Lohud.com; By Khurram Saeed and Theresa Juva-Brown
April 30, 2013 TARRYTOWN — As the Tappan Zee Bridge project continues to ramp up, crews this week will begin installing environmental monitors that will allow residents to track noise, dust and vibration levels during the five years of construction.
The sophisticated shoebox-sizes devices with special sensors will be placed on top of poles at eight locations — four in Tarrytown and four in South Nyack. Losee Park in Tarrytown is set to get the first one by Wednesday.
Devices also will be installed at the Quay, an 89-unit condo complex in Tarrytown, south of the bridge in the neighborhood of Irving, and on New York State Thruway Authority property near South Broadway, state officials said.
Tappan Zee Constructors, the team engineering and constructing the $3.9 billion bridge, the Thruway Authority and community leaders are working to pin down specific locations for the devices in Rockland County, said Brian Conybeare, a special adviser on the project.
“The installation process is just getting under way, but once construction starts the public will be able to view the data from the monitoring stations 24 hours a day on our website, www.newnybridge.com,” he said.
Sensors devoted just to measuring construction vibrations have already been installed on the piers of the existing Tappan Zee Bridge, officials said.
Among the likely Rockland locations to receive a monitor is the 120-unit Salisbury Point Cooperative in South Nyack. TZC also wants to add a device at South Nyack Village Hall, but a village representative said officials had not been consulted about it.
Jerry Ilowite, head of South Nyack’s Tappan Zee Bridge task force, said TZC was supposed to present a monitoring and mitigation plan that would let the village weigh in on the best locations for the devices.
“I have no idea what they’re going to monitor or where or why they’re choosing the locations that they are,” Ilowite told The Journal News on Monday. “We have had no opportunity to contribute at all.”
After The Journal News inquired about the situation, a TZC representative called Ilowite on Monday afternoon to schedule a meeting.
The project team also plans to start taking photos and reports of property conditions before construction starts. This is done in case property owners later claim vibrations from the work damaged their homes.
Tori Weisel, president of the Irving Neighborhood Preservation Association, said about a dozen Irving residents plan to meet with TZC officials Wednesday to discuss which homes will be eligible for preconstruction surveys.
Meanwhile, the state has started to install new fencing along Van Wart Avenue to shield homes from traffic on the Thruway maintenance road. Weisel said more steps are needed.
“There is progress … but the true issue is not that fencing — it’s sound barriers and making sure our foundations are not rocked and cracked,” she said