The main traverse of the recently named Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge will open to Rockland-bound movement later Friday.
Following four years of development and $4 billion in costs, drivers will find the opportunity to ride over the Hudson River on the new swap for the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Named for his dad, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said four paths of westward activity will begin crossing the primary traverse late Friday night into Saturday morning. For the time being, activity from Rockland to Westchester will keep on using the old extension.
The transcending twin ranges of the scaffold each gloat almost 200 huge links.
"We are leaving an old, perilous, damaging extension and it's supplanted by another, more secure, more brilliant structure," the senator said amid a strip cutting function on Thursday.
The senator's office says at some point this fall, autos heading from Rockland to Westchester will begin utilizing the new traverse also, utilizing four inverse paths while work is finished on the second twin traverse.
Following a last moment administrative move, the extension was formally named after the senator's late father.
"Today, my dad smiles down on us," Andrew Cuomo said.
Gone are the signs regarding previous Gov. Malcolm Wilson and the words "Tappan Zee," which was a tribute to the Native American Tappan tribe and early Dutch pioneers.
Yet, a few, including Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino who kept running against Cuomo for representative three years prior, say the name ought to never have changed.
"I figure it ought to have remained the Tappan Zee Bridge," Astorino said.
The second traverse is slated to open one year from now.
In the end, the Thruway Authority will give away parts of the old scaffold's deck and its moveable boundary framework. Eight areas have asked for a portion of the 150 deck boards to be rescued for reuse in different extensions.
