New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic challenges, 2020 was a banner year for bridge and tunnel projects with 10 projects completed ahead of schedule.
The MTA said major improvement projects at the Robert F. Kennedy, Verrazzano-Narrows, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, and Henry Hudson Bridges were all completed before their scheduled completion date.
“Our workforce, our partners in organized labor, and the contractors were able to turn the difficult conditions of 2020 to our advantage and accelerate projects while fewer people and vehicles were on the road during the COVID crisis,” said Janno Lieber, President of MTA Construction & Development. “These projects are great examples of how our team is never losing sight of safety as we work in new ways to get the job done more quickly and at lower cost.”
Improvements at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge included a new ramp connecting the bridge to the Harlem River Drive. The ramp opened in November, a month ahead of schedule, and fixes a detour through East Harlem that has persisted for more than 62 years.
At the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, deck reconstruction was completed five months ahead of schedule. The project is part of an effort to replace the upper level of the Brooklyn approach to the bridge from the Gowanus Expressway. Earlier this year, a project to ease Gowanus Expressway traffic by restoring two lanes of Staten-Island bound traffic was completed three months ahead of schedule. In August, state-of-good-repair work was completed to restore the pedestals and foundations at the Brooklyn and Staten Island towers of the bridge.
At the Henry Hudson Bridge, roadway reconstruction of the bridge’s southbound approach was completed in November, three months ahead of its end of January 2021 scheduled completion date. Traffic safety improvements at the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, including improved access to the Whitestone Expressway, were finished four weeks ahead of schedule. And a roadway replacement project on the Throgs Neck Bridge was completed, adding a new traffic pattern and movable barriers to ready the bridge to be replaced by a new steel roadway in the future.
The MTA also announced the roll-out of the Tolls NY mobile app this month, allowing customers to manage E-ZPass accounts, including their account balance, adding funds, or setting up automatic payments through the app. The app also lets toll customers pay Tolls by Mail bills before receiving an invoice and view toll and payment history. As of the first week in December, the MTA said, the Tolls NY app was downloaded more than 350,000 times and had a 4.8 rating in the Apple App Store.