News

59th Street Bridge Slowly Reopening

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

(New York - WABC, October 18, 2005) -- Reports indicate some traffic is moving out of Manhattan on the lower roadway of the 59th Street Bridge. The news came just before 5 p.m. just after hours after the bridge had to be shut down after a four alarm fire.

According to the DOT, the bridge suffered no structural damage, however, engineers want to be sure of that so they will be inspecting the bridge throughout the night looking at the concrete decking and steel structure.

We're told the upper roadway will be closed for most, if not all of the night. The lower roadway could possibly flow in both directions by the end of the night.

The Queensboro Bridge was closed earlier in the day in both directions because of a four alarm fire on a tarp covering construction scaffolding.

For Queens-bound traffic from Manhattan, motorists should used the Triborough Bridge. In lower Manhattan, motorists are urged to use the Williamsburg, Manhattan or Brooklyn bridges.

On the Queens side, motorists headed into Manhattan from the Long Island Expressway are urged to use the Midtown Tunnel.

And those on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens should cross to Manhattan over the Triborough Bridge.

Eyewitness News has learned the fire burned through the tarp covering the top of the bridge on the Queens side.

The fire broke out at around 12:53 p.m. and quickly engulfed the white tarp. All contractors working on the bridge have been accounted for and none have been injured.

Officials say the bi-level bridge will remain closed in both directions, on both levels, for an unknown period of time. In addition, 59th Street is closed between 2nd and 3rd avenues.

In Queens, traffic quickly backed up onto local streets, causing closures on Queens Boulevard at Van Dam Street and Northern Boulevard at Jackson Avenue.

The tarp that burned is said to belong to workers scraping the paint and rust off the East River crossing. The work has required as many as two lanes in one direction be shut down overnight.The work will last through 2008, as lead-based paint is replaced with a lead-free coat.

A separate project on that bridge involves building a new pedestrian path, refurbishing the roadway surface and updating aviation lights.

Also getting a touch-up is a kiosk where passengers used to be able to buy tickets for a trolley that chugged across the span from 1909 to 1957.

Stay tuned to 7online.com and Eyewitness News for the latest developments on this story.

Get more News »