Skip to main content

Making the Connection: A New Ramp for Manhattan's Upper East Side

Image
By

In Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a new flyover ramp is creating a critical new connection for New York City drivers and providing much-needed redundancy for an aging transportation network. The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, built in 1936 as the “Triborough Bridge” and renamed in 2008 in honor of the late brother of 35th President John F. Kennedy, has connected the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens as one of the city’s most vital pieces of transportation infrastructure. Until recently however, a noticeable piece of the puzzle was missing at the Manhattan end of the bridge – the lack of a direct connection to the northbound side of the Harlem River Drive highway, which serves to connect this area of Manhattan with the outbound side of the George Washington Bridge. Construction of this “missing” ramp movement was finally pursued (after more than 60 years of delay) in order to provide motorists originating from northwest Queens with an alternate, redundant path to the GW Bridge while also improving traffic circulation on the local street grid in East Harlem.


The Manhattan leg of the RFK Bridge features this vertical lift span over the Harlem River. The design of its lift towers intentionally mimics the appearance of the nearby George Washington Bridge.

For this project, cooperation between neighboring client agencies was essential for contract success. The RFK Bridge and its approach ramps fall under the jurisdiction of the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority (TBTA, an affiliate agency of the broader Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA), however the neighboring/underlying Harlem River Drive highway lies under the domain of NYSDOT, who had already begun a contract of their own to rehab the elevated section of the Drive north of the RFK Bridge approach. Under an agreement reached between TBTA & DOT officials, the scope and design of the Harlem River Drive rehab project incorporated the then-hypothetical ramp connection from the Manhattan-bound RFK lanes and the structures built were made modifiable in order to accommodate potential future construction additions.

Opened to traffic on November 23, 2020, the ramp itself is approx. 1,400 ft long, is supported by 17 vertical column piers, and stands at a max height of 50 ft above ground level. The project was built under a $48 million contract by Judlau Contracting and was funded under the MTA’s 2015-2019 Capital Plan. Other constraints that had to be taken in to account included the neighboring Harlem River and the Willis Avenue Bridge, a major artery for Bronx-bound traffic on the Upper East Side that itself had been replaced less than 10 years prior. All of the obstacles mentioned led to the creation of a snake-like path for this direct-connect flyover that will manage to improve travel times while also making good use of whatever available real estate there is.


The above photos detail a trip along the Manhattan-bound lanes of the RFK Bridge, followed by the new flyover ramp to the Harlem River Drive

The Harlem River Drive direct-connect flyover is also worth discussing due to the type of contract that saw its design & construction, a process known as “design-build”. Under a traditional project development timeline, a client & design firm will both agree on a proposed design for a project that is then bid and awarded for construction by a separate contractor. The “design-build” contract concept takes the design & construction phases and combines them, meaning that a single firm or joint venture inherits responsibility of both the design and construction of a project and there is significant overlap between these phases in the overall project timeline. While this method is intended to streamline and shorten the timeline for large-scale project delivery, it does also have the disadvantage of increased uncertainty when it comes to final contract pricing and scheduling. The design-build phenomenon is a relatively new one and it became a reality in New York State in 2011 when Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that permitted the practice on projects state-wide. His immediate goal in doing so was to provide a channel to help fast-track the then-proposed replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge north of town, the first design-build contract in the State’s history, but that’s another story for another time…

Opening Day Press Release from the Governor's Office



Labels:
Location: New York, NY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more