New York Legal Authority
When most people in New York City think of construction sites and accidents, they think of high-rise towers in Manhattan and crane accidents or falls related to the heights. They may think of renovation of old industrial sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens. But they may not think of the rivers as being construction sites.
Over the course of the next couple of years, one of the largest construction sites in New York City will be over the water of the Hudson River as work begins on the new $3.9 billion Tappen Zee Bridge project. The massive construction project will replace the bridge, which is the longest in the state of New York, crossing the Hudson at its widest point, 25 miles north of Manhattan.
The current bridge was built in 1955, has exceeded planned lifetime, carries 40 percent more traffic that it was designed for, and is nonredundent, meaning a single fracture of a critical support could cause collapse of the entire bridge.
The new bridge will be built by a consortium of well-known construction firms. The project’s completion date is set for the spring of 2018. In addition to the risk of construction accidents to the workers employed on the bridge, there is another risk.
Officials note that there will be up to 90 barges used during the construction, anchored in various locations around the bridge in the river. The barges will all have to be properly lighted and out of the navigation channel, but as the tragic boating accident from last month demonstrated, these barges can prove deadly if struck by another boat.
Source: The Washington Post, “Barge involved in wedding-party accident on NY’s Hudson just a hint of river traffic to come,” Associated Press, July 29, 2013
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Barges pose risk for river accidents
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