What to Know
- The first span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge is set to open this week
- Cuomo announced last month that parts of the old span will be blown up to speed up the demolition
- An estimated 185,000 vehicles cross the rusting 78-year-old bridge every day. Cuomo says it was built for 10,000
The first span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge is set to open Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.
The bridge, which connects Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to Maspeth, Queens, will be celebrated with a light show that will be visible for miles, Cuomo said Sunday.
An estimated 185,000 vehicles cross the rusting 78-year-old bridge every day. Cuomo says it was built for 10,000.
All traffic will then be diverted to the new span, and when the bridge is completed in 2020, there will be two spans, one going in each direction.
Cuomo announced last month that parts of the old span will be blown up to speed up the demolition. The news didn't sit well with some residents.
The light show will also be installed on seven other MTA-owned bridges and tunnels by May 2018 to boost tourism, Cuomo said.
Local
Those bridges and tunnels include: the Henry Hudson Bridge, Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, RFK Triborough Bridge, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Hugh L. Carey Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge.
