Skip to main content

Construction Update: Newburgh-Beacon Bridge deck replacement project reaches Important Milestone

Image
By


The dual-span Newburgh-Beacon Bridge (Interstate 84) spans the Hudson River at Newburgh, NY

A major milestone has been reached in the ongoing project to replace the deck of the westbound span of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge (Interstate 84) in Newburgh, NY. The New York State Bridge Authority (NYSBA) commenced this project in June 2020 in order to extend the useful service life of the westbound bridge by another 40 years while improving safety for travelers by upgrading bridge railings & parapets and expansion joints to modern design & operational standards. The entirety of the nearly 8,000 ft long deck is being removed down to the steel stringers and a new concrete deck will be cast and poured, complete with modified expansion joints and taller bridge parapets that meet modern interstate highway standards. Altogether, this project involves replacing about 350,000 square feet of deck space and is being executed in two distinct phases. The phase that was just completed in November (hence the “important milestone” headline…) saw the replacement of the southern half of the bridge deck in the manor described above. With this phase complete, contractors will now repeat the same process for the northern half of the deck in the coming year.

Westbound views while crossing the single open lane of the westbound Newburgh-Beacon Bridge in November 2021. Traffic crosses the bridge on the newly-complete southern half of rebuilt deck while work  proceeds on the northern half in the next year. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

As with any other major interstate highway/bridge project, the maintenance & protection of traffic has proven challenging for the client agency and its prime contractor. In order to fast track completion and provide as much contractor access to the westbound bridge deck as possible, a temporary two-way traffic pattern was implemented on the eastbound span of the bridge in a “two lanes per direction” configuration. The westbound bridge has largely been closed to all traffic during off-peak hours, however a single lane of traffic is allowed to cross this span during peak periods as it serves as an extended on-ramp for traffic entering the westbound interstate from Route 9D & Beacon. (During off-peak periods, this on-ramp traffic is funneled onto the two-way eastbound span traffic pattern.) This two-way traffic pattern on the eastbound bridge has also created an artificial and temporary traffic bottleneck, as the original configuration of the two spans allowed for three lanes of traffic per direction under normal conditions. Traffic backups related to this project can stretch several miles in either direction on a normal day and this situation is not helped by the fact that the lack of shoulders in this temporary traffic setup prevents disabled vehicles from moving out of travel lanes, which increases the likelihood of traffic jams and rubbernecking delays.


Eastbound views while crossing the eastbound span of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. The two-way traffic pattern has temporarily constrained the flow of traffic in the area; on the other hand, the implementation of cashless tolling and removal of the old toll plaza has been a positive development. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

Being built in parallel with this redecking project is the conversion of this bridge (and its sister bridges under NYSBA jurisdiction) to all-electronic toll collection; the tolling gantry located on the Beacon approach just upstream from the old toll plaza was built in the spring of 2021 and the cashless tolling system for this bridge went live in July. The old 1980-built toll plaza has been subsequently demolished in recent months and ongoing road works remain to be completed on the Beacon approach in the coming year. As a life-long resident of southern Dutchess County, NY (except for those few years I was in college out in Buffalo, NY), my single least-favorite toll plaza in the entire country (and I’ve been through a few…) was right here in Beacon. The plaza was a chronic source of traffic congestion at most times and on most days as there were no high-speed EZ-Pass (the electronic toll tag used/accepted by agencies around the northeastern U.S.) lanes and cars still had to nearly come to a stop in the EZ-Pass lanes the plaza did have since NYSBA used automated toll gates that impeded the flow of traffic through. All in all, this is a toll plaza I’m very pleased to see fade into history and this entire stretch of I-84 between Newburgh and Fishkill should move a lot quicker and smoother once this project is completed.


Assorted aerial views of the dual-span bridges including a look at construction progress on the westbound bridge deck and toll plaza reconstruction. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

The two-year, $101 million contract issued by NYSBA is being executed by a contracting outfit led by Yonkers Contracting Company of Yonkers, NY. Major construction & substantial completion, including finishing the remaining work for the new bridge deck, is expected for late 2022 with final completion & close-out of additional punchlist items planned for the first half of 2023. The completion of these final milestones will be welcome news to Hudson Valley (and also long-distance) travelers already tired of the traffic headaches associated with this project. While I’m no fan of sitting in stuck traffic due to construction, this is one of those projects I consider to be absolutely vital for the local and regional economy. This is the first major overhaul for this span of the bridge since the early 1980s and it’s a project that’s been postponed for several years already due to funding restrictions. I will be more than happy to put up with a little inconvenience now in exchange for having a fully functional safe and sound bridge for the next few decades.


Assorted aerial views of the dual-span bridges spanning the Hudson River at Newburgh, NY. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

How to Get There:




Labels:
Location: Newburgh, NY 12550, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Old NY 10 and Goodman Mountain in the Adirondacks

By
  Old highway alignments come in all shapes and sizes, as well as taking some different forms after their lifespan of serving cars and trucks has ended. In the case of an old alignment of what was NY 10 south of Tupper Lake, New York, part of the old road was turned into part of a hiking trail to go up Goodman Mountain. At one time, the road passed by Goodman Mountain to the east, or Litchfield Mountain as it was known at the time. As the years passed, sometime around 1960, the part of NY 10 north of Speculator became part of NY 30, and remains that way today from Speculator, past Indian Lake and Tupper Lake and up to the Canadian Border. At one time, the highway was realigned to pass the Goodman Mountain to the west, leaving this stretch of road to be mostly forgotten and to be reclaimed by nature. During the summer of 2014, a 1.6 mile long hiking trail was approved the Adirondack Park Agency to be constructed to the summit of the 2,176 foot high Goodman Mountain. For the first 0.9 mi
1 comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Vineland, Florida; the town killed by Disney

By
Vineland is a small ghost town located in southwest Orange County, Florida near the junction of Florida State Road 535 and Interstate 4.  Vineland is somewhat unique due to it largely being squeezed out of existence by Lake Buena Vista which is the company town where Disney World is located. Vineland was founded in the late 1800s as Englewood.  The town name of Englewood changed to Orange Center in 1911 before finally assuming the name Vineland in 1924.  Much like the rest of Orange County the community of Vineland was centered around Citrus Grove.  In the case of Vineland said orange groves were centered around Ruby Lake. The end of Vineland came as the Disney Corporation began purchasing parcels of citrus grove land to build Lake Buena Vista.  Vineland fell into a sharp decline in the 1960s but the community managed to continue to exist to modern times.  Much of the street grid of Vineland still exists east of FL 535 but most of the original structures are either gone or falle
1 comment
Read more

Oregon State Highway 58

By
  Also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18, the route of Oregon State Highway 58 (OR 58) stretches some 86 miles between US 97 north of Chemult and I-5 just outside of Eugene, Oregon. A main route between the Willamette Valley region of Oregon with Central Oregon and Crater Lake National Park, the highway follows the Middle Fork Willamette River and Salt Creek for much of its route as it makes its way to and across the Cascades, cresting at 5,138 feet above sea level at Willamette Pass. That is a gain of over 4,500 in elevation from where the highway begins at I-5. The upper reaches of OR 58 are dominated by the principal pinnacle that can sometimes be seen from the highway, Diamond Peak, and three nearby lakes, Crescent, Odell and Waldo (Oregon's second largest lake). OR 58 is chock full of rivers, creeks, mountain views, hot springs and waterfalls within a short distance from the highway. OR 58 was numbered as such by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1940. OR 58 is a del
Post a Comment
Read more