Just how 'green' can a project of such magnitude -- both building a new bridge and tearing down an old one -- be?
Despite some grassroots efforts to get our iconic bridge turned into a park when the New NY Bridge comes along, officials have made clear for a while now that it's destined for tear-down.
However, they do stress that its parts won't go to waste.
Brian Conybeare, spokesperson for the Tappan Zee Bridge rebuild, told reporters on a recent media boat tour of the preconstruction work already underway -- and ramping up as we speak -- that pieces of the bridge would find new life in other projects.
Much of the steel will be lowered onto barges and shipped away to other New York State DOT projects, Conybeare said. As will many of those deck panels that have been getting replaced for the last four years - a job that is just coming to completion now.
The new bridge design is only mass transit-ready, an option that is not environmentally friendly enough for many advocates. However, pedestrians and bikers can be pleased with an option at last to cross the miles of inaccessibility at last.
The new bridge's Visual Quality Panel is in action, discussing specific, but undisclosed, ideas for design treatment of the pedestrian and cycling paths and its northern-jutting belvederes and viewing benches.
Meanwhile, the Mass Transit Task Force's next meeting seems likely to focus on reconciling Rockland and Westchester needs and costs, and could prove a tangle. Stay tuned.
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