The $3.14 billion Governor Madonerio M. Cuomo Bridge is again the subject of litigation, amid claims by the New York State Highway Authority that the anchor components of nearly a one-third of the 192 pond cables in the Hudson River crossing do not meet durability specifications.
A complaint filed on August 22, 2024 by the New York State Supreme Court agency in Albany alleges that the design and construction consortium Tappan Zee Constructors (TZC) refused to comply with the its contractual obligation to retrofit edge beam anchor pipes for 61 cables that a The independent safety review commissioned by the agency found that it did not meet material requirements.
TZC, which completed the 3.1-mile bridge in 2018, is comprised of Flour Corp., Granite Construction Inc., Traylor Bros., Inc. and American Bridge Co. All are named as co-defendants in the lawsuit along with their co-fiances.
Authority spokeswoman Jennifer Givener says that while the affected cable systems have been deemed safe for the bridge to remain open unrestricted to its approximately 140,000 daily users, the agency “has begun the process to retrofit and strengthen these components under the guidance of national leaders.” experts in materials science, engineering and design”.
HNTB is acting as the authority’s engineer for the project, Givener adds, but an outside contractor has not yet been selected to carry out the modification work.
The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $6 million to recover the costs of evaluating and repairing these components to ensure durability over the 100-year design life of the bridge. The authority, Givener says, “is committed to contractor compliance to ensure toll payers get what they paid for in the construction of the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.”
Fluor, which led the TZC consortium, did not respond to a request for comment.
The latest lawsuit comes three years after the Thruway Authority rejected all $28 million of TZC’s $930 million claim for additional construction costs incurred to replace the 1950s-era Tappan Zee Bridge, heavy with traffic, between Rockland and Westchester counties. Although a state-appointed advisory panel eventually increased the award to TZC to more than $101 million, the dispute has yet to be resolved. TZC’s $45 million lawsuit against demolition contractor Foothills Bridge Co. also remains unresolved. for additional costs that the consortium says were incurred by the unplanned use of explosive demolition.
TZC in 2106 also sued a subcontractor, Maxon Industries, which supplied a floating concrete batch plant that collapsed in 2014.
TZC also reached an undisclosed settlement in a whistleblower lawsuit that blamed the consortium for repeated instances of bolts breaking during construction and resulting in the worker’s wrongful termination.
