Falling chunks of concrete and other debris have become the latest hazard for New York City drivers to avoid on one of the most congested stretches of roadway in the United States.
Twice in the past week, cars headed toward the George Washington Bridge in Upper Manhattan have been damaged by pieces of a crumbling overpass. In one instance, a driver was injured and taken to a hospital for treatment.
The incidents on the heavily traveled road are emblematic of the infrastructure crisis that besets the New York region and the United States more broadly as aging highways and bridges pose a threat to motorists and surrounding neighborhoods. But repairing those structures often proves bedeviling, as demonstrated by the yearslong fight to overhaul the crumbling Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
On Friday morning, two westbound lanes of the New York City roadway, which is known as the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, were closed as crews wrapped up repairs and installed protective netting. Those closures caused delays of up to 90 minutes to leave the city on the 14-lane bridge, which is the busiest in the United States. The netting is intended to ward off additional harm to drivers until a planned overhaul of the roadway gets underway.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns and operates the bridge, said it was still investigating the cause of the two incidents. But it noted that there had been repeated freezes during the past winter and extensive use of salt to melt snow and ice, which it said can “accelerate deterioration in aging concrete structures.”
A chunk of falling debris struck and injured a driver just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, the Fire Department reported. That driver, whose condition was not available, was transported to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for treatment.
At about 6 a.m. on May 7, a different car was damaged at a nearby spot by falling debris, according to a posting by the driver on social media. The motorist, identified as John Toledo, 61, told Gothamist that he had no time to stop before his car crashed into a piece of debris that he thought was concrete. He said that the collision damaged the front end of his car and blew out a tire.
“If I would have been one or two seconds further forward, instead of that piece of concrete hitting the front of the car, it could have come through the windshield, and I wouldn’t be speaking to you,” Mr. Toledo was quoted as saying.
The George Washington Bridge, which spans the Hudson River and connects Manhattan to New Jersey, is 95 years old. With more than 100,000 cars and 10,000 trucks crossing it on a typical day, it is a key source of revenue for the Port Authority. The standard toll for eastbound vehicles is $23.30. For E-ZPass users, the toll during peak hours is $16.79.
The Trans-Manhattan Expressway was built when a second, lower level was added to the bridge about 30 years later. It connects the bridge to a heavily trafficked section of Interstate 95 known as the Cross-Bronx Expressway and passes under apartment buildings and a bus terminal operated by the Port Authority.
The Port Authority said that the sections of the ceiling that had crumbled do not support the apartment buildings, known as the Bridge Apartments, that are above the expressway. Those buildings have their own, separate supports, the agency said.
The Port Authority dispatched more than 40 workers to inspect and repair the overhead sections and remove loose material, it said. They inspected 72,000 square feet of overhead structure and installed 2,000 square feet of netting, the agency said.
Making improvements to the expressway overpasses was already on the Port Authority’s to-do list before these incidents, the agency said. Its 10-year capital plan, approved late last year, includes more than $250 million for a project to fortify the overpasses. That project is being designed, the agency said.
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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