Transportation and elected officials, planners and activists gathered for a two-day meeting on Tappan Zee Bridge issues this week in Tarrytown. The meeting, organized by the Federated Conservationists of Westchester and the NY Metropolitan Transportation Council, appears to have forged a strong sense among Rockland and Westchester civic leaders that replacing the Tappan Zee with a new span is a strategy worth pursuing.

The issue of replacing the Tappan Zee was mentioned by Governor Pataki in a radio address this summer, and has received a significant amount of attention in the Hudson Valley ever since.

Proponents of a new bridge say it would be able to accommodate features the Tappan Zee now lacks - a public transit right-of-way, a bike/walkway and breakdown lanes. Many at this week's meeting argued that a new bridge should have no new roadway capacity, though that issue would surely be visited anew should momentum toward a new bridge ever really take shape. Both transit and scenic advocates were likewise against any notion of "twinning" the existing bridge.

Indeed, one of the strongest argument for a new bridge may be economic. Thruway engineers say they can keep the 44-year-old Tappan Zee functioning, and even held out the possibilities of hanging new transit- and bike-ways from the existing structure, but said repair and maintenance costs are high and escalating. Still, no one has estimated a new bridge's price-tag, so long-term cost comparisons are not yet possible.

The shape of a new bridge might be dictated in part by the region's choice of future Rockland-Westchester transit links. Federated Conservationists of Westchester, some legislators and others are keenly interested in Rockland-Westchester light rail development, although some transit experts have argued that residential and workplace densities are too low to effectively support such a line. Metro-North had expressed interest in crossing the Hudson earlier in the 1990's, but shelved its study of the idea (see MTR #32). Eventual development of the West Shore Line, linking Rockland County to Penn Station via Secaucus, may further temper Metro-North's interest.

The need for shorter-term measures - including variable tolls, a vanpool program and improved bus service - to improve the situation on the Tappan Zee , was repeatedly raised at this week's meeting. Ideas from the event will be presented to Governor Pataki's I-287 Task Force, which next meets in October.