Tappan Zee project: State troopers set up shop in Rockland

July 5, 2014 by
LoHud; Khurram Saeed, ksaeed@lohud.com11:13 p.m. EDT July 4, 2014

The state police and the Thruway Authority have temporarily shifted their operations due to Tappan Zee Bridge construction. They will be in Rockland until 2018.

WEST NYACK – State troopers and Thruwa maintenance workers will call Rockland home for at least the next four years while the new Tappan Zee Bridge is being built.

State Police Troop T and the state Thruway Authority this week began relocating their operations from  Tarrytown to the former Journal News printing plant at 160 N. Route 303 in West Nyack. The building is near Interchange 12 on the Thruway, across the street from the Palisades Center mall.

Capt. Richard Mazzone, the zone commander, said they are 95 percent moved in.

“Everything that was in Tarrytown is coming over here,” Mazzone told The Journal News. “Obviously, we still have a lot of unpacking to do. But we’re up and running.”

The state police and Thruway facilities at 333 S. Broadway in Tarrytown will be demolished and the land used as a staging area during construction of the $3.9 billion bridge. Part of the property will later be included in the bridge’s alignment.

In 2018, the state police will move back to new barracks in Tarrytown, this time on the south side of the Thruway, near the current site of the Thruway Authority’s toll plaza building.

The authority’s maintenance operations will also return to Westchester, north of the new bridge. They are expected to share space with a parking lot and facilities that will serve users of the bridge’s  3-mile bicycle and pedestrian path that will connect to South Nyack.

The shift to the 42,000-square-foot warehouse had been anticipated for more than a year.

Tappan Zee Constructors, the team designing and building the new bridge, began work to renovate the facility in January. It is contractually obligated to relocate the two agencies and rebuild their facilities when construction is finished.

Back in February, The Journal News reported some of the changes the site would see including doubling on-site parking to 145 spaces from 73 and adding an 8-foot-high fence to serve as a buffer between Thruway parking lots and homes on North Greenbush Road.

Troopers will use the north part of the building and the parking lot toward Route 303. Mazzone said people should continue to call 911 during emergencies and Thruway dispatchers at 800-842-2233 for non-emergency situations.

The Thruway Authority will use the back of the building, and carry out maintenance, welding, rigging and electric work in existing shop space. About 30 Thruway maintenance workers are moving over from Tarrytown to West Nyack, a Tappan Zee project official said.

Tim Donovan, project manager for Hauser Brothers Inc., which owns the building, noted the warehouse had been vacant for years and said the company was excited the space would generate income until at least 2018.

“It’s nice to have it leased and leased for that amount of time,” Donovan said.

Twitter: @ksaeed1

Filed Under: Governor Cuomo, Tappan Zee Bridge Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Tappan Zee Bridge: Former power plant site may be used as staging area – Builder could lease 30 acres in Tomkins Cove

July 9, 2013 by

Lohud July 9, 2013

Written by: Khurrum Saeed

TOMKINS COVE — The former Lovett power plant will likely serve as a staging area to build parts of the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

Tappan Zee Constructors, the team designing and building the $4 billion replacement crossing, is in final discussions with NRG Energy to lease the long-vacant 30-acre parcel in Tomkins Cove, team spokeswoman Carla Julian said Monday.

Also, Stony Point Supervisor Geoff Finn will meet at noon Friday with Tappan Zee Constructors officials to discuss plans for the riverfront property. The meeting is purely informational since NRG owns the land and is negotiating the deal.

“I’m excited because there’ll be some activity there,” Finn said of the site, which is off of Elm Avenue. “It would certainly be good for our tax base.”

Last week, Tappan Zee Constructors withdrew a proposal to lease a 10-acre property in the Village of Haverstraw, said real-estate agent Jim Damiani, who has been working with the consortium for six months regarding use of the former site of the Empire State Chair Factory. He said the builders provided a staging area plan to the village early last month.

“I got a message from them that they were withdrawing from any further discussion,” said Damiani, who works for Rand Commercial Services in New City. “I guess they’re not interested.”

The coal-fueled Lovett plant was torn down in 2008, when the previous owner opted not to upgrade to meet state environmental regulations.

The property has an assessed value of $875,000 with a $5.5 million market value, Stony Point Assessor Bill Beckmann said. NRG pays about $315,000 in annual property taxes to the town and the North Rockland Central School District.

How much more the town stands to receive by Tappan Zee Constructors’ presence remains to be seen, and it depends on what structures are installed.

“If they add value to the real property, they’ll be taxed accordingly,” said Beckmann, who will join Finn at Friday’s meeting.

Ninety percent of the materials that will be used to build the span will arrive by barge.

Some of that will be accomplished by building some of the larger components at an off-site staging area and floating them by barge to the work site.

Dredging is scheduled for next month and work on the main span is expected to begin in October.

A spokesman for NRG did not respond to phone messages Monday seeking comment.

Filed Under: Governor Cuomo, Tappan Zee Bridge Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Residents will vote on Tappan Zee Bridge noise barriers

June 28, 2013 by

LoHud June 27, 2013 Written By Khurrum Saeed

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013306270071

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About 400 Rockland and Westchester residents have until July 11 to decide whether they want noise barriers on and near the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

Four areas are under consideration for the noise walls, which will range from 10 to 18 feet in height depending on their location, a project official said.

Different neighborhoods are voting on their noise barriers in their area. The vote is legally binding under federal law.

Residents have also been asked to choose a look for the barriers that will help guide the final design.

If approved, the $2 million noise walls would be part of the new $4 billion project to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge and would be added during its five-year construction phase.

Last year, a group of South Nyack residents successfully demanded to be included in the vote since their property — Salisbury Point Cooperative — sits along the Thruway and will be even closer to the new bridge than the existing span.

“They really got smart because of the ruckus that we raised,” Salisbury Point resident John Brown said of the state Thruway Authority.

Brown planned to cast his vote Thursday in favor of adding the extra layer of noise protection and sensed most people in his complex were with him.

Salisbury Point board president Catherine McCue said she was grateful the state reconsidered and involved them in the process, along with dozens of homeowners in South Nyack and Upper Grandview. In all, 268 people in Rockland were sent ballots and 106 in Westchester.

The barriers and their appearance were discussed at a Thursday night meeting at the Best Western hotel in Nyack.

Two meetings held in Westchester earlier this week brought out about 50 residents, some from The Quay and Tappan Landing Road complexes.

In order for the barriers to move ahead, at least 50 percent of the ballot holders must vote, and a simple majority must vote in favor of building them.

Filed Under: Governor Cuomo, Tappan Zee Bridge Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
Some property information provided by CoStar, Loopnet, HGAR, Yelp, Rand Commercial Services and other public sources.