State board halves, but approves Tappan Zee Bridge loan

A state board today cut in half a requested $511 million loan for the new Tappan Zee Bridge project and gave approval to a $255 million loan.

A $511 million loan was approved last month by state Environmental Facilities Corp. for the project.

Two board members -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse -- said they supported the project because the loan was limited to costs solely dealing with environmental work around the bridge.

“I was concerned that a $511 loan out of an environmental fund was going to deplete the fund,” DeFrancisco said after grilling state officials for a half hour about the loan.

The loan to the state Thruway Authority would come from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a federally backed program that has traditionally been used to finance upgrades to local sewer systems. It would be used to fund projects associated with the $3.9 billion project, such as dismantling the current bridge between Westchester and Rockland counties, but not specifically toward constructing a new span.

The Thruway Authority is expected to approve the loan at its meeting Aug. 6, said its executive director, Thomas Madison.

Madison said the five-year loan being sliced in half won’t impact the project. He said he expected that the agency would seek the remainder of the money in a loan in the future.

“There will be no sacrifices to the environmental elements” of the bridge because of the smaller loan, Madison said.