Bridge on its way downriver

  By ERIC ANDERSON BUSINESS EDITOR
First published in print: Friday, July 9, 2010

 

COEYMANS -- It has taken 15 months to assemble, but the 2,700-ton bridge sitting at the Port of Coeymans will soon be on its way to New York City.

The Willis Avenue Bridge, as it's called, will replace a structure that's more than a century old over the Harlem River between Manhattan and the Bronx.

Early Monday morning, crews will begin moving the structure to two barges at the Coeymans port, said Karen Moreau, a spokeswoman for the port. By early Tuesday morning, depending on river tides, the barges will be on their way to a temporary storage site in Bayonne, N.J.

The move is expected to disrupt river traffic, and portions of the Hudson will be closed temporarily.

Other river closings will follow as the bridge is moved to the Willis Avenue site and the old bridge is removed.

Planning for the $278 million project began in 1999, and construction on the replacement, which will be a swing bridge like the Livingston Avenue railroad bridge in Albany, started in March 2009. Building it off-site allowed continued use of the existing bridge.

The new span is about 350 feet long, 65 feet high, and 77 feet wide. Construction company D.A. Collins of Mechanicville assembled the span. Collins previously assembled the 145th Street bridge at the Coeymans yard.

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