A repair for the Brooklyn Bridge is $100 million over budget and the completion date has been pushed back yet again due to major cracks and holes discovered during the five years of work, the Daily News has learned.
Engineers discovered more than 3,000 new structural “flags” on the city’s most famous span that will increase the costs of fixes and improvements from $508 million to more than $600 million, according to documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request.
The 1,595-foot span was originally set to fully reopen this past April but was delayed for a year. Now, construction won’t be completed until some yet-to-be-disclosed date in 2016, according to city Department of Transportation records.
“During the normal course of the work, DOT identified thousands of additional steel repairs that were needed, which have required additional time and funding for the project,” said department spokeswoman Bonny Tsang.
City Hall has repeatedly authorized added expenditures since the massive rehab project was started in 2010. After scraping off old paint, inspectors discovered multiple fissures, holes and fraying cables, including 30 that were labeled red flags, documents show. Construction crews found cracks in steel beams as wide as 7 inches.
“These were not identifiable during the design process,” Tsang said.
The lead contractor, Skanska-Koch, says the delays are due to the added damage on the 132-year old bridge as well as the city’s reluctance to shut down the bridge for entire weekends.
The slowdown is also due to some unforeseen work stoppages, documents reveal.
The city ordered construction halted for several days during the Super Bowl week due to police concerns, and also after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, records show.
Skanska-Koch has finished most of the broad repairs, records show. That includes widening and refurbishing the bridge’s crumbling approaches and ramps and anchorages. But old paint with lead contaminants is still being removed.
In 2007, the bridge was one of the few in the state to earn a “poor” condition rating by the state. For years, mayors pushed off any major renovations, citing the cost. The last major repairs on the iconic bridge occurred in 1958.
The pressure to rehab the decaying span increased after a steel truss arch bridge collapsed in Minnesota, killing 13 people in 2007.
Two years later, the Bloomberg administration announced a massive four-year overhaul, in part funded by federal stimulus money doled out for ready-to-roll infrastructure projects.
Motorists and Brooklyn residents living near the span have been paying the price ever since.
There have been 17 full weekend closures and many partial lane blocks.
“We haven’t been able to sleep well for years,” said Roberto Gautier, who lives at Cadman Plaza West. “And when you don’t sleep, your health is damaged. It’s a health crisis.”