Pile Driving, Capping: New Work on the New TZ Bridge

Tappan Zee Constructors will resume driving sheet piles in Nyack this week.

The Thruway project manager stopped them from doing the work in late July because noise levels were above the contractual limit of 90 decibels. Nyack residents and officials had been complaining about the noise for some time.

Tappan Zee Constructors put additional noise reducing material on temporary noise fencing and additional padding between areas of the sheet pile driving operation where metal on metal contact occurs. The company also constructed a new temporary noise fence on the Rockland Trestle to further reduce noise from the sheet pile driving activity at pier 2 where sheets to complete a coffer dam are in place, said Carla M. Julian, Community Outreach/Diversity Manager for Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC.

In other bridge news, the next step in the construction of the new bridge is starting. All those foundation piles installed in the river in the past months will now be capped.

Bridge officials call it “a major milestone.”

The pile caps have a design unique to this project. They arrive by barge as heavy hollow tubes (several hundred tons) and are filled in with concrete and reinforced steel once they’re in place.

Photo Credit: Precast pile cap installation. New York State Thruway Authority.