A 350-foot-long bridge built at an upstate Hudson River port for the New York City Department of Transportation has started its voyage downriver aboard two barges welded together.
An employee at the Port of Coeymans says the barges left the dock shortly after 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Two tugboats are pushing and a third is towing the barges and the replacement for the Willis Avenue Bridge at about 5 mph and expect to arrive in Bayonne, N.J. on Wednesday.
The 2,400-ton bridge will lay over in Bayonne until early August, when it will be hauled 15 miles north to a site just south of the existing bridge linking Manhattan and the Bronx.
The bridge was built at the Albany-area port, where it was loaded onto the barges Monday morning.
The new bridge is scheduled to open this fall.
