Politics & Policy

The White House announced Oct. 11 that the Tappan Zee Bridge was selected as one of 14 infrastructure projects nationwide to be expedited through the federal permitting and environmental review processes.

The fast-tracking of the bridge project comes as the Obama administration has been directing federal agencies to expedite the review process for select high-priority infrastructure projects that promise to create a significant number of jobs and that are shovel-ready.

The cost of rebuilding the Tappan Zee Bridge is estimated at $5.2 billion and will deliver at least 33,000 “job years” throughout the life of the project, according to the Federal Highway Administration. (If a construction worker works on the project for five years that would constitute five job years).

FHA spokeswoman Nancy Singer said state officials hope to begin the bidding process for the construction of a new bridge by August 2012.

While the new projected cost is significantly lower than a 2010 estimate of $16 billion for renovating a 30-mile stretch of highway that included building a new bridge, there are still questions to be answered, said Jessica Proud, spokeswoman for Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

“We”™re pleased that the governor and the White House have made this a priority. It”™s welcome news, but there are still a lot of questions that remain,” Proud said. She said there is still the question of whether a bus rapid transit system is ultimately included, in addition to the uncertainty over the project”™s sources of funding.

According to the FHA, New York state has indicated that a large chunk of financing for the bridge would come from issuing bonds secured by toll revenues. It is estimated that toll revenue will generate $3 billion in borrowing capacity with additional funds for the project coming from labor pension funds and other sources, including Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans.

Singer said the state would then be responsible for covering any shortfall with general or other borrowing. She did not say how much of the remaining $2.2 billion not covered by toll revenue would be financed by the latter sources.

As of Oct. 12, Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s office had not responded to requests for information.

“As of right now, we have no indication about federal funding,” Proud said. She said that as of Wednesday afternoon, Astorino had not yet spoken with the governor.

As recently as 2010, the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge was seen as being one component of a 30-mile-long transportation corridor renovation, with the total cost projected at $16 billion to $21 billion, according to the FHA.

The new plan being pursued by federal and state officials is to only replace the bridge itself at this time. While a draft environmental impact statement was initiated for the 2010 plan, Singer said a new DEIS will be required now that the project has been re-scoped to focus solely on the bridge.

However, she said government officials still expect the project to move ahead quickly and that they would be able to draw on the previous DEIS in an effort to accelerate the new plans.