The decision opens the way for engineering and consulting services to prepare the suspender rope project for construction. Work on the 80-year-old suspension bridge is scheduled to begin in 2013 and take eight to nine years to complete. The project, which is anticipated to cost between US$1 billion and US$1.2 billion, will generate 3,600 jobs.
The project entails the replacement of the bridge’s 592 hangers, the rehabilitation of the four main cables and 488 strands in the anchorages together with the relocation of the two footpaths along their entire lengths, which is necessary to facilitate the suspender rope replacement. The necklace lighting attached to the main cables also will be replaced as part of the project.
The 1,100m-span George Washington Bridge was opened in 1931. To handle the region’s rapid growth, a second level was built below the bridge’s main deck in 1962. Today, it serves more than 300,000 vehicles a day.
