The NY State DOT looks to have a new "integrator" role in a multi-agency jurisdiction sooner than the state advisory panel thought — the Journal News reported last week that the DOT was taking over the Tappan Zee/I-287 corridor environmental impact study process.

Metro-North and the NYS Thruway Authority have been co-leading the multi-year planning effort, which is likely to recommend replacing the bridge and developing some form of cross-Hudson mass transit system at the crossing.

But recently, the project has stalled. Although the reason for the DOT takeover is unclear, reports over the last few months had indicated that there was a stalemate over key recommendations between the two agencies. Some reports have said the Thruway and Metro-North are at odds over the choice of transit to run over the Tappan Zee Bridge — a commuter rail line connecting Rockland County to Manhattan, versus a service oriented to Rockland-Westchester commuters.

  Its new role could be a good opportunity for the NYSDOT to bring land use issues to bear in the corridor. Although the study to date has taken a hard look at various transit and bridge engineering options, it has so far failed to undertake a thorough planning look at the sprawl-inducing impacts that widening the Thruway west of the river might have, or about land use changes municipalities in the corridor could make to create stronger environments for various types of mass transit to succeed. 

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