Second span to open in September
Cuomo touts progress with Kosciuszko Bridge on Queens/Brooklyn border
Making the bridge accessible
to foot traffi c and bikes
was an opportunity for the
state to build green space on
each side allowing access to
the waterfront.
The project totaled $873
million for the state with more
than $100,000 incentive for everyday
the contractors pushed
closer to completion ahead of
CLOTHING • SHOES • ACCESSORIES
BY MARK HALLUM
The Kosciuszko Bridge, or
the K Bridge as Gov. Andrew
Cuomo calls it, will have its
second cable-stayed span open
this September, bringing the
reconstruction project to a
close well ahead of schedule.
Cuomo conducted on Monday
a press tour of the work site
up more than 10 fl ights of stairs
unveiling a nearly completed
roadway as well as cabling to
suspend the concrete and steel
above Newtown Creek.
“This replacement bridge
was done in a totally different
method than the state had used
before: it’s what is referred to
as design build construction,”
Cuomo said. “This bridge is
four years ahead of schedule
from what the original time
estimate was if the government
had done the job. So just
the initial change, the design
build saved us four years.”
There will be fi ve Queensbound
lanes and four Brooklyn
bound lanes upon the
second spans completion and
will include a pedestrian and
bike path.
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schedule.
Until the May 6 announcement,
the expected completion
date had been December.
In April 2017, Cuomo cut
the ribbon on the eastern span
of the bridge with fl are, by arriving
at the ceremony driving
a 1932 Packard owned by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
who also served as governor of
the New York.
“That bridge is now handling
the same volume of traffi
c that the old bridge was handling,”
Cuomo said. “I think
it enhances the Brooklyn and
Queens skyline … When you
think about this bridge being
the fi rst bridge since the Verrazzano,
1964, that means an
entire generation has grown
up having not seen any new
dramatic, big projects.”
The original Kosciuszko
Bridge was built in 1929 and
named after a Revolutionary
War hero from Poland. The new
spans between Brooklyn and
Queens will increase capacity
and decrease delays by 65 percent,
according to Cuomo.
The old bridge, dismantled
over the course of 2017, was
built to endure about 10,000 vehicles,
but was actually seeing
double that amount of crossings
per day, Cuomo said.
PROGRESS: Gov. Andrew Cuomo stands on one of the towers of the newest span of the Kosciuszko Bridge
during a press tour. Photo by Mark Hallum