By Thomas C. Zambito,
The blistering that’s marred the pedestrian and cycling path on the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge since it opened six years ago has the state Thruway Authority weighing wholescale repairs.
Clusters of asphalt bumps have burst through the path’s blue surface along multiple stretches of the 3.6-mile path. In other spots, large white cracks have broken through.
Bicyclists say it’s gotten so bad they squeeze the handlebars as they rumble over bumps so they don’t fall off and nearly collide with pedestrians while swerving around bumps. The speed limit along the path is 15 mph.
“It’s spreading,” said Dan Convissor of the advocacy group Bike Tarrytown. “Every day it’s getting gradually worse…Eventually it will be one constant set of bumps.”
Bike Tarrytown complained to state Thruway Authority officials in December.
Thruway considering repairs
Thruway Authority spokesman Khurram Saeed said maintenance crews removed blisters by smoothing down bumps and painting over the scars. That work continues.
“Our crews continue to monitor the path and have removed blisters through micro-milling over the past few years,” Saeed said this week. “We are also evaluating potential projects for long-term repairs.”
Path: Bumpy ride on Cuomo Bridge bike path poses hazards for cyclists. What caused it.
Convissor said the piecemeal, spot patching approach isn’t working, and the Thruway Authority needs to invest in a total makeover.
“The agency’s existing approach is an inefficient use of time and money, delaying the inevitable need for a full resurfacing,” Convissor wrote in December.
A tour of the path on the morning of Thursday, June 11 showed outcroppings of asphalt bumps smoothed and painted over. Others remain untouched.
Thruway battling contractors
The path runs along the westbound side of a span that links Rockland and Westchester counties and opened on June 15, 2020, some three years after the bridge opened to traffic. It includes six glass-walled scenic overlooks.
A 2021 report commissioned by the Thruway Authority said that in 2019, months before the path opened, blisters a quarter inch high and three to eight inches in diameter were spotted.
The report, obtained by a cyclist through a public-records request and shared with the USA TODAY Network, offered several possible causes of the blistering. Among them was the tires of construction vehicles had stripped away a tack coat layer used to bond the asphalt beneath the blue surface.
The Thruway Authority remains locked in a legal battle with the consortium that built the $4 billion bridge. The Thruway has accused Tappan Zee Constructors, or TZC, of breaching its contract while the consortium says it’s owed nearly $1 billion for its work.
TZC has accused the Thruway Authority of forcing work at a “breakneck pace” while refusing to pay for add-ons to the contract that upped the price tag. TZC said the cost of the scenic overlooks, known as belvederes, climbed from $2.45 million to $64 million after the Thruway Authority demanded upgrades.
Thruway Authority officials defended a final design that included hardened plate glass walls three inches thick and nine feet tall, saying they will prevent individuals from climbing over the side.
Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA TODAY Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com