A crane collapsed on the Tappan Zee Bridge in NY on Tuesday, injuring two workers and three motorists – but not hitting any cars.
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As of this morning, six of the bridge’s seven lanes were open-the southernmost lane sustained notable damage in the crane collapse, and could remain closed for days, Cuomo said yesterday.
Officials said Tuesday that it was unclear what caused the crane to collapse around noon. Fortunately, no vehicles appear to be pinned under the crane, and no additional injuries have been reported due to the collapse at this time. One Tappan Zee Bridge worker also suffered minor injuries, authorities said. Cuomo, who rushed to the scene from an upstate media event, said the crane had been using a vibratory hammer to install pilings when it “had an issue” that caused its boom to crash into the existing bridge.
The crane’s crash raised concerns about the integrity of the Tappan Zee Bridge, which was built to last only 50 years after being constructed cheaply in 1955.
“We did inspections on the bridge”, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a media event Tuesday evening. We were told that the crane is operated by Essex Crane Rental, but were not able to confirm that. “It was a lot of machinery to move and this is literally within hours, the damage has been removed, the bridge has been reopened; the bridge has been inspected”.
“If there’s a silver lining in this situation it’s that nobody was seriously hurt”, he said.
“Even though the deck may look fine, you don’t know what happened or could have happened underneath the bridge to the supporting structure”.
Alternate routes for drivers who need to get across the Hudson River are the Bear Mountain Bridge to the north and the George Washington Bridge to the south.
Aerial video showed parts of the crane lying across all lanes as lines of cars and trucks sat stopped.
We are going to be reopening the bridge on this timetable – The three northbound lanes, just for your orientation, northbound is coming from Westchester to Rockland, headed upstate.
In March, a tugboat collided with a construction barge near the construction of new bridge, and three of the tugboat’s crew members died.
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A crane boom from an adjacent bridge project crashed down across the key Hudson River crossing Tuesday, forcing cars to swerve out of the way and halting traffic for hours.
