Construction Watch

Construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge finally began last year, and to mark the momentous occasion—it's the first "new colossal steel bridge" to be built in New York since the '60s—the Times is chronicling the massive project in a new series. Just how massive is it? "All other projects I've worked on are dwarfed by this — the size of the equipment involved, the enormity of what we're doing, the number of people involved," says the project manager. The new bridge will stretch 3.1 miles and carry eight lanes of traffic on two parallel spans; one thousand 300-foot piles will be driven into the bedrock below the Hudson River to support it. [NYT; previously]