In Yonkers last week, Westchester County”™s first federal stimulus project was ready to bear the traffic of a new school year.
“School starts next week,” said Brian Jendras, superintendent at PCI Industries Corp., the Mount Vernon company awarded a $2.2 million contract by the county last spring to rebuild the 79-year-old Odell Avenue bridge. “We”™ll have two-way traffic open, so everybody will be happy.”
Jendras said the bridge project should be completed by the end of October. It is the first of five bridge and road infrastructure projects started by the county this summer with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
County officials said those projects were expected to create 98 jobs. The others are (dollar figures are approximates):
- A $304,000 project to replace street lighting at four Bronx River Parkway intersections.
- A $263,000 project to replace traffic signal controllers and upgrade communications equipment throughout southern and central Westchester.
- A $570,000 project to install wireless traffic data sensors on the Bronx River Parkway.
- A $739,000 project to replace about 30,000 feet of guide railing on five county roads.
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The county will receive another $55 million in federal stimulus funds through the state Environmental Facilities Corp. to upgrade its Mamaroneck wastewater treatment plant for biological nutrient removal.
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The funding will help Westchester comply with a federal and state mandate that requires it to spend $235 million to improve its Mamaroneck and New Rochelle treatment plants to reduce the amount of nitrogen released into Long Island Sound.
The Mamaroneck project is expected to create 70 short-term construction jobs and 20 engineering jobs.
As of June, county government had applied for about $75 million in federal stimulus funds. Of that total, about $8 million has already been received and another $45 million has been approved.
The county seeks $4.5 million in stimulus funding for energy conservation projects that are expected to create 200 jobs. Officials have applied for $200,000 for free home energy audits and $700,000 to conduct energy and greenhouse gas audits of 50 county buildings. Other energy conservation projects the county has proposed to do with stimulus funds are:
$1 million for energy efficiency projects at the Westchester County Center. The project is expected to create 50 jobs and save $235,000 in energy costs.
$1.5 million in energy conservation and efficiency programs in all county facilities. The project is expected to create 90 jobs and save between $450,000 and $800,000. $65,000 for a web-based energy reporting system. $1 million to install solar panels on the low-rise county courthouse building in White Plains and the Department of Emergency Services in Valhalla. The project is estimated to save $15,000 in energy costs and create 30 jobs.
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Among the largest stimulus projects approved to date in Westchester, Metro-North Railroad will receive $39 million to fully reconstruct its Tarrytown train station. The project award was announced last month in Tarrytown by Gov. David Paterson.
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The second busiest station on the Hudson Line with 2,825 inbound boardings a day from Westchester and Rockland counties, Tarrytown is the last of 16 Hudson Line stations to be rebuilt as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority”™s Hudson Line Stations Improvement Project. Construction work will proceed at Tarrytown while maintaining regular Metro-North train service.
The project includes replacement of the entire station platform, two pedestrian overpasses, elevators and six staircases. Yonkers Contracting Corp. recently was awarded a construction contract and the project will begin immediately, Metro-North officials said.
Restoration work already began this summer on the historic Tarrytown station building, built in 1890 by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. The work is being done by Agency Construction of Mamaroneck. That project is funded by the MTA”™s capital program.
Metro-North also is coordinating a traffic study with Tarrytown village officials to look at ways to improve vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the station area.
State officials last week said the village of Briarcliff Manor will receive $18.8 million in federal stimulus funds to support construction of a new Catskill Aqueduct tap and pump station.
