Tuesday, January 17, 2017

I-87+287 Tappan Zee and Cuomo Bridges over Hudson River

(Bridge Hunter, B&T via Facebook, includes a lot of old, as well as new, photos; Satellite plus 152 photos)

The 1952-1955 cantilever truss bridge is being replaced by a $4-5 (depending on source) billion cable stay bridge.

(Update: RoadTraffic-Technology Cuomo article  "The average daily traffic on the old bridge was 138,000 vehicles, while the peak traffic was approximately 170,000 cars a day. The new Governor Mario M Cuomo Bridge will serve more than 140,000 motorists a day....The estimated investment on the new bridge is $3.9bn."

Old bridge:
By The original uploader was Nrbelex at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Matthiasb., CC BY-SA 2.5, Link
New York State Thruway Authority
 from NYCroads
The old bridge was built at the second-widest point on the Hudson , 3 miles, so that it would be just north of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey so that the toll revenue would go to the newly created New York State Thruway Authority instead of the Port Authority. "A unique aspect of the design of the bridge is that the main span is supported by eight hollow concrete caissons. Their buoyancy supports some of the loads and helps reduce costs." It's 138' height above water is high enough to commit suicide. It has been referred to as the "Golden Gate Bridge of the East" because of the number of suicides. Several efforts have been implemented to reduce suicide attempts. [Wikipedia]

The buoyant caissons rest on steel piles driven to bedrock. The caissons were constructed on land and barged to the site. Some of the piles are 270' long because the bedrock was 300' below river bottom. The 30" steel piles were cleaned out and filled with concrete.  [NYCroads]

New York State Thruway Authority from NYCroads
The main cantilever span is 1,212' and the total length is 16,013'. Avoiding the Port Authority was not the only reason for choosing the Tappan Zee location. The location was a crossroads of existing and planned expressways connecting New Jersey, New York State, New York City, and Connecticut. The 1,212' main span consists of 340' cantilevered spans and a suspended span of 531'. Each side span is 602' At the time of construction, it was the widest of its type. The 19 approach spans were 235-250' long, 93' wide, and 28' deep and weighed up to 900 tons. They were built on shore and then jacked up from a barge using four 500-ton jacks. [NYCroads]

It was designed to carry 100,000 vehicles on a peak day. During 1956 it carried 18,000 vehicles per day. Now it carries 135,000vpd over seven lanes, the middle one of which changes directions twice a day. It takes 45 minutes to change the lane. The projection for 2025 is 175,000vpd. [NYCroads]

None of the heavy rail (commuter), light rail, HOV+bus lane ideas considered during the design phase were incorporated in the final design. But it does have a dedicated bicycle and pedestrian span on the north side with scenic overlooks. [NYCroads, hdrinc]

NYS Thruway Authority posted three photos with the comment:
CROSSING TIME: 68 years ago today, the Tappan Zee Bridge opened to traffic. The 3-mile span across the Hudson River linked the two portions of the Thruway mainline, from the Bronx to Buffalo, and transformed the region.
Check out a history of the TZ here: https://on.ny.gov/4ajRQeh
James Torgeson shared
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I can't find where I read it, but since the demolition cost of the old bridge would be $140 million, leaving it as a walkway is being studied. A seven lane highway would certainly be wide enough for bicycles and pedestrians. In fact, they could add bus and emergency vehicle lanes on the north side.

Bridges Now and Then posted
Building the first Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, c. 1954. (American Bridge)

James Torgeson shared
In this 1954 view, ironworkers from the American Bridge Division of US Steel erect the first Tappan Zee Bridge, which crosses the Hudson River between Tarrytown and Nyack, NY. Although the river is very wide here, it is also relatively shallow, making it an ideal location for a long bridge. It replaced a ferry system and was in service until 2017 when it was replaced by the current signature span.
James Torgeson: This project was so large that several AB plants were involved, including Ambridge, Elmira and Gary.



New Bridge:


New York State Thruway Authority from hdrinc

RoadTraffic-Technology

By Jim.henderson - Own work, CC BY 4.0, Link
It is being built by Tappan Zee Constructors.

In June, 2015, the first prefabricated section of three 12' tall and 400' long girders was lifted into place by the Left Coast Lifter. (video) This is the first of 31 miles of girders to build the first 4-lane, 3.1-mile bridge. A second bridge is being built in parallel so that each direction of travel will have its own 4-lane bridge. The girders are placed on pedestals on top of the pier cap. The pedestals "contain structures called 'seismic isolation bearings,' made of steel and a rubberlike material designed to offer some flexible movement (in case of earthquakes) and also to withstand the day-to-day pounding from trucks. The three-girder assemblages will soon be joined by twin-girder assemblages that will carry prefabricated electrical, plumbing and communications lines and complete the width of the span."

