New Book Outlines Politics Behind Building of New Tappan Zee Bridge

Urban planner Philip Mark Plotch offers a behind-the-scenes look at three decades of contentious politics in the building of the new Tappan Zee Bridge in a new book debuting this month called “Politics Across the Hudson: The Tappan Zee Megaproject” (Rutgers University Press).

Plotch, an assistant professor at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, takes readers on a journey describing what it has taken to build one of the world’s longest, widest, and most expensive bridges, which stretches more than three miles across the Hudson River, approximately thirteen miles north of New York City.

He draws on his own expertise in planning megaprojects, interviews with ”more than a hundred key figures” involved in the project, and internal government records to paint the picture. In addition to his duties at the university, Plotch is also a former director of World Trade Center Redevelopment and Special Projects for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and the former manager of planning for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

From a press release about the book:

Year after year, the region abandoned viable options, squandered hundreds of millions of dollars, and forfeited more than three billion dollars in federal funds. The Tappan Zee Bridge became the poster child for interagency conflict and the inability of bureaucracies to get projects done. Only Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Machiavellian deal making overcame onerous environmental regulations, vehement community opposition, insufficient funding, and interagency battles, so construction could proceed.

“Politics Across the Hudson: The Tappan Zee Megaproject” will be released on July 6. Click here to visit the book’s website.