Build Another Crossing of the Hudson River!!!!!!

May 27th, 2010

On a recent sojourn from Southern New Jersey to Boston during New York City commuter rush hour, I was faced with the quandary of which route to cross the Hudson River to get to Connecticut. Of course, because of the amount of traffic and the severely under designed roads in the greater NYC/Gotham metroplex, one must stay as far away from the city as possible when driving during rush hour – otherwise, one will likely spend most of their time sitting in traffic going nowhere fast. Anyway, I had already decided to cross the Hudson at Newburgh, NY. But as I came to the point where I was forced to make my decision whether to cross the river at the Tappan Zee Bridge or proceed the additional distance out of the way to cross at Newburgh, there appeared a colossal traffic jam that essentially blocked the approach to the Tappan Zee. As I was going all the way to Boston, to traverse the extra distance to cross somewhere else was not so inconvenient for me. However, I felt sympathy for the local commuters that had no alternative but to sit in the traffic – with the possible exception of heading south though New Jersey to NYC to cross the river, because Newburgh probably would be ridiculously out of the way for most of them. I saw them all sitting frustrated in the traffic on the alternate routes trying to avoid the massive traffic jam approaching the Tappan Zee heading to Westchester County, NY.

SO, I RELAY ALL THIS TO MAKE THE FOLLOWING POINT:::

BUILD ANOTHER CROSSING OF THE HUDSON RIVER. I mean, are the people who make roadway construction decisions mentally deficient, or what?!?!? If the nation can afford to spend a billion dollars a day fighting extremist idiots and rebuilding schools in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nation can afford to build another bridge or tunnel to cross the Hudson River to replace the relics and antiques that are currently utilized to cross the river!!!!!!!

Adam Trotter, P.E.