North Avenue Bridge Construction to Begin Thursday in New Rochelle

Get ready for some inconvenience if it's necessary to drive in the vicinity of the New Rochelle Transit Center.

Beginning Thursday, the New York State Thruway Authority will begin construction to relocate utility lines on the North Avenue Bridge that spans the New England Thruway (I-95).

This phase of the project—expected to be completed by May 2013—will move electric, cable, telephone, water, fiber optic and natural gas lines from the existing bridge to a parallel bridge built in 2010.

The Thruway Authority said the contract for construction was awarded to Perfetto Contracting Co., Inc. of Brooklyn. The company submitted the lowest of six bids, amounting to $2,385.505.50. The highest bid was slightly over $4 million.

Mayor Noam Bramson issued an advisory about the construction, saying that motorists and residents should monitor traffic conditions and plan accordingly.

"There will be periodic lane closures in the vicinity of North Avenue near I-95 and our Transit Center, beginning with the closing of one block of Burling Lane," he said. "Closures on North Avenue itself will become more frequent starting in mid-April."

Bramson said that, while at least one lane of traffic will be open for most of this current phase of construction, "frequent bottlenecks and delays will be unavoidable."

The final phase of construction—the demolition of replacement of the North Avenue Bridge—is tentatively scheduled to being in 2015.