TZ Bridge drivers will get extra Westchester-bound lane tomorrow
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- October
- 22
A fifth Westchester-bound lane will be opened on the Tappan Zee Bridge tomorrow morning to provide immediate relief to frustrated rush-hour commuters, state Sen. Thomas Morahan told The Journal News/LoHud.com today.
Raised steel construction plates on parts of the bridge have caused 15-mile traffic back-ups into Rockland, and more than doubled travel times from early- to mid-morning for thousands of drivers.
Morahan spoke with Michael Fleischer, the head of the state Thruway Authority, who confirmed the change.
“He assured me that the fifth lane will be open tomorrow,” Morahan said.
The extra Westchester-bound lane will be created by moving the median barrier over one lane, thereby reducing the Rockland-bound lanes from three to two. By mid-day, the lane configuration will be changed to four into Rockland and three into Westchester to accommodate northbound commuters returning home during the evening.
The 1.5-inch thick steel plates are expected to remain on the west deck truss on the 3-mile bridge until Thanksgiving as part of joint repairs. The work will then move to the Rockland-bound lanes in December.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 am by Khurram Saeed.
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I don’t use the bridge for commuting, but live off of Mountainview Ave in Central Nyack and the traffic in the mornings is for the birds. This morning the traffic was so bad that the residents of Central Nyack couldn’t even get out of their driveways. God forbid there was a severe emergency that the Fire Department, Police Department or Ambulance Corp had to deal with in the area. They probably wouldn’t of been able to get there due to the traffic. All Central Nyack side streets were jammed pack. Route 59 E/B was packed up the the Palisades Center Mall.
I don’t quite understand how the plates will remain down until the end of November. It’s hard to believe that work on the bridge cannot be completed any quicker, or that there is a way to repair the bridge that does not disturb commuter traffic.
This chaos condition also exists for the evening Westchester-bound commuters. The delays reach past exit 13 (and further north) heading towards Westchester, all due to those darn plates.
I commute into Rockland everyday. I am concerned that the removal of the 3rd lane will cause more traffic for us then we already experience . If they are going to add a lane into Westchester only for the morning commuters they are not thinking about the people that sit in 15 miles of traffic on the way home into Westchester . If they are saying this construction isn’t going to be complete until December then during the 5 pm rush hour there should be 5 open lanes as well .
Marci,
If they had 5 lanes open in the evening for Westchester bound commuters than those going back to Rockland would never get home. The traffic flows fine in the morning with only three lanes going into Rockland. 4 lanes is enough going home in the evening.
People should just driving a little faster over these plates. They said that they shouldn’t puncture tires. Lets not be afraid of them and just drive.
My husband takes that bridge 5 days a week. Each day I feel the need to call him to make sure he got to work safely.
He is a NYC City school teacher, who’s job is stressful enough. He gets up at 5AM to “try” to get over the bridge no later than 6AM. We make a joke about “traffic and weather on the 8’s”, but it’s not funny. I keep wondering why more people haven’t used the “phones” on that bridge.
I must say I though it would take years for someone to make a decision about 5 lanes. One problem though, all those people taking the 5 lanes into Westchester now have to come back into Rockland with 4 lanes, and the “plates” starting in December. what’s the answer then??? Talk about not thinking.
Marci – I’m with you. I go against the traffic, but these days it really doesn’t seem to matter in which direction you’re heading. TA – stop the insanity and fix this mess!
Frank – With all due respect I think that you are looking at this the wrong way yes we have 3 lanes in the morning and 3 lanes going home evening commute back to Rockland still has the same 4 lanes . we can agree to disagree all day but the fact of the matter is that there is just as much stress for us coming back to Westchester. I agree DRIVE FASTER over the plates but some people just don’t get that point which also goes for the people traveling to Westchester in the morning .
For the people that leave there homes at some ungodly hour I do feel bad for you. It is to bad that the people would built this bridge didn’t think that one day this might have been a problem but out of the box thinking I assume only comes few and far between .
Thanks Michaelss3 at least someone feels my pain .
Why was a State Sen. making this announcement. What on earth did he have to do with it. Oh yeah election in two weeks. Then the esteemed Sen. Morahan can go back to sleep.
If the plates would have feathered edges at the incoming traffic side at least – say a half inch at edge to full inch an half 3 inches away, the jolt one feels in the car would be much less and the drivers woukld move faster over them. Right now it feels like hitting a large pothole, no wonder motorists are slowing down. As for the five lanes – I am afraid it would not do much good, since three lanes have the darn plates, so the traffic would end up moving at the slower speed anyway.
Ironically, most of this problem is caused by idiot drivers who overreact when they approach the plates.
That said, there also must be a better solution. An uninterrupted stretch of plates, so there is only one bump? Spreading asphalt over the section in question?
Given all of the allegedly brilliant engineers at the Thurway Authority and a budget of nearly $200M, seems a better solution should be possible.
This is the result of incompetant management of the entire bridge project and the piecemeal approach to fixing it as we go. I am not sure that we can tolerate this situation until Thanksgiving. Why can’t they stop everything and fix this part of the bridge now so that the plates can come off.Opening an extra lane will not solve the problem as everyone will still stop and go as they appraoch the plates.
About all the posts with going over the plates at a normal speed….the problem is that sometimes things do go wrong…for instance my mom was driving over the bridge a while ago when the first plates were down and a bolt came loose and punctured her gas tank…gas was spilling everywhere….thank God she had a full tank the cops said because if not…they thought it could have started a fire in the car!! so NO I do not think motorists should drive over the plates at normal speed…Trust me I go over that bridge every morning…I teach in Westchester and yes I would love to speed over them….but after what my mom experienced….I guess taking precaution is the best bet.
The fact of the matter is that the bridge will never properly accomodate commuters. I have been commuting 5 days a week for 21 years. An additional lane into Westchestr will not relieve this mess because of the plates. The plates are poorly designed, poorly implemented and the flashing warning signs put people into a panic. The bridge is poorly managed, poorly maintained and a hazard to drivers. The fact that they even charge us to cross this garbage is amazing to me.
Why didn’t the article yesterday on the front page of LoHud discuss why these plates must be down for another month. Why was this question not asked by the reporter(s)? I think if a reason could be given why this must be so, than drivers would have more patience. But, it is irritating not to know why the parts of the bridge where the plates are cannot be prioritized. An extra lane to me does not solve the problem – people will still slow up. The solution to this problem is that those plates must be removed as soon as possible. When they worked on other parts of the bridge over the last year these plates were not necessary – why was this so? Can LoHud find out?
An extra lane will not solve the current problem.The warning
signs must be REMOVED from from the sign board and it must be replaced by the new signs says ….MAINTAIN THE STATE SPEED LIMIT…STAY IN LANE….Please don’t Scare the CURIOUS DRIVERS.
for all of you saying that people should go over the plates faster…people in trucks, suv’s or even softly sprung cars should be able to do so as long as the bolts dont come up and damage the cars…however for those of us in stiff low slung sporty cars like myself…going over one of those plates at any reasonable speed can cause bent wheels, blown tires and busted shocks among other things…fact of the matter is that its a poor choice of materials and its causing millions upon millions of dollars in lost time, gas and damages not to mention the effects its having on peoples health with all of these cars idling and causing massive amounts of stress