The ongoing road deck and joint repairs on the Tappan Zee Bridge — the costliest project in its 53-year history — will cost $25 million more than anticipated.

The state Thruway Authority had contracted to spend $150 million to replace 40 percent of the 3-mile bridge’s deck, but it found some support structures in worse condition than expected.

Ted Nadratowski, the Thruway’s New York division director, told me this morning that those connections had to be replaced, leading to the overruns and the $175 million price tag.

Nadratowski also said the metal construction plates will remain on the bridge until late October — a month longer than planned — because work has been delayed by bad weather this summer.

That won’t much of a difference to drivers because asphalt ramps leading to and from the plates have allowed the free-flow of traffic, unlike last year when the plates wreaked all kind of havoc.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News and LoHud.com.

I tend not to worry much about warnings that germs are everywhere because, well, germs are everywhere and they always have been.

But for those who do worry, here comes the latest weapon in the war on illness — The Sure Fit Transit Cover. It’s a slip cover that you fit over your airplane seat back to protect you from whatever nasties are crawling around in the fabric. Here, take a look:

Because who knows what diseases ran through the body of the last guy who sat there? Or the one before him?

Sure Fit calls the $14.99 item “the newest must-have item to ease fears of catching the flu” in a plane or on a bus or train.

How did we ever get by without it?

Five Amtrak routes are now included in Google Transit searches. So you can use the Google site to find your way, say, from New York City to Albany, if you can’t figure out how to get to directly to the Amtrak site. (www.amtrak.com.)

(Oddly, though, I was unable to find a public transit route from Yonkers to Albany, even though Yonkers is on Amtrak’s Empire line, one of the five now linked to Google.)

Still, it’s a start. The nationwide railroad says it plans to eventually have all of its routes available on the Google site.

Meanwhile, I gave the Google site a test run and found Read more of this entry »

The bus stop at Palisades Center mall in West Nyack will return to its former location at the bus shelter near the Bed Bath & Beyond store on Friday.

The bus stop was temporarily relocated during parking lot construction.

The temporary bus stop near Macy’s will no longer be served.

The mall is served by eight bus routes, including the Transport of Rockland (TOR) 59, 91, 92 and 97, the Tappan ZEExpress, the Clarkstown Mini Trans Routes A & D, and the Rockland Coaches (Red & Tan Lines) 20.

From way out in western New York (though not far enough away for my money), comes the story of this genuis — a guy who, while driving, was texting on one phone while talking on another.

Guess what happened. Or just read the report here, courtesy Read more of this entry »

When you drive on the New York State Thurway near Sleepy Hollow you’ll notice new signs that let you know the area is home to a cluster of historic sites.

The recently erected signs highlight the Rockefeller estate Kykuit, Union Church of Pocantico Hills, Philipsburg Manor, Van Cortlandt Manor, and Sunnyside, the one-time Read more of this entry »

A public workshop will take place at 7:30 p.m. this Tuesday to discuss design improvements to the intersection of Route 303 and Erie Street in Blauvelt.

The state Department of Transportation plans to add a median barrier with landscaping, and left turn lanes at the intersection in the next few years.

The purpose of the meeting is to solicit ideas from business and property owners, and residents on the improvements. The design will build from recommendations made in the Route 303 Sustainable Development study done in 2000.

The project, estimated to cost $3- to $4-million, is in the preliminary design phase. It is expected to be put out for bid in June 2011.

The meeting will be held at Orangetown Town Hall, 26 Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg. For information, call Suzanne Barclay at 845-359-5100 Ext. 2293.

As part of an exhibition at the Historical Society of Rockland County, Roger Panetta, curator of the Hudson River collection at Fordham University, will discuss how the Tappan Zee Bridge transformed Rockland in “The Tappan Zee Bridge: Forging the Rockland Suburb.” The presentation will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. tomorrow at the museum, 20 Zukor Road, New City. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for museum members and $3 for children 11 and younger. For more information, call the Historical Society at 845-634-9629.

I took the train on Monday from Rockland to the new Meadowlands station, via Secaucus Junction, as part of a ceremonial inaugural ride meant for New Jersey top dogs and the press (aka, bottom dogs).

The public gets its turn, and the service it’s first real-world test, on Sunday when Giants Stadium hosts an international championship soccer match.

As of early this week, only 20,000 tickets had been sold to the game, so it’s not likely the trains will be packed. That will likely also be the case when they run during Jets and Giants pre-season games next month. However, the runs should give NJ Transit officials an opportunity to work out any glitches. Read more of this entry »

Check out what’s happening with the Throgs Neck Bridge, hobbled by fire, at the press conference going on now, and streaming live on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Web site.

Two Bronx-bound lanes leading to the bridge are open, but only Read more of this entry »

It looks like it will soon be illegal to send someone a text message while you’re driving. And really, talk about something that should be common sense.

The state Senate voted today to make it illegal to text, play video games or surf the Web while behind the wheel. The Assembly had passed it earlier.

Well, we did it first. That’s the word from County Executive Andrew Spano’s Read more of this entry »

One of my favorite surprises is when I get books in the mail. Well, the one that came recently is not so much a literary treasure (though the writing is perfectly fine) as it is of practical benefit.

It’s Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, by Briarcliff Manor resident Seth Leitman.

I know Leitman. I wrote a column about him last October, when he came out with the latest version of Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, which was originally published in 1993 by another author.

Plug-in hybrids are cars that Read more of this entry »

The bus stop that faces Route 59 at Palisades Center in West Nyack will be temporarily relocated starting Thursday due to parking lot construction.

The new, temporary stop will be near the lower level Macy’s entrance, also facing Route 59, the county’s Department of Public Transportation said today.

Bus riders who use the mall’s commuter parking lot (Lot J, across from the Home Depot) will not be affected during the construction.

The new bus stop is served by eight routes – Transport of Rockland (TOR) 59, 91, 92 and 97; the Tappan ZEExpress; the Clarkstown Mini Trans Routes A and D; and the Rockland Coaches (Red & Tan Lines) 20.

All of these routes will switch to the temporary stop, but bus schedules will not be affected by this change.

Buses will continue to use the stop for the duration of the construction project.

It is not known how long the project will last.

The firstAmtrak coach car to be refurbished by federal stimulus dollars will be back on the rails and carrying passengers next week, the railroad announced.

It’ll get back on track at an Amtrak maintenance yard in Bear, Del., and Amtrak is celebrating the event with a press conference Monday. The car cost $687,000 to renovate. Read more of this entry »

There’s a certain tortise-and-the-hare irony to this. A runway at JFK Airport was shut down temporarily yesterday because a few dozen turtles ambled onto the tarmac, the Associated Press reports.

Pilots at the airport on Jamaica Bay reporting seeing the first turtles about 8:30 a.m.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey rounded up the Diamondback terrapins in about 35 minutes and placed them back in the water, farther from the airport, AP said. But flights were delayed up to an hour and a half.