Building bridges isn’t easy
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- October
- 27
Good to see the Department of Transportation get the new James A. Farley Memorial Bridge done, not only on time, but ahead of schedule.
Looks like offering a financial incentive — in this case $900,000 on a $14 million project — worked to motivate the contractor to get it finished.
The DOT has taken it’s far share of heat here for numerous bridge projects in Rockland that got stalled by engineering or design problems, issues with contractors or some combination.
It’s happened in Monsey, Montebello, Tallman and elsewhere, but the all time winner was in Sparkill, where the DOT started work, realized damage to the bridge was worse than anticipated and required pulling the entire structure down.
That one got delayed over and over because the steel for the replacement wasn’t immediately available.
It cost merchants and it had residents hopping mad as time using detours dragged on and on.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case this time around and the DOT and the contractor — Harrison & Burrowes Bridge Constructors of Glenmont, N.Y. — deserve credit for beating the deadline with what looks to be a replacement that will last.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 4:37 pm by Bob Baird.
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