NYSTA sues contractors that built Cuomo Bridge

The Mario M. Cuomo (or Tappan Zee for tradionsaltis) Bridge is in need of an upgrade.  On Thursday August 22, the New York State Thruway Authority announced that it would be suing the developer of the bridge, Tappan Zee Consturcotrs. 

According to the statement released by the NYSTA, the cable connectors, called anchor pipes, were not built to the strength and durability required in the contract with bridge builder Tappan Zee Constructors. 61 of the 192 anchor pipes on the bridge will have to be retrofitted at a cost of millions of dollars. The NYSTA did not clarify when exactly this discovery was made, though they have stressed that the bridge is completly safe and will remain accessible to the nearly 160,000  daily commuters that rely on it. 

“There’s no safety issue here, no need for the public to be concerned,” said New York State Thruway Authority Executive Director Frank Hoare. “The bridge is safe, it’s strong.

“This is an effort to reinforce the durability of the bridge, and to get what we paid for, which is a bridge for generations to come,” Hoare said.

Regardless of the status of the lawsuit, construction will begin next spring and could take up to three years to complete.