Crane collapses on lanes of Tappan Zee Bridge in NYC suburbs

Police are expecting the bridge to be closed for hours and are encouraging commuters to avoid the bridge and its surrounding area. The bridge has been making extraordinary progress, he said, but “things happen”, and “sometimes equipment breaks and sometimes accidents just happen”.

A new Tappan Zee Bridge is under construction beside the old one, which dates to the 1950s and will be demolished once the new bridge is completed.

“Obviously it is one of three issues”. Three civilians were hurt in vehicles that swerved during the crane’s fall, Day said, and two workers on the construction project were also injured.

The hammer forces piles into the mud.

At a surface-level glance, Cuomo said it appeared that only one lane of the old span was damaged, but a team of engineers was sent to determine whether its entirety is structurally sound. “We have to place plates on the roadway to make those roadways safe”.

The crane collapsed across the span of the bridge that connects Westchester and Rockland counties north of New York City around noon on Tuesday. Cuomo said most vehicles had made their way off the bridge as of 4 p.m. She said she was about 40 cars from where the crane collapsed.

Only three workers sustained minor injuries.

Video from a news helicopter showed at least one person being removed from a auto and loaded into an ambulance. “There might [be] long term damage and might take hours to open the bridge”.

(NYSTA) A person is seen on a stretcher after a crane collapsed on the Tappan Zee Bridge Tuesday.

The new bridge, at a cost of $3.98 billion, is scheduled to be start operations in 2018.

In addition to the recent crane collapse and corruption allegations, other recent accidents and mishaps involving the Tappan Zee Bridge in NY include a serious accident involving a Bronx motorcyclist who crashed into a van in March 2016, as well as a tractor trailer that rolled over in mid-May, causing hours of lane closures and minor injuries. The victims’ families, however, attributed the crash mainly to bad lighting on the barge.