Ramping up the beach season

Newly-constructed ramps to and from the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in Rockaway will reopen to motorists on May 22, just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the kick-off of beach season.
“We promised to try and complete the ramp reconstruction work before this important weekend,” said Adrian Moshe, Facility Engineer for both the Cross Bay and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridges. “We are pleased to turn over these like-new ramps to our customers.”
The northbound ramp onto the bridge has been closed since December 2008, and the southbound ramp off the bridge has been closed since February of this year. During these periods, vehicles and buses were required to use detour routes. Buses will return to their original routes beginning Saturday, May 23.
While major work on all bridge ramps has concluded, there may be instances of isolated daily closures until the entire project ends in 2010. This access is timely, since traffic increases considerably in the summer months. July is historically the month with highest traffic volume at Cross Bay; there were 740,000 crossings in July 2008 versus the lowest volume in February 2008 with 558,000 crossings. The Cross Bay Bridge had more than 7.6 million vehicles crossing its span in 2008.
Rehabilitation work on the roadway deck, ramps and pedestrian path (which re-opened last October) is part of MTA Bridges and Tunnels’ overall $56.9 million four-year deck reconstruction of the 38-year-old bridge that will continue through spring 2010.
Three decades of wear-and-tear in the salt-water environment of the Rockaways made the work necessary. El Sol Contracting & Construction Corp. of Maspeth is the contractor for the job.
“This major project will improve the riding surface and generally upgrade the bridge for our customers,” said John Ryder, General Manager for the agency’s two Rockaways crossings. “We thank everyone – customers and local residents – for their patience as the work has progressed.”
The agency has been regularly briefing local community groups and elected officials about progress on each phase of the project.