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Tappan Zee Bridge ramp in Tarrytown to close March 10

Khurram Saeed
ksaeed@lohud.com

The Route 9 ramp to the Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown.
A map supplied by the state Thruway Authority shows the ramp closure and proposed detour.

TARRYTOWN – The entrance ramp to the northbound Tappan Zee Bridge from Route 9 will be sealed to traffic next Monday for the next few years, but will its closure lead to the traffic nightmares that haunted commuters for three nights in December?

"We'll see," Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell said. "It'll be an inconvenience but the question is whether it will turn into a disaster."

Traffic backed up for miles on Route 9 and 119 on Dec. 13, 16 and 17 — a week after the Route 9 ramp originally was closed.

The gridlock reached as far as Sleepy Hollow and Irvington. Drivers spent an hour or more crawling from downtown Tarrytown just to get to the bridge from the Route 119 on-ramp. Tappan ZEExpress bus commuters sat trapped for hours waiting to return home to Rockland.

Fixell called those nights "horrible" and "crippling." The state Thruway Authority reopened the ramp for the rest of the holiday season, but noted it would still have to be closed again this winter as construction on the bridge progressed.

Kevin Roy, who has been driving from the Tarrytown train station to his West Nyack home for four years, called the delays those days "unprecedented."

"Even when the bridge is backed up because of accidents or weather or whatever the case may be, you never saw the traffic backed up that way," he said.

Officials with the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project say the ramp closure was not to blame. They said a perfect storm of events, including a snowstorm, a truck fire on the bridge, multiple car accidents and emergency repairs on the George Washington Bridge, combined to time with the evening rush hour and spill onto local streets.

The state Thruway Authority says the ramp has to be closed so the area can be used until 2018 by bridge builder Tappan Zee Constructors as a staging area for the new $3.9 billion twin-span crossing.

Both Fixell and Brian Conybeare, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's special adviser on the project, noted there were no real problems when the ramp originally closed on Dec. 5 and drivers were detoured to the Route 119 ramp two-tenths of a mile away.

"We still maintain it wasn't the ramp's closure that caused these events," Conybeare told The Journal News. "It was unfortunate timing."

With the ramp set to close again at 10 a.m. March 10, the state wants to get the word out. It has posted the information on the project's website (http://www.newnybridge.com); sent an email blast to its 3,000 followers; and is mailing 11,000 postcards to homeowners and businesses in Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, Irvington and Greenburgh to give them a heads-up.

Additionally, traffic signals have been re-timed on routes 9 and 119 so drivers can quickly get from the "jug-handle" at the intersection of those roads to get to the detour. Electronic signs will be activated on the Saw Mill Parkway when there are traffic problems informing them to avoid local streets. Office park employees and guests at hotels headed to the Tappan Zee will be urged to head east on Route 119 to get on the Thruway at Interchange 8.

"Until the reality hits, you won't know how effective these steps will be," Tappan ZEExpress rider Donna Corrado said.

The Valley Cottage woman said there were no less time-consuming options for her to catch the train in Westchester and chalked up December's events to hassles of commuting.

"You know it's going to happen again," Corrado said. "It's just when."

Roy and his wife, who drive separately to Tarrytown from West Nyack, said they may consider catching their trains from White Plains.

Once the Route 9 ramp is closed, the space will be used to store equipment and provide access to construction workers.

Twitter: @ksaeed1