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    1. Rail
    2. Infrastructure

    MTA completes Third Avenue Bridge Renewal Project in Mt. Vernon

    Aug. 11, 2021
    This is the fourth bridge opened by the authority in Mt. Vernon in three years.
    Related To: MTA Metro-North Railroad
    Metro-North
    Screen Shot 2021 08 11 At 10 19 41 Am 6113ea9ccdf16

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Metro-North Railroad (Metro North) has opened the newly rebuilt Third Avenue bridge in downtown Mt. Vernon on time and on budget.  

    The bridge is the fourth that the MTA has opened in downtown Mt. Vernon in three years and the second in just three months. This announcement effectively completes the replacement of the previous 121-year-old bridge that was demolished beginning in April 2020. 

    “This bridge reconstruction, completed in less than 16 months, shows the MTA’s determination to stay right on schedule when we make commitments to local communities,” said Janno Lieber, acting MTA chairman and CEO. “And there are many more projects to benefit Metro-North riders in the works, now that our $51.5 Billion 2020-24 Capital Program has been un-paused and is picking up steam.” 

    Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi added, “The completion of two bridge replacements in under three months shows Metro-North's commitment to serving the City of Mount Vernon beyond providing reliable train service. This bridge will provide an easy connection to the downtown area of Mount Vernon for years to come.” 

    Demolition of the original bridge was announced in April 2020 with expected completion of July 2021. The project was funded by the 2015-2019 Capital Plan and approved by the MTA board in Dec. 2019.  

    Project components include: 

    • Replacement of nearly 120-year-old steel girders with a new 12 steel stringer system. 
    • Rehabilitation of stone abutments. 
    • Installation of micro pile foundation and tieback system. 
    • Installation of MTA Arts & Design sculptural artwork integrated with the fencing. 
    • New benches and planters on the pedestrian plaza and sidewalk. 
    • Rebuilding of North East stairs to adjacent parking lot. 
    • Installation of new Con Edison gas and electrical lines. 
    • Newly paved roadway on Fiske Place and 1st Ave. 
    • Installation of new traffic signals and street lights on intersection. 

    “I am excited that for the first time in a long time our residents can walk and drive over the Third Avenue Bridge,” said Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard. “I want to thank the MTA and union workers who finished this project during a pandemic. The access to our Third Avenue corridor will only serve as a boon to our downtown economic development and ease traffic congestion. With the completion of this bridge, all of our bridges are officially open for the first time in more than a decade. I look forward to sitting down with MTA and our government partners to discuss the reconstruction of our oldest bridges at Fulton Avenue and South Street.” 

    The MTA issued a design-build contract to expedite the project. Design-build contracts call for a single contractor to be responsible for both designing and building an entire project in order to ensure that coordination is seamless, and that work is completed in the shortest possible time. 

    MTA Arts and Design worked with artist Damien Davis to create artwork for the Third Avenue Bridge. Empirical Evidence references ancient and contemporary cultures through non-linear abstracted and stylized symbols that -- like an urban landscape -- constitute a whole, made up of distinctive parts. Davis’