Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge

Location

Tarrytown, NY

Owner

New York State Thruway Authority

Value

$3.92 billion

The 3.1-mile-long Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge connects Rockland County to Westchester County in the Lower Hudson Valley, approximately 25 miles north of midtown Manhattan. It is a critical transportation link that serves an average of 140,000 vehicles per day.

The project made extraordinary progress since construction operations began in 2013. More than 100,000 tons of pipe pile were driven, and with steel-reinforced foundations and concrete piers in place, the project completed installation of 134 enormous steel-blue plate girder assemblies that support the road deck on the new twin-span bridge. The plate girders were pre-assembled into two and three girder assemblies ranging from 290 to 410 feet in length, 60 feet wide, and weighing as much as 1,020 tons. The steel superstructure supports the precast deck panels. With a total of 110,000 tons of plate girders placed, 1,020-ton lifts by the Left Coast Lifter were commonplace.

Main pylon construction moved forward simultaneously, with concrete poured in place beneath jump forms. The main pylon crossbeams were precast directly on barges, sent directly to the project site, and placed with the Left Coast Lifter. The height of the eight pylons is 419 feet.

Structural steel erection, stay cable installation, and precast deck panels were constructed in a balanced cantilever sequence. High levels of production resulted in the team being able to erect four stay cables plus two structural steel field sections, precast deck panels, rebar and concrete filler joints, and make tensioning adjustments in one week’s time. The main span has a total of 192 stay cables totaling 700 miles of metal cable strands.

The roadway deck consists of steel-reinforced concrete deck panels, each 12 feet long and varying from 22 to 45 feet wide. More than 6,200 individual precast concrete road deck panels were installed to complete the driving surface for the twin spans.

The westbound span opened to traffic in August of 2017. Traffic from the existing structure was moved to the new westbound span until the eastbound span was completed and opened in September of 2018. Demolition of the old bridge was completed in 2020.