AMVETS Bridge Reopens Ahead of Schedule [VIDEO]

The long awaited completion of the AMVETS bridge's rehabilitation project on the Taconic State Parkway is here. State officials held a press conference on Tuesday to announce that more than a month ahead of schedule the northbound bridge would reopen to traffic.

"One lane on the AMVETS bridge will be open by 8 p.m. [Tuesday]," according to Sue Stepp, a spokesperson for the DOT. "Both lanes will be open by [Wednesday] morning."

To allow for the striping and final preparations, the DOT will be conducting lane closures on the Taconic State Parkway from Wednesday, Oct. 3 to Friday, Oct. 5 and again on Tuesday, Oct. 9 to Thursday, Oct. 11, nightly from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m.

Local and state officials praised the work of the construction workers, local and state police officers, as well as the Department of Transportation for a "job well done" and completed ahead of schedule. 

The $26 million project began on March 26 and was expected to be completed on Nov. 9. The construction company Tutor Perini Corporation, which worked on the bridge, will receive $33,000 for each day it finished the work early. Had they missed that date, they would have been penalized $33,000 for each day construction was not completed. 

James Laing, president of Tutor Perini, said 60,000 man hours on the job were put forth to complete the project. 

During the closure, northbound traffic was re-routed onto the southbound span, with two travel lanes in each direction. Northbound traffic was re-routed at Pinesbridge Road in New Castle and onto the southbound span. Commuters were shifted back onto northbound Taconic State Parkway just south of Underhill Avenue in Yorktown.

"[We] needed the assistance of an unrepresented group of people today and that was the commuters on the Taconic State Parkway, who behaved absolutely spectacularly during this," Acting New York State Department of Transportation Regional Director Bill Gorton said.

Construction work as part of the rehabilitation project included steel hangers and deck supports, concrete bridge deck and railing; installing new guide rail; and resurfacing the roadway on each end of bridge.

View the above video for more from the press conference.

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