Long-awaited Tappan Zee study disappointing

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme- mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme- mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme- mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-} After seven years and $50 million it is indeed disappointing to finally see the results of the much-delayed Tappan Zee bridge study. A new bridge will certainly be welcome but a bus rapid transit? Surely the lead agencies involved ”“ MTA, NYSDOT, NYS Thruway ”“ know the history of the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane on the I-287 corridor. Ten years ago this project was discredited because it was considered to be unworkable due to the excessive need for flyovers. A BRT on the 1-287 corridor has the same problem. Either the BRT must cross lanes of fast moving traffic or traffic must cross the BRT lane. It is either that or expensive flyovers will be required. This is an unworkable plan and cannot serve the region”™s commuters.

The plan for the commuter rail is even more disheartening. After all the discussion regarding the benefits of a full-length commuter rail linking five north-south lines, the agencies have opted for a rail linking Rockland County to Manhattan. No matter that only 30 percent of commuters over the Tappan Zee bridge are interested in going to Manhattan, a new east-west commuter rail, when it reaches the eastern bank of the Hudson, will enter a tunnel that makes a complicated turn to meet MetroNorth”™s Hudson River line, therefore offering Rocklanders their beloved “one seat ride” to the city. The cost of this link could easily pay for the tunnel required to go all the way to White Plains. The hopes of a state-of-the-art rail network in the metro region are therefore dashed. Meanwhile, the Port Authority is building a second tunnel into Penn Station. Called the “access to the region”™s core,” (ARC) this project will also allow a one-seat ride from Rockland through the Secaucus transfer into Penn Station, further reducing Manhattan-bound commuters on the east-west rail, making the Manhattan connection through Tarrytown completely redundant. Meanwhile, the 70 percent of commuters coming across the Tappan Zee bridge are left to fend for themselves with the unworkable BRT. One has to wonder who is in charge of these regional transportation decisions because they do not add up to rational regional mobility. Currently, nearly all federal transportation dollars are focused on massive transit projects in Manhattan. The east-side access is a $6 billion project for Long island commuters. The Second Avenue subway, much-beloved by resident New Yorkers, has been on the books for decades, now slated to cost $16 billion when completed. These projects are both basically comfort projects since they connect the already connected. The full-length east-west rail would connect four states and five rail lines.

Another project in the region is instructive as to how inefficient our agencies are. A new GoethalsBridge, the responsibility of the Port Authority, is slated to be built at a cost of $1 billion plus. A new Tappan Zee bridge would come in, in 2012 dollars, at $6.4 billion. There are definitely differences in the terrain and the length of the bridges, but $4 billion? The study team and the Merrill Lynch representative who is slated to advise the team on how to fund this mammoth project need a much sharper pencil in these cost estimates.

 

Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at mmmorgan10@optonline.net.