Commuter lines... New Tappan Zee bridge – with tracks?
The AP reported last week a new Tappan Zee Bridge spanning the Hudson River in New York, 50 feet wider than the current one, could carry eight lanes of traffic, a commuter rail line and a light rail line – while still having regulation highway shoulders and a path for walkers, bicyclists and even anglers, officials said July 22. Or – the bridge could vanish, with traffic and trains going into a tunnel under the river and drivers paying extra for the privilege of using a bus lane... or nothing could happen at all, with the 48-year-old bridge remaining as it is.
The New York State Thruway Authority and Metro-North Railroad presented 15 “scenarios” after winnowing through 150 proposals put forward over the past year by experts and citizens. The goal is to reduce congestion along the New York stretch of Interstate 287 from Rye, in Westchester County, to Suffern, in Rockland County, which includes the Tappan Zee.
The various solutions are to be narrowed still further by next April, when perhaps three comprehensive proposals, plus the leave-it-alone alternative and one that calls for just rehabilitating the existing bridge, will enter the environmental impact stage.
A final choice on what scenario to propose is scheduled for the end of 2005.
Though doing nothing is the cheapest choice, officials said they were not yet at the stage of figuring out the cost of the various proposals.
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