January 5, 2016 - Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino today announced construction for Crane Road Bridge has completed on time and on budget. Crane Road Bridge is the largest bridge construction project that Westchester County has ever undertaken at a total cost of $53 million.

"The good news today is that 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 said. "Despite all the moving parts and competing interests, the team has for all practical purposes brought the project in on time and on budget."

Astorino congratulated the general contractor, E.E. Cruz and Co. Inc., the Construction Industry Council, the project's construction workers, and the various unions for completing Crane Road Bridge on time and on budget. He also thanked the residents and merchants of Scarsdale as well as Bronx River Parkway motorists for their patience, saying E.E. Cruz 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."

"It's a pleasure for us to complete this project," Malandro said. "This was the first Westchester County project that we bid successfully and completed successfully, and we will be bidding on Westchester County projects in the future."

Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council, credited a Project Labor Agreement for the success of construction on the Crane Road Bridge.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for the construction industry when the County of Westchester and County Executive Astorino move forward with projects that improve the community and create safe roadways," Pepe said. "This project, which employed dozens of workers from the local area, had a specialized Project Labor Agreement in place to ensure continuity for the workforce and contractors so the project could flow correctly and be completed on time and on budget."

The Crane Road Bridge project:

• 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;
• and, installed a pedestrian ramp to access the southbound Metro-North Station platform and the Bronx River Parkway Reservation pathway.

"I believe very strongly that infrastructure is the essence of government. It's keeping our roads and our bridges safe—that's what the county should be doing," Astorino added. "There's a lot government is doing that we shouldn't be doing, and it quite frankly takes resources away from infrastructure projects."

Over the last five years, Westchester County has put nearly $1 billion to work on capital projects, creating nearly 11,000 construction jobs. With the Capital Plan passed as part of the 2016 budget, Westchester will spend another $1 billion over the next five years, creating nearly 11,000 more jobs.

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.