It took several hours before travel lanes were reopened and officials expressed gratitude and amazement that no one was significantly hurt. The crane holds up a vibrating hammer that weighs 121,000 pounds, said Tappan Zee Contractors’ President Terry Toule. Cuomo said had someone told him a crane could fall across the bridge with that outcome, “I wouldn’t believe it”.
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The crane, which collapsed around noon Tuesday, was a recently purchased piece of equipment and was being used to install pilings for the new Tappan Zee Bridge being built next to the current span. Officials said wind was not a factor.
The crane collapsed across the span of the bridge that connects Westchester and Rockland counties north of New York City around noon on Tuesday.
Below is a report from ABC7 in NY.
“When I first heard this news my heart stopped”, he said.
Everybody was OK but stranded. He and his friends got out of their vehicle and threw around a football to pass the time.
A structural inspection was performed on the damaged span before it was partially reopened around 5:15 p.m. All but one southbound lane from Rockland to Westchester was expected to be open by Wednesday morning.
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.
The base and treads of the movable crane sat on the unfinished new bridge.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day on his official Twitter feed says that brings the total up to five people injured and also includes three drivers. He tweeted that the crane operator was shaken but not hurt.
The crawler crane, manufactured by the Manitowoc company, of Wisconsin, was less than a year old, according to Damien LaVera, a spokesman for Tappan Zee Constructors, the consortium of contractors building a $3.9 billion replacement for the Tappan Zee.
Emergency workers are at the scene of an apparent crane collapse at the Tappan Zee (TAP’-uhn zee) Bridge in the NY suburbs.
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In March, a tugboat collided with a construction barge near the construction of new bridge, and three of the tugboat’s crew members died. Construction on the bridge began in 2013, and though it has seen its share of terrifyingly large cranes, no bridge workers have died or sustained serious injuries so far.
