A $2 billion federal loan that would have helped finance building a new Tappan Zee Bridge has fallen through.
The hefty sum would have covered about one-third of the span's $5.2 billion price tag, but the federal government has not accepted New York State's loan application, according to the Federal Highway Administration's website.
The money is part of a larger pot of TIFIA (Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act) loans, of which the Tappan Zee project now does not presently have access to.
"The DOT received 26 Letters of Interest (LOIs) seeking more than $13 billion in credit assistance to finance approximately $36 billion in infrastructure investment across the country," officials wrote Thursday of TIFIA funds.
Projects that do qualify for TIFIA loans are located in Virginia, Texas, California, and Colorado. New York State can reapply later this year on behalf of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
The Tappan Zee project is one of a handful of infrastructure overhauls across the nation that were by president Barack Obama last year.
Other funding options for the project have been hazy, with selling toll-backed bonds and hiking up toll fares suggested.
The United States Department of Transportation had no comment on the loan's denial as of noon Thursday.
Residents of Rockland and Westchester have for months now, noting a bridge without rail and bus is not one worth building.
If the state includes mass transit, the pricetag would swell to about $16 billion.
Earlier this week, residents of Salisbury Point Cooperative—an apartment community at the foot of the current span in South Nyack—met to . Homeowners noted construction would likely decrease their quality of life, create unwanted noise and disturb creatures in the Hudson River.
Residents of the Quay Condominium complex in Tarrytown have met with bridge officials and have Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner, among other politicians, on their side to try to get compensated for the devaluation of their property and any damages to come.
Riverkeeper, a Hudson Valley non-profit that acts as an environmental watchdog, has stated they're over ecological concerns. The Atlantic sturgeon, an endangered fish, makes its home under the span.
Currently, the state is spending millions of dollars on tests preparing for construction. "The smart early work is underway," said Tom Madison, executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority, in March. Workers are installing test piles to determine what loads the final piles can bear.
