The leadership of the mayors around the Tappan Zee Bridge will face many big tests during the next five years now that work on the Tappan Zee replacement is poised to start.
My colleague Khurram Saeed and I spoke to some of the mayors, who have been keeping a low public profile in recent months. From our story:
“We represent the people who are the most frightened,” Nyack Mayor Jen Laird-White said. “We need good answers to give them.”Many answers, such as whether the state will pay for sound-reducing windows in people’s homes, have yet to come, though the state has outlined some plans to mitigate noise and pollution. Those plans include limiting pile driving during certain times of the day and putting up sound barriers in some places.
“In a project of this size, with this enormous regional significance, it’s inevitable that the localities in which it takes place are going to feel frustration,” Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell said. “The very local interests with those who live closest to the project do not always coincide with the state’s interests.”
(Journal News/LoHud.com file photo)
