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TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE

TZB cables to be installed beginning in July

Meanwhile, cashless tolling is going well, the Thruway Authority says.

Matt Coyne
mcoyne@lohud.com
The Left Coast Lifter works near the Tarrytown shore as traffic moves through the old tollgates on the Tappan Zee Bridg.

TARRYTOWN - Starting in July, crews will start hanging the cables for the new Tappan Zee Bridge's main span, helping to give the new bridge more of its signature look.

“That’s the plan,” said Project Manager Jamey Barbas at Monday morning's Thruway Authority meeting at the new bridge project's South Broadway office.

The cables — which give the bridge its "cable stayed" structure — will extend from the bridge's eight 419-foot towers and support the road deck.

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The towers have been rising steadily since September. In February, crossbeams were installed between each pair of towers. Anchors for the cables were expected to go in once the towers were two-thirds complete.

On a cable-stayed bridge, the towers are the primary load-bearing structure. Only vertical weight reaches the bridge's foundation.

Officials also gave an update Monday on how the shift to cashless tolling has been going on the existing span.

The Thruway Authority has processed roughly 467,000 transactions over the existing bridge in May, including EZ-Pass and Tolls by Mail, according to Eric Christensen, the authority's deputy director of operations.

However, "the bulk" of Tolls by Mail notices — sent to people who crossed the bridge without an EZ-Pass, asking them to pay up — have not been sent out yet.

“Everything’s working quite well so far, but we’ve not received any critical decisions on our revenue loss because we haven’t sent the bulk of the bills out,” he said.

Under cashless tolling, which went live on the Tappan Zee Bridge April 25, drivers without an EZ-Pass transponder have pictures of their license plates taken and bills are mailed to them.

Because drivers do not have to slow down for a toll plaza, cashless tolling is supposed to help traffic move more smoothly.

Drivers who fail to pay by mail stand to have their vehicle registrations suspended.

In other stretches of the Thruway, Christensen said the authority has been able to settle with delinquent drivers.

More thorough figures should be available at the authority's next meeting in September.

“There is nothing so far that’s happened that we have not anticipated," Christensen said. "It’s either been better or equal to what we had originally projected, so far. But it’s really at the infancy level at this point.”

Twitter: @coynereports