The Fluor-led team for the design and build project consists of Fluor Enterprises, American Bridge, Granite Construction Northeast and Traylor Bros.
Three design concepts and corresponding budgets had been presented to the public earlier this month. Tappan Zee Constructors’ submission, identified then only as ‘proposal one’, was recommended at that time by the selection committee. The Authority’s board of directors made the final selection yesterday. The scheme's price of US$3.142bn was considerably less than the other two proposals, which were costed at US$3.99bn and US$4.059bn.
"The combined experience of our team enabled us to put forward an attractive and cost competitive design," said Steve Dobbs, president of Fluor’s Industrial & Infrastructure Group. "We also will be able to leverage our recent successful bridge construction experiences, like the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and our unique equipment capabilities in making this important project a reality."
The 5km-long Tappan Zee Bridge connects Rockland County to Westchester County in the Lower Hudson Valley. It will be the single largest bridge project in New York’s history and is the state’s first application of its recently enacted design-build legislation.
The approach has produced substantial savings relative to the US$5.2 billion original estimated cost.
The Fluor team developed a design that reduced the weight of the structure and minimised the number and size of foundations required. The design solution has a shallow superstructure and a 106.7m-long span design to minimise the number of piers and provide a sleeker-looking bridge. The main span has a composite deck cable-stayed structural system with outwardly inclined main span towers designed to create an iconic look and accommodate future transit loads.
The design will allow for dredge quantities to be reduced from 1.4 million cubic metres to less than 765,000 cubic metres, lessening environmental impacts, costs, and schedule durations. In addition, the construction schedule will benefit from using heavy lifting equipment that Fluor and its partner American Bridge own and had custom-built for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project.
Construction will take approximately five years with completion projected for 2018.
