New TZB Has Visual Quality Panel, Director

Add to the Tappan Zee Bridge team these new players:

The Thruway Authority announced veteran bridge builder Peter Sanderson as Project Director along with the members of a “Visual Quality Panel” for the New NY Bridge, which includes numerous Rockland representatives.

The full roster of the Visual Quality Panel:

• Brian Conybeare, VQP Chair, Special Advisor to Governor Cuomo, Thruway Authority

• Darrell E. Waters, Design-Build Team Visual Quality Manager, Tappan Zee Constructors

• Heather Sporn, Thruway Authority Visual Quality Manager, NYS Dept. of Transportation

• John Bonafide, Division for Historic Preservation, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation

• Thomas Vanderbeek, Rockland County Planning Commissioner

• Suzanne Barclay, Town of Orangetown

• Richard Kohlhausen, Rockland County Community College Board, Capitol Risk Management

• Robert Fellows, Rockland Center for the Arts

• Barbara Hess, Hess Architects

• Andrew Klemmer, President of Paratus Group and Scarsdale resident

• Elma Reingold, Irving Resident, Assistant Principal of the High School of Art and Design, NYC

• Alison Spear, Ennead Architects

• Ed Burroughs, Westchester County Planning Commissioner

• Jerry Faiella, Executive Director of Historic Hudson River Towns, former New Castle Town Administrator

• Victoria Weisel, MS, LMSW, Irving Neighborhood Association

• David Aukland, Tarrytown Planning Board

“Along with expanding mass transit, a central goal of this project is to give the people of Westchester and Rockland Counties, as well as the entire Hudson Valley, a bridge they can be proud of,” said Thruway Authority Chairman Howard P. Milstein. “The Visual Quality Panel will give the public a direct line to the design team. Their recommendations will help us make informed decisions about what options on the bridge are best for the surrounding communities.”

The panel's recommendations will regard such aesthetic details as: design of the shared use path, belvederes, landscaping, art, historic/cultural installations, and lighting.

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Aukland said of his appointment, "I am very happy to be on the VQ panel. We have a real opportunity now to work with local communities, the Thuway Authority and the bridge's builders, Tappan Zee Construction, to refine the design at this early stage. With community input, we can look forward to a new Tappan Zee crossing of which we can all be proud."

"I have already started to work closely with TZC and the TA on specific issues from early items such as tree removals and placing of environmental monitors to the way the pedestrian and bike landing should look five years from now,” Aukland said.

The bridge's Project Director is tasked with keeping the replacement project on task and within budget – surely no small feat.

Thruway Authority Chairman Howard Milstein named Peter Sanderson to the role on Feb. 20, who according to a report in LoHud, will earn an annual salary of $340,000, a figure quickly blasted by a Thruway union.

From another post on LoHud:

The Civil Service Employees Association, which represents 1,000 Thruway workers, blasted the decision, which comes at the same time the agency plans to lay off 234 employees, including 80 CSEA members. 

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“The project director will be responsible for keeping the New NY Bridge on schedule and within budget, and Peter Sanderson is an outstanding choice for this role because he has extensive experience and a proven track record,” Milstein said. “Hiring an experienced project director is necessary and expected for a project of this size and complexity, and is generally viewed as an industry best practice.”

On Sanderson's resumé:

• Project manager to replace the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed in 2007. Bridge opened 11 months after collapse, ahead of schedule.
• Principal-in-charge for the Sagadahoc Bridge connecting Bath and Woolwich, Maine, the Maine Department of Transportation’s first design-build project,
• Principal-in-charge for the Clark Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge in St. Louis, Missouri.

The official project budget and schedule will be available online at www.newnybridge.com starting in May.