The 328'x100' Left Coast Lifter can lift 1,900 tons, and it came to this site through the Panama Canal. The Tappan Zee prefabricated sections weigh between 900 and 1,100 tons. The previous job for this "world's largest floating crane" was to help build the replacement of the earthquake-damaged eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The crane has three 806hp diesel powered generators to drive the cable winches. The 6,750 ton crane was built in 2009 near Shanghai.

Tito Arevalo posted
4600 with the Left Coast Lifter.
The Left Coast Lifter has also been used to help rebuild Amtrak's Bridge over Spuyten Duyvil Creek.



In July, 2016, a crane boom collapsed across all of the lanes of the old bridge. Fortunately, no one was hurt. It was one of the 28 cranes working on the bridge. It was doing the routine task of installing piling using a vibratory hammer. Investigations did not have much to report three days later.  (Most pictures show the crumpled boom laying over the old bridge. This link shows the crumpled boom at the crawler base.) The crane was working on one of the 1000 piles needed by the bridge. A pile is a steel tube up to 6' in diameter and 300' long. But Jeff J. Loughlin, the business manager of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 137, had a theory. The Manitowoc MLC 300 crawler crane with a 256' boom was operating from the deck of the new bridge. Jeff's theory is "the pile had struck a very soft spot of river mud and had begun to sink rapidly, jolting the 60-ton hammer into a rapid drop and putting a particular strain on the boom, which buckled." He explained that with an old crane, the operator could take his foot off the break and allow the hammer to free fall and avoid stressing the boom. But modern cranes have a hydraulic braking system that limits the descent rate to 800 feet per minute. The operator had 30 years of experience manipulating cranes. I assume a drug test can be done within three days so that issue has been ruled out.

By Ramlogue - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
In August, 2016 the "halfway done" milestone was reached. This posting includes a slide show of eight pictures. The sixth picture shows how the roadway concrete is pumped from barges. Concrete plants were built on barges so that they did not have to run a lot of trucks through the adjoining communities. They also avoided long truck runs to build a 3-mile long bridge. The eighth photo shows the cranes and the blue form blocks that are raised after each of the 26 segments of a tower is built and cured. The cables vary in size from 11" to 24" in diameter with some of the biggest being 800 feet long.

In December, 2016 it hit the milestone of all eight 419' high towers being completed.

NYC CBS News has a list of its articles concerning the Tappan Zee.
Satellite image captured Jan, 2017 is probably at least two years old.
Satellite image captured Dec, 2017
I included the barges on the north side of the bridge because they are probably supporting the construction

I learned about this construction from some Facebook postings.

Tito Arevalo posted
Manitowoc 4600 ringer Crane
Peter Cerniglia posted six photos with the comment: "Tappan Zee bridge in New York." The comments on the photos are my own.

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3: This is probably one of the 60-ton hammers mentioned above that the crane crash described above was using.

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4: During off hours they raise the tugboat assigned to the barge out of the water. I assume this is done to make it more difficult to steal or vandalize it. I've seen cranes around here hoist an air compressor in the air during off hours for the same reason.

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Screenshot from the video on the referenced page.

Update: OSHA finds faulty equipment caused the Tappan Zee Manitowoc MLC300 crane collapse. It seems like a $13,000 fine for a $4 billion contract is barely a slap on the pinkie.
Chris Spence posted
93 ton edge girder... 4100 tappen zee bridge ny yesterday
Chris Spence posted
30 ton floor beam. 4100 tappen zee bridge ny stretched out getting that Sunday $$ local 417
Stephen Collins Never seen a cab relocated like that
Chris Spence Was trying to get a good pic but I'm the signal man didn't have time to.
Ben Stalvey several 4100 have moved relocated cabs.
Shane Strickland I ran this crane on the Biloxi Bay Bridge around 10 years ago! Traylor Brothers right?Chris Spence Yea traylor bros.

Aaron Brown posted two photos with just the comment: "New York." Fortunately, the comments confirmed these were of the Tappan Zee accident.

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Chris Spence posted two photos with the comment:
got a Saturday in on new tappen zee bridge in ny, they added a 100' jib onto the 4600. She's got 400' of stick now
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While looking for another bridge project in NY State, I found a highlights page with explanations of the various phases of construction and photos. One phase of note is that the 750 ton crossbeam between the towers was prebuilt and lifted as a unit by the "I Lift NY" barge crane.

