The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 10 for the completion of the Third Avenue Bridge in Mount Vernon.
The event was hosted by Janno Lieber, acting chairman and CEO of the MTA, and Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi.
The MTA approved the project in December 2019 and began demolishing the 121-year-old bridge in April 2020.
The project was funded by the MTA’s 2015-2019 Capital Plan, and is the most recently updated of four bridges along Metro-North”™s New Haven line in downtown Mount Vernon that the MTA has replaced in the last four years. The 14th Avenue Bridge, the 6th Avenue Bridge and the 10th Avenue Bridge reopened in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
“This bridge reconstruction, completed in less than 16 months, shows the MTA”™s determination to stay right on schedule when we make commitments to local communities,” Lieber said. “And there are many more projects to benefit Metro-North riders in the works, now that our $51.5 billion 2020-24 capital program has been un-paused and is picking up steam.”
When the project was approved in 2019, the MTA planned to award a $10.4 million contract to John Civetta & Sons Inc. of the Bronx to complete it in 18 months. According to the MTA, the bridge was completed in less than 16 months, partially due to the issuance of a design-build contract, which expedited the project by placing responsibility for designing and building the bridge on a single contractor.
Along with functional rehabilitation and the installation of Con Edison gas and electrical lines, the bridge also features sidewalks, a pedestrian plaza and sculptural artwork integrated into the fencing.
The bridge will now allow for pedestrian and vehicle access after being closed for over a decade.
“I am excited that for the first time in a long time our residents can walk and drive over the Third Avenue Bridge,” said Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, who attended the ceremony.
“I want to thank the MTA and union workers who finished this project during a pandemic. The access to our Third Avenue corridor will only serve as a boon to our downtown economic development and ease traffic congestion. With the completion of this bridge, all of our bridges are officially open for the first time in more than a decade. I look forward to sitting down with MTA and our government partners to discuss the reconstruction of our oldest bridges at Fulton Avenue and South Street.”
