TBT: Changed View of Ever-Changing Scenery

Westbound on the Tappan Zee Bridge, circa July 2008/Courtesy of Ian C. Ligget

I shall miss the sloping road above, whose replacement in an adding-the-final-touches photo, courtesy of New York State Thruway Authority, looks like this:

Will you miss it, too? I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2017

Walk/bike path: NNYB is asking what you think

Distance between the top of the river and the main span is 138 feet/©Janie Rosman 2017

At least something about the new bridge will be the same as the current one!

You know the westbound span will have a walking/bicycle path. Love it? Hate it? Think it was poorly planned? A way to enjoy the Hudson Valley? Wish it had more shade? (I do, I do.) Project officials want your thoughts via a Survey Monkey poll.

“The New NY Bridge project team is seeking your input to better understand how the community will utilize the new Shared Use Path (SUP) to be built on the westbound span following completion of the eastbound span in 2018. Features of the bicycle and pedestrian path will include six overlooks—or resting points—above the Hudson River; visitor parking and pavilions; and interpretive exhibits, art, and signage.”

Here’s your chance to tell all! They’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2017

Schools were closed when the new bridge opened

The Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge opened Dec. 1955/The Virtual Archives

Besides having a clear day for the Historical Society of Rockland County’s river tour last week, I had the pleasure of sitting at a table with several people who are working on the new bridge.

They preferred I not mention their names. I agreed to respect their privacy and asked about their responsibilities and how they felt about working on the project and seeing it from this perspective.

One gentleman told me his father was an ironworker on the original Tappan Zee Bridge and said his son and grandsons are employed on the current project. “Four generations working on the bridge,” he smiled.

He lived in Piermont in 1955 and remembers walking across the new structure when it opened. “The governor drove across the bridge, and I didn’t have to go to school that day. Everybody was walking across the new bridge, and schools were closed.”

Detailed bridge update and photos are in this week’s Rockland County Times.

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2017

Students Learn Valuable Lesson at Presentation

Eleventh and 12th grade physics classes at Byram Hills High School got a peek into the state’s largest infrastructure project when the New NY Bridge educational outreach team came to their school this academic year. “We asked them to focus on the engineering aspects of it although some science students were there,” BHHS teacher Paul Beeken said.

Photos courtesy New York State Thruway Authority.

The presentation included the politics of getting a megaproject started. “One fascinating concept for us (students) was how to get a project like this in place,” Beeken said.

This year one of BHHS’s classes built a truss build from balsa wood and was challenged to see how much it can carry versus the weight of the bridge itself. “With this in mind, they have an understanding it’s a tradeoff: cost of materials and how heavy is the bridge versus how much can it carry,” he said.

Beeken requested the presentation focus on engineering and the stress factors: what goes into building the roadway, the technologies needed to lift roadway and how the super crane was able to lift the weights it did as he’d finished a unit on forces including weights and pulleys.

When the kids asked Marcy where he got his degree, he told them he’s not an engineer and explained his background. “That was very valuable,” Beeken said, “because the kids could see someone who wasn’t an engineer but who was still very articulate about all the different facets of the project.”

Engineering is only one part of the project, he noted. “While maybe one-tenth of the class will become engineers, it’s important to have a basic literacy to more easily navigate the subject.”

“Before the (Tappan Zee) bridge was built there was nothing there, so no one had any expectations about what a bridge would do,” Beeken said. “Now (building a bridge today) is 10 times more difficult because people need that bridge and depend upon it. You want to build a new one, so the logistics of being able to build a new bridge without ever shutting down the old one presents challenges.”

Read full article, details in the current issue of Inside Chappaqua magazine here.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2017

Imaginary Conversation: if the Bridge could Talk

Psst. I’m talking to you. Stop looking at me from over there because I’m right here. Yes, I realize the new one is more interesting. Come here NOW!

That’s more like it. This angle puts me in a good light, you know, when the sun is setting, and the sky is rosy-colored. We need to have a serious talk, you and I.

So now you’re over here and wondering what I want to say. Listen up; I still have a few tricks up my sleeve that the new one will never be able to do: make those thumpity-thump noises when wheels drive over me, cause people to curse when they get stuck on me and glisten during sunrises. Let’s see if the new one can do that.

You say I’ll be around for a couple more months? Good to know. Wait, then what?

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2017