NYDOT
The final girder assembly was placed in October, 2016.

NYDOT

The towers were completed Dec 2016 and the main span was connected to the approaches Feb 2017.

NYDOT
It is interesting how pictures float around the web and show up months later.

Kevin Downey posted
Peter Cerniglia posted two photos with the comment: "Here are a couple of pictures of the 4600 ringer at the Tappanzee Bridge in New York we have been running with 300 for the bone and we just added 100 foot of jib."
Ben Stalvey wow 400 ft sweet
Mike Irish That runs a # 27 boom for the jib. Same boom as what's in a 4100W ringer. That thing is an animal!!

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Robert LaChappelle posted
4100 ringer erecting MR 608 Tappan Zee bridge NY
Ben Stalvey Wow must ave alot boom on that 4100 RingerChris Spence that's the Bob hill 4100 it's got 240 or 260
Bob Dahringer posted ten photos with the comment: "Passed by the new Tappan Zee Bridge this morning, still lots going on."
Aaron Hartlaub I think that is the MLC 300 that came down last year.


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Bob Dahringer commented on a posting
West towers on the Tappan Zee.
[A couple of Potain tower cranes. There are currently (May, 2017) four working on the bridge]
Robert LaChapelle posted
Getting ready to jack down and dismantle MR608's Tappan Zee Bridge New York
Blane Tidwell posted five photos with the comment: "MLC 300 manitowic didn't make it but a few months on this job."

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Ben Stalvey commented on the above posting

John T. Collinson commented on the above posting

John T. Collinson commented on the above posting
Rich Reiter posted
Dismantle of the first MR608 at the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Rich Reither commented on his posting
Ben Stalvey posted a request for pictures of barge-mounted 4600s. Quite a few of the comments featured a yellow-boom ringer working on this bridge.

John McAuliffe commented on Ben's posting
Tappan Zee
John McAuliffe commented on Ben's posting


 John also provided a video.

Joey Dejulio commented on Ben's posting

Joey Dejulio commented on Ben's posting

Joey Dejulio commented on Ben's posting, cropped
Richard Nathanson posted
Richard Nathanson Tappan Zee Bridge New York
Ben StalveyGroup Admin Wow top notch 4100 ringers. These old cranes take alot skill to run. They can def wear a operator out.Joe Leonard Ben Stalvey if you understand what happens between the levers and the exhaust stack they are a breeze to run and at the end of the day you step out of the cab as spry as a ruttin' buck.Marvin Meise Great comment Mr Leonard.. your spot on. Most young bucks have no idea that the ole 4100 was probably the best machine they built.Anthony Gugliuzza Notice that the machines are time proven reliable conventional and they could have picked what ever type machines they wanted to.Richard Nathanson Mast was 140, cut down to 70 to fit under the bridge.Louis DeFazio 30 rigs there at 1 time with 2 potains.Bill Johns Jr Yeah they tried a similar pick in the bay and put one in the drink. Wasn't pretty

Lynn Johnson commented on Richard's posting
A couple more in action recently
These are real nice machines. Day in day out very hard to beat for a wide variety of work.
Everything about this project was big, even the yellow spreader beam.
Screenshot at -0:10
Blane Tidwell posted
Last piece of steel set on Rockland side.  #TAPPANZEEBRIDGENEWYORK
The above must be working on the second span because the first span is done and the old bridge is closed.
Rodrigo Martino, Jan 2018
And the old bridge is being dismantled:
Paul Galbraith posted
More Tappan Zee Bridge passing the Trash Train
[northbound]
Dennis D'Angelo commented on Paul's posting
Keith Eller posted three photos.

Dennis DeBruler Photos of the new Tappan Zee bridge.

Some of the 150 50' long, 40-ton deck panels were used to make county bridges: http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/.../parts-of-tappan-zee....


