Advocates for an efficient rapid-transit system across the Interstate 287 corridor and for a new Tappan Zee Bridge are hoping a change in leadership will speed the process of choosing a future option for the corridor.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer earlier this month asked the state Department of Transportation to head the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project, which was previously directed by the state Thruway Authority.
Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano and Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef earlier this year sent a joint letter to the governor expressing frustration at the progress of the project and asking him to get involved.
Spitzer announced that Timothy Gilchrist, his deputy secretary for transportation and infrastructure, will lead the overall project. DOT Commissioner Astrid Glynn will also be closely involved with the Tappan Zee Bridge study.
Spano believes the change is a sign the governor considers the Tappan Zee a high priority, said Susan Tolchin, chief advisor to the county executive.
“We think that this is the right way to go and we look forward to getting quicker information, access and input to what”™s going on,” Tolchin said. “The county executive has had a very close relationship with Commissioner Glynn and we feel exceedingly comfortable in the direction this is moving.”
The DOT is currently in the process of taking over the contracts of the consultants on the project from the Thruway Authority. Once the change is complete Tolchin expects the county executive will be in regular contact with the project team.
Marsha Gordon, co-chairperson of the Westchester-Rockland Tappan Zee Futures Task Force, said the DOT, as a multimodal agency, would bring a “broader perspective” to the bridge replacement study.
“We”™re very encouraged that the governor has taken this step to move this to the DOT,” she said. “We think that this shows great leadership and shows the importance of this project from a statewide perspective.”
Gordon praised the choice of Gilchrist to head the project.
“We”™re happy that there is somebody who has been named to provide the leadership that this project has needed, and who will be accountable,” she said.
The same people who had been serving on the project team, which comprises representatives of the state DOT, Thruway Authority and Metro-North Railroad, will likely stay on board under the new leadership, said Jennifer Post, a spokeswoman for the DOT.
“We”™ll continue to work with our partners on the project team and we look at this change as an opportunity to move the project forward in a thoughtful and hopefully more expeditious fashion,” she said. “We are very well qualified to lead the review of the various proposals and move the project forward.”
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The project team outlined six possible options for the future of the corridor during a media briefing in February. They ranged from a mass-transit system complete with commuter rail and new bridge, a bus rapid-transit system and a new bridge, to not having a new bridge at all.
Post said after the DOT transitions into full control of the project, the agency will have a better idea of how the process will move forward.
“We are very enthusiastic and look forward to moving the governor”™s agenda forward on this project,” she said.
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