crane Collapse

$3.9 billion replacement — what is being called the largest infrastructure project in the country — fell around noon on the Rockland County side of the bridge, the authorities said. No vehicles were struck by the crane, the authorities said.

• Irving Martinez, a truck driver from New Haven, was heading home after delivering a load of cars in Blauvelt, N.Y., when, from about a quarter of a mile away, he saw the crane list and topple.
  
  “The crane was rotating normally and then it just suddenly fell sideways onto the highway,” Mr. Martinez, 25, said. “It was out of nowhere.”
  While most drivers hit the brakes, he said, others accelerated to avoid the crash. “You know New Yorkers,” he quipped. “Always in a hurry.”
  
  Aerial images showed the crane draped across all lanes of the bridge, its frame splintered into pieces as traffic was brought to a standstill. With the bridge blocked, many motorists were stranded for several hours. Some took to social media to document the travail.
  
  The collapse raised concerns about the integrity of the Tappan Zee Bridge, the state’s longest, which is used by 138,000 vehicles traveling between Rockland and Westchester Counties on weekdays. Built on the cheap, it was designed to last for only 50 years.
  
  And it also snarled traffic along the New York State Thruway, which traverses the bridge, and feeder roads. Traffic was blocked on Interstate 287 heading west toward Rockland at least as far as the Sprain Brook Parkway exit, as well as on the Thruway heading east toward Westchester. The Tappan Zee Express Bus Service, which transports commuters between Westchester and Rockland, was suspended, as officials rearranged transit schedules and other road availabilities.
  
  But after officials inspected the bridge, they gradually reopened all of its lanes except for one southbound lane.
  
  Mr. Cuomo described the damage to that lane as significant but not extensive, saying it could take days to repair.
  
  Officials said the crane, which was new, was engaged in a routine task — wielding a vibratory hammer to install pilings.
  
  “This was not one of the high-risk operations of bridge building,” Mr. Cuomo said.
  
  Jeff J. Loughlin, the business manager of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 137, which represents the crane’s operator, said the crane was an MLC 300 manufactured by Manitowoc Cranes. An official said the crane’s boom was 256 feet long.
  
  Mr. Loughlin said the operator remained at the scene with a union representative, and was expected to undergo drug and alcohol testing.
  
  “It’s a miracle that the boom fell across six lanes of traffic, cars that are doing 60 to 70 miles an hour, and not one car was hit by the boom,” Mr. Loughlin said.
  
  Officials said they were investigating the cause of the crane’s crash. But they ruled out the wind.
  
  There have been no deaths or serious injuries involving bridge workers since construction began on the new Tappan Zee Bridge in 2013. Mr. Cuomo said that the project’s track record had been extraordinary for an undertaking of its size but noted that “things happen.”
  
  “Somebody will drop a hammer,” he said.
  
  While Mr. Cuomo said that four people were injured in Tuesday’s accident, Ed Day, the Rockland County executive, said that five people suffered minor injuries.
  
  The crane’s collapse drew new focus to the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The bridge, which is being built just north of the old bridge and is scheduled to be completed in 2018, has been mentioned by Mr. Cuomo as well as President Obama as an exemplary infrastructure project. On Monday during an event in Brooklyn, Mr. Cuomo praised the process used to contract the bridge’s construction out to private companies.
  
  But Mr. Cuomo said on Tuesday afternoon that the accident did not jeopardize the new bridge’s construction or its time frame for completion.
  
  He said it was a lucky break that the crane fell in the middle of the day when traffic was lighter.
  
  Victor Fargas, 57, a glass worker from the Bronx who had to delay some of his jobs after getting stuck in the traffic, decided to pass the time by taking a nap in his truck. “Now I’m doing all I can do,” he said, “patiently waiting and praying to the traffic gods.”
  
  Reporting was contributed by Joseph Berger, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Jesse McKinley, Noah Remnick, Rick Rojas and Ashley Southall.

 

Might be time to consider moving my New England lane a bit farther north, and come in through Mass.

Seems like the longer the Tappen Zee project goes on, the worse the traffic on the old bridge gets, anyway.