Dive Brief:

• The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced the $1.5 billion rehabilitation of the 50-year-old New York City Verrazano Bridge will take approximately 25 years, the Staten Island Advance reported.
• WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, MTA's consultants on the project, said the work — which includes upper and lower deck replacements and associated ramp reconstruction — will be broken up into phases so that the bridge can still be used during construction.
• The Verrazano Bridge connects the NYC boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, and approximately 200,000 cars pass over the bridge every day.

Dive Insight:

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo said of the news, "This is daunting and disheartening, if not depressing."

The prospect of construction-related traffic delays on a bridge that is already jam-packed daily with commuters is certainly a disconcerting one, but MTA spokesperson Adam Lisberg said at a press conference announcing the plan that the bridge is 50 years old and needs work.

The upper deck work is already underway, the Advance reported, as well as other bridge-related projects, and some work, including the lower deck, is still in the design phase. The new lower deck will use lighter steel, making it 12,000 tons lighter — possibly allowing the addition of pedestrian and bicycle paths.