133 of the 150 panels were sold for a $1 each. And 29 bargeloads of bridge debris were added to artificial reefs off Long Island: https://www.nytimes.com/.../tappan-zee-bridge-artificial.... (payware)

Taking the old bridge apart in pieces must of made a lot of jobs: https://www.nytimes.com/.../tappan-zee-bridge-new-york... (payware)


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A few days after I found the NY Times article that they would not used "energetic felling," I saw a video of controlled demolition. It is interesting that they did not bother to remove the equipment on the deck over the left side before they blew down the span.
Sreenshot at -0:31 from video from share
If you scroll down in abc7ny you can access the above video without Facebook. If you scroll down even further, there is a video reporting that traffic will be shutdown on the new bridge during demolition. Around 1:30 on that video it explains why they switched from a plan to dismantle to a plan of controlled demolition: they discovered "structural issues" that invalidated the dismantlement plants.
This explosion even made it into the Chicago Tribune as a photo with a caption even though a local derailment and shutdown of the Heritage Corridor commuter service on 1/14/2019 didn't make it into the Tribune. (I looked hard for the CN derailment news.)

Chicago Tribune 1/16/2019, p15
An explosion from a demolition Tuesday brings down a section of the oldTappan Zeeo Bridge on the Hudson River near Tarrytown, N.Y. The bridge was operational from 1955 to 2017 and was replaced by a span officially named the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. [The current governor's Dad, who was also a NY governor.] (Seth Wenig/AP)
FoxNews (source)
In addition to this still, the article include a "raw video" that allows you to watch the smoke blow away and zooms out to a wide angle shot. "State contractors used explosive charges to detonate vertical support columns on the eastern support portion of the bridge, sending the structure crashing into the Hudson River. A set of orange buoys on the water were connected to netting to help control the debris once it hit the water.
The steel from the bridge will be recovered by chains that have been laid on the riverbed, according to officials....The demolition had been set for Saturday, but it was postponed due to heavy winds. There are plans to dismantle the western portion without explosives sometime this year. Original plans called for the Tappan Zee to be removed piece by piece and avoid the use of explosives, which could have an impact on Hudson River fish habitats. Environmental experts, however, determined the old bridge was structurally unsound, preventing workers from continuing the piecemeal takedown." This article has a link to another article about the bridge being used to craete artificial reefs.
Darrell Colpo There was some issue with wooden pilings under the old bridge being slowly but surely being eroded by bugs, parasites because of where the wood comes from. They knew for a while it had to be replaced.

Screenshot from lohud (pay count)   They are lowering the western span down to a barge.
[If you scroll down in the article, there is a gallery of 46 photos of its construction. Even further down in the article is 62 photos of the demolition.]

lohud (pay count), photo 26 of 46
[I
 did not understand that the articulated spans are a rather small part of the total length of the bridge until I saw this photo.]

Enis Boric posted three photos with the comment: "TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE , TARRYTOWN, NY."
David Whitehead Are they still working on that?
Enis Boric David Whitehead there’s just a couple of barges left. They are claming out the remaining concrete that was demoed from the old bridge.
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Lucibello Heavy Equipment photography posted seven photos with the comment: "Throwback to some of the floating cranes on the Tappan Zee bridge job. Some notable highlights is the Weeks 531 Clyde 42 500 ton whirley and the ZPMC left coast lifter."
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Sean McQuilken: I worked on this dredge during the project, that was super sketchy digging under the old bridge, especially at night.

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I happen to access a satellite view in Jan 2022, and it still showed it being constructed.
Satellite

Bill Rendina posted
Tappen Zee Bridge Demolition Jan 15 2019
Bridges Now and Then shared
Bridges Now and Then posted
A section of the old Tappan Zee Bridge is brought down with explosives in this view from Tarrytown, N.Y.. January 15, 2019. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Dave Frieder commented on the BNaT post

The City and the Subway posted
When the Fog Rolls In; P32 AC-DM scurries down the Hudson River Line and into the abyss at sunset just south of Scarborough Station in Briarcliff Manor, NY. The last of the sun reflects off the train as low clouds and nightfall slowly eat away at the day.
J.B. Rail Photog shared

ValmontCoatings-bridge via Dennis DeBruler

River Rail Photo posted
Midnight Blue And A Blue Sky. Amtrak 100 (P42DC, 50th Anniversary, Midnight Blue) is in a unique paint scheme that represents the "commitment of our employees moving people around the clock and across the nation. As occasionally happens, it has recently drawn the assignment running in place of a dual-mode locomotive in Empire Service on the Hudson Line. On Thursday, February 8, 2024, it is seen passing the Mario Cuomo Bridge (still known to locals as the Tappan Zee Bridge) in Tarrytown, New York, just about 20 miles away from its final destination at New York's Penn Station.
John Williams: How does this consist get into NYP? Engine swap? Great photo BTW as always!
Casey Jonesberg: John Williams we call the dispatcher ahead of arrival to have them turn the exhaust fans on.

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