Tunnel could replace Tappan Zee Bridge approach in Rockland

By Arthur H. Gunther III
thecolumnrule.com

      If ever there is a short burst of enlightenment in Albany, I’d run this idea pass the grand poohbahs: A tunnel could come to the Tappan Zee crossing after all. Though not the South Nyack-Tarrytown trans-Hudson route long sought by anti-bridge proponents, an underground highway could replace the paved Thruway to and from the Palisades Center mall area in West Nyack to the foot of the soon-to-be-built bridge at South Nyack.
      The tunnel would make sense economically and environmentally since sale of the nearly four miles of land now occupied by the Thruway approach in Rockland could bring mixed development as well as parks and a returned downtown at South Nyack . The sale could help cover the tunnel cost.
     Here’s how it would work:  The present, deteriorating Thruway roadway, which covers the original 1955 concrete, would be removed, an open trench dug and pre-cast tunnel sections lowered and quickly connected. The new east-west route would be twice as wide as the present, mostly six-lane configuration, thereby allowing for a smoother approach to the also wider replacement bridge. Just as important, room would be provided for an eventual Hudson River rail link.
     Air pollution would be controlled by filtration, and there would be no road noise, especially from dieseling trucks.
     Developers would greet the news with enthusiasm as much land would be freed for commercial and residential development, including limited high-rises with Hudson views. The Village of South Nyack would be particularly ecstatic since it would obtain free space to redevelop the downtown bulldozed in the original Thruway/bridge construction. The community could plan parks, downtown shopping and a profitable staging area for the many cyclists expected to cross the new Tappan Zee Bridge.
     Advocates of a tunnel crossing rather than a new bridge from South Nyack to Tarrytown might say that while they remain disappointed their idea was consistently met with silence from Albany, they would get half the bargain anyway. Their tunnel concept also had the project beginning at the West Nyack mall. 
     As with the new Hudson crossing, this could be a “design-build” project to facilitate speedier construction and contain costs. Temporary jobs would add to the area economy.
     This is a doable undertaking, one that would replace an aging Thruway stretch, provide a beginning for trans-Hudson rail, return South Nyack’s destroyed downtown, bring some quiet to the Nyacks, allow for green space and better air quality and improve traffic flow to and from the new bridge in what is now a bottleneck section.
 
The writer is a retired newspaperman.