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Dive Brief:
- The New York State Thruway Authority is suing the builders of the Mario Cuomo Bridge to make them pay for retrofitting dozens of tin wires that it says did not meet durability requirements, according to the lawsuit filed Aug. 22 in New York State Supreme Court in Albany.
- The $4 billion two-span cable-stayed span, which replaced the Tappan Zee Bridge, opened six years ago delays and legal disputes. 61 of the new bridge’s 192 cable ties must now be retrofitted, according to the Authority.
- The suit claims Tappan Zee Constructors breached its contract by refusing to redo the work after the project manager deemed it inadequate, among other issues. NYSTA, which operates the bridge, is seeking at least $6 million to recoup evaluation and repair costs.
Diving knowledge:
There is no immediate danger to users, but for the bridge to reach its specified 100-year lifespan, the cables must have some strength, NYSTA says. The agency said in an Aug. 22 press release that the process has begun adaptation of these pull cable anchoring components.
“The New York State Thruway Authority is committed to contractor compliance to ensure toll payers get what they paid for in the construction of the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, which independent experts have confirmed it’s safe,” NYSTA spokeswoman Jennifer Givner said in a statement.
According to the release, the NYSTA commissioned a full independent safety review of the bridge, which determined that component modification is necessary to ensure its durability and full service life.
The design-build team, Tappan Zee Constructors, consists of Irving, Texas-based Fluor Enterprises; the American Bridge Company based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania; Granite Construction Northeast of Watsonville, California; and Traylor Bros., based in Evansville, Indiana.
Tappan Zee Constructors’ scope of work under the contract included design, fabrication, the construction and installation of the new bridge, as well as the demolition of the old structure, according to the demand. Fluor did not immediately respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.
Tappan Zee is not new to controversy
This isn’t the project’s first lawsuit: Tappan Zee Constructors sued NYSTA twice in an effort to recoup nearly $1 billion in cost overruns.
In 2021, the the contractors filed a lawsuit against the agency, seeking $961 million for additional expenses associated with bad weather, a crane collapse and interference from another design team.
That claim followed a 2019 lawsuit in which Tappan Zee Constructors asked a judge to compel the agency to provide documents about the Cuomo Bridge project that could prove its claim it was owed. $900 million in additional costs incurred during construction.
The controversies don’t stop there. The New York State Attorney General investigated a possible cover-up defective steel screws used in the construction of the bridge, but tests revealed that the cause was likely a manufacturing defect or over-tightening during installation.
There were also concerns about the opening of the second section. The New York Times reported that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration allegedly offered incentives to builders to open the eastbound bridge to traffic in August 2018, despite potential safety implications, a charge Cuomo denied. Some engineers were concerned that a piece of the old bridge might fall onto the new one.
