It's a Wrap: Crane Road Bridge Construction is Complete

On January 5 Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino announced that construction of the Crane Road Bridge in Scarsdale is complete, on time and on budget. The Crane Road Bridge is the largest bridge construction project that Westchester County has ever undertaken at a total cost of $53 million. Astorino said, "We now have a modern and safe bridge in place that will make it easier to get around Westchester and hopefully take some of the stress out of the busy lives of the people who use the Bronx River Parkway."

Astorino thanked the residents and merchants of Scarsdale as well as Bronx River Parkway motorists for their patience, saying E.E. Cruz, the construction company, and the county worked to keep disruptions at a minimum.

The project is currently $500,000 under budget, expected to be enough to cover a few outstanding invoices. All four lanes of the parkway opened to motorists on September 4, 2015, with all work completed on December 20. Astorino added, "In a perfect world, we would have finished a little sooner, but despite some tough weather we saw during three years of construction, this project was completed in the shortest possible amount of time."

Joseph Malandro, president and COO of E.E. Cruz and Co. Inc., said the uniqueness of the bridge's "mushroom caps" structure motivated the company to bid on the project because "it was an engineering challenge to build it."

The Crane Road Bridge project accomplished the following:

• Expanded the four lanes from 9.5 feet in width to 11 feet
• Added a 4 foot right shoulder and a 2.5 foot left shoulder
• Added a 260-foot long deceleration lane for exiting traffic at Exit 12 northbound;
• Improved the curves to increase stopping sight distance and allow the advisory speed to increase from 20 mph to 30 mph
• Added a sidewalk to the south side of the bridge
• Installed a pedestrian ramp to access the southbound Metro-North Station platform and the Bronx River Parkway Reservation pathway

The Bronx River Parkway's Crane Road Bridge is made up of two bridges, one over the Bronx River, commonly referred to as the "mushroom bridge," and the other over the MTA Metro-North Railroad track north of the Scarsdale Station, commonly referred to as the "railroad bridge." These bridges share a common middle abutment. The original Crane Road Bridge was a major contributing element to the designation of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction of the new bridge follows policies of the U.S. Department of the Interior for historic bridges.

Commenting on the project, Scarsdale Village Manager Steve Pappalardo shared the following:

"The Village worked closely with the County on the initial planning, coordination and timing of the project relative to the Popham Road Bridge project which immediately preceded the Crane Road Bridge construction. We sold the County certain Village properties located on the BRP they needed to complete the project and granted them a temporary construction easement for the north end of the Merchant Lot for the contractor to stage materials and work. The Village was paid in excess of $900,000 for the properties and easement. Relative to the scope of the project, we asked the County to install a sidewalk alongside the Crane Road northbound Exit 12 ramp that would lead to a new pedestrian ramp to and from the inbound (NYC- southbound) platform and the Bronx River Parkway Reservation pathway. We also asked that they improve the safety of this Exit 12 ramp and they did so by adding a 260-foot long deceleration lane for exiting traffic. They completed both of these requests and installed an accompanying crosswalk on East Parkway from the Chateaux to the Merchants Lot to access the sidewalk to the platform. Scarsdale residents living north of Crane Road have found this new access very convenient while walking to the station in the morning and we hope it reduces the number of vehicles accessing the train station for the morning commute. We also asked the County to construct a new stairway from the outbound (north) platform to the Merchants Lot, however the NYSDOT, who along with the Federal Highway Administration funded the preponderance of the project costs, would not approve as they considered it unrelated to the bridge construction project.

The County also modified their Maintenance and Protection of Traffic Plan at the Village's request by maintaining the southbound Exit 12 Crane Road ramp for most of the project duration. This ramp was initially to be closed for 3 of the 4 project stages, however the County revised their construction plan to accommodate its continued use as the Scarsdale Chamber of Commerce and other Village merchants expressed concern about the potential loss of business from removing this access point.

Other than some occasional issues with local traffic or the construction staging areas in the Merchant's Lot and off Depot Place which Village staff handled with the County DPW, the Crane Road Bridge project went well and the Village Center continued to function. As with the Popham Road Bridge Project, the cooperation and understanding of the merchants, business owners and Village residents in general, during what amounted to five years of bridge construction in and around the Village Center, is greatly appreciated. The resulting infrastructure improvements will benefit transportation, vehicular and pedestrian traffic safety and hopefully local commerce for many years to come."