SARAH CRICHTON / Newsday
May 31, 2013

Repair work aimed at giving a new lease on life to two of Long Island's aging bridges is now complete, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state transportation officials announced Thursday. 

Construction began in October for the $3.6-million project to rehabilitate the bridge carrying Route 24 / Hempstead Turnpike over Belmont Avenue in Elmont in Nassau County and a $3.4-million project to overhaul the Robert Moses Causeway over Ocean Parkway in Suffolk.

The work included removing and replacing the concrete bridge decks, repairs to the spans' steel components, reconstruction of curbs and sidewalks, and replacing the bridge rails. 

The projects are part of a $24.2-million NY Works contract that includes rehabilitation of six bridges on Long Island — overhauling the spans from "fair" to "good" condition, New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald said.

The work is part of a host of repairs to roads and bridges being funded through the NY Works program, aimed at extending the life of state infrastructure and preventing more costly, in-depth construction in the future. Bundling projects sites within close geographic locations into a single contract enables DOT to lower expenses and obtain lower bids, officials say.

The construction contractor for the Long Island bridge design-build contract is Farmingdale-based Posillico Civil Inc., and the design consultant is Greenman-Pederson Inc. of Babylon.

The design-build process, implemented by Cuomo as a way to expedite repairs in the wake of damage after Tropical Storm Irene, allows for design and construction services to be combined into single contracts. Advocates say it can shorten the duration of a repair project, saving taxpayer money.

Work began last month on the $5.5-million repair to the Pinelawn Road bridge over the Long Island Expressway in Melville, which is slated for completion this fall. Other bridges to be repaired as part of the contract are: Great Neck Road over Route 27 / Sunrise Highway in Babylon; and the Ronkonkoma Avenue and Waverly Avenue overpasses across the LIE in Brookhaven. 

All six are steel beam and concrete slab deck spans, built between 1958 and 1970, that need structural fixes which require ripping up and replacing the entire bridge deck before repaving.