As tall apartment buildings have become substitute cell towers, so a regional bridge is about to assist in better data transmission.
Capitalizing on one of its links across the Hudson River, the New York State Bridge Authority, which operates five spans across the Hudson, has teamed with Time Warner Cable Systems, which will pay $480,000 to use the Mid-Hudson Bridge as, essentially, support stanchions for its cables.
The authority has invested $180,000 to make the project workable and expects to reap a profit beginning in four years.
“Our mission is to provide safe and reliable bridges for our residents and travelers, along with the lowest responsible toll possible,” Bridge Authority Executive Director Joseph Ruggiero said in a prepared statement. “We do not receive state or federal tax money and pay for the maintenance and operation of these bridges almost exclusively through tolls. Anything we can do that is reasonable to keep those tolls down is good policy.”
The bridges charge $1 for eastbound traffic and are free westbound, effectively making each trip just 50 cents. The passenger vehicle toll is among the lowest nationwide for self-supporting transportation agencies, the authority said, claiming tolls are actually lower today, in real dollars, than they were in 1933 when the authority began.
Ruggiero said that programs like fiber optic leasing and the advertising program recently launched by the authority won”™t replace tolls, but could avert higher ones. “Government must be more innovative and entrepreneurial to solve our problems. This type of revenue has a long-term benefit to the bottom line,” Ruggiero added.
Time Warner will pay the Authority $48,000 per year for 10 years. The Bridge Authority invested a total of $180,000 in its own infrastructure to accommodate the ”˜dark fiber”™ and expects to turn a profit on the project in less than four years.
The authority built additional capacity into the fiber optic network on the Mid-Hudson Bridge so that future clients will generate almost 100 percent net revenue. Ruggiero also said the authority will consider fiber optic lines on other bridges if there is sufficient interest to justify the costs.
“When an opportunity presents itself, we”™ll take a hard look at the costs and the benefits and decide on an individual basis how to proceed,” Ruggiero said. “We”™re very conscience of the historic and cultural significance of our bridges and won”™t do anything to jeopardize that; but we also have an obligation to the public to explore new and creative ways to pay the bills to keep our bridges among the best maintained in the nation.”
Besides the Mid-Hudson span, the authority operates the Bear Mountain, Newburgh-Beacon, Kingston-Rhinecliff and Rip Van Winkle bridges.
