# Yonkers Rebuilds Bronx River Parkway Spans

- **Published:** 2026-08-05
- **Edition:** Northeast
- **Source:** Construction Equipment Guide
- **Authors:** Chuck MacDonald – CEG CORRESPONDENT
- **URL:** https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/yonkers-rebuilds-bronx-river-parkway-spans/71955
- **Tags:** Bridges, Infrastructure, New York State Department of Transportation

## Summary
Yonkers is rebuilding the Bronx River Parkway bridges, improving safety and traffic flow with modern design, new lanes, wider shoulders and a shared-use path. The $517 million project is aiming for completion in 2029.

## Article

Built in 1951, the Bronx River Parkway Bridges are ready for a complete tear down.

The bridges have become a choke point for passengers who are traveling the Bronx River Parkway. The new bridges will rise in the footprint of the old ones as a roomier, more modern, safer version of the old. They will rise 30 ft. above the busy thoroughfares of Morris Park Avenue and East 180th. The cost of the project will be approximately $517 million, with the completed bridge delivered in 2029.

![](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/900x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-4.jpg)

Yonkers Contracting Co. photo

Yonkers Contracting has handled complicated bridge builds like this one before.

Anthony Sarvaideo is the project manager of the Yonkers Contracting team for this complex staged project. His construction team plans to demo northbound lanes of the bridge to build new northbound spans. The workers will shift traffic, then demo the southbound lanes for a rebuild of southbound lanes. Finally, the team will demolish the existing bridge that runs between the current bridge spans.

The new parkway will carry non-commercial traffic and eliminate much of the congestion that drivers currently deal with as they travel the parkway that includes connections to major Bronx parks and the Bronx Zoo. The work will enhance driver safety, as well. In addition, the roads underneath the new bridge will be realigned and resurfaced.

"The bridge is in an urban area and runs over a railyard as well," said Sarvaideo. "We have had to coordinate with many partner agencies related to the project."

Sarvaideo has laid out multiple elements for the project, which is 30 percent complete.

"We will be building new foundations, columns, pier caps, setting steel girders for the bridge, concrete road decks, slip forming barriers, fire standpipe and new electrical lighting systems," he said.

The new bridge will offer considerable improvements including new shoulders and a dedicated off ramp onto 177th Street. The team will create a 12-ft. wide shared-use path connecting to a bikeway that travels from the Bronx to Westchester County. The path will help tie together residential neighborhoods in the area

## Launching a Bridge

![](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/900x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-7_JPG.jpg)

Yonkers Contracting Co. photo

The construction team plans on using 7,000 tons of steel with 272 girders in all. Approximately 156 of the girders will be 8 ft. tall and 116 will be 6.5 ft. tall. The headline moment will happen as the girders are fashioned together and launched into a bridge.

"Two, 1,000-foot-long sections of the bridge will be launched over the roads and railyard below to form the new bridge," said Sarvaideo. "All in a single weekend. I believe it will be quite spectacular. Drivers will go home from work one night and come back to work on a Monday with a brand-new bridge span overhead."

This type of herculean bridge move is a specialty of Yonkers. Workers will use two 150-ton strand jacks to make the "launch." The team will use gantries mounted on the rails in the launch beds to pre-assemble the steel prior to the launch. After the northbound and southbound spans are launched and decks poured, the gantries will be relocated to rails mounted on the inner edge of the new bridge decks. This will allow the gantries to be used for demolition and construction of the center span during the final stage of bridge construction.

This also eliminates the need for a lattice boom and hydraulic cranes for the final stage. This lessens the impact of MTA restrictions on work adjacent to the railway.

Some of the major safety concerns with most bridge construction are fall hazards as work is performed at heights. The use of SafeSpan hanging scaffolding systems eliminated these safety concerns and shielded the public during demolition operations.

![](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/900x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-3.jpg)

Yonkers Contracting Co. photo

"The new bridge steel also will have wood shielding installed on the bottom flange of the girders to prevent construction impacts to the public below," said Sarvaideo.

Workers used approximately 40,000 cu. yds. of concrete for the support structures and decks of the bridge. The foundation team drilled approximately 500 micropiles of 16 in. in diameter to support the bridge.

"We used a Mincon drill through system to drill the piles as much as 70 feet deep with 10-foot rock socket," he said.

The Yonkers team had to coordinate with a dizzying array of agencies, each with its own interests in the bridge. The job is a New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) project and had input from New York City DOT, New York City Parks Department and of course New York City Transit. The bridge project also passed over local police precincts.

## Photos

![The team will use gantries mounted on the rails in the launch beds to pre-assemble the steel prior to the launch.](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/1205x0_s3-71955-aaaN-140_26-CM-5_JPG.jpg)
*Photo credit: Yonkers Contracting Co. photo*

![Excavation work proceeds with shoring shown on right.](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/1205x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-1.jpg)
*Photo credit: Yonkers Contracting Co. photo*

![The new bridges will rise in the footprint of the old ones as a roomier, more modern, safer version of the old.](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/1205x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-2.jpg)
*Photo credit: Yonkers Contracting Co. photo*

![Yonkers Contracting has handled complicated bridge builds like this one before.](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/1205x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-3.jpg)
*Photo credit: Yonkers Contracting Co. photo*

![The new bridge will offer considerable improvements including new shoulders and a dedicated off ramp onto 177th Street.](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/1205x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-4.jpg)
*Photo credit: Yonkers Contracting Co. photo*

![Seen here is the project from the west looking north. On the right is the new northbound structures being poured.](https://dmt55mxnkgbz2.cloudfront.net/1205x0_s3-71955-N-140_26-CM-7_JPG.jpg)
*Photo credit: Yonkers Contracting Co. photo*