State and federal transportation officials have definitively closed the door on including mass transit in the construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge, but say any new structure would not preclude the future addition of mass transit.
Officials also said the construction of a new bridge would be publicly financed with no private investments or funding.
More than 200 people attended a meeting Dec. 14 at the Westchester County Center that featured speakers from the Federal Highway Administration, New York State Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority.
“The reality is, transit is not possible on the bridge today. So we are moving forward in a way that we can deliver the project,” said Joan McDonald, commissioner of transportation at the state DOT, according to a transcript of the meeting.
Notably, the meeting took place just one day after more than a dozen elected officials and public interest organizations from Westchester and Rockland counties issued a joint statement calling for mass transit to be included in any bridge designs.
The DOT and the Thruway Authority also have released a request for qualifications, or RFQ, for companies interested in participating in the design and construction of the bridge.
The RFQ maps out the pre-qualification process for those looking to be short-listed as project proposers, with a “statement of qualifications” submission deadline of Jan. 10, 2012. At the Dec. 14 meeting, David Capobianco of the Thruway Authority said a maximum of five companies will be short-listed for the bridge construction contract.
In addition to the RFQ process, officials at the meeting mapped out a schedule for the remainder of the procurement process:
- A summary of the scoping process will be made publicly available in late December;
- The draft environmental impact statement (EIS) will be released Jan. 19;
- Companies short-listed for the construction contract will be announced Jan. 31;
- A public hearing on the draft EIS will be held in February;
- A draft request for proposals (RFP) will be issued in February;
- Proposals by the short-listed companies will be due in June;
- The final EIS will be released in late June or early July;
- A winning bid will be selected in July;
- A contract will be executed with the winning company in August, followed by a “notice to proceed,” with the design-build construction period estimated at five years.
Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council for Westchester and the Hudson Valley, said the foremost concern was soliciting design proposals and paving the way for construction to begin as quickly as possible.
“The important part of the discussion was that we need to get the bridge built as soon as possible,” said Pepe, who attended the meeting. He said incorporating mass transit into the plans would draw out the environmental review process, which could delay the process “anywhere from two to five years.”
Henry Cheung, senior vice president of Tutor Perini Corp., the Sylmar, Calif.-based developer that is currently replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge deck, said the company would be among the contractors seeking to be short-listed.
“Tutor Perini would certainly be interested in constructing the replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge,” said Cheung, who works out of the company”™s New Rochelle office.
State DOT and Thruway Authority officials did not return repeated calls for additional comment on this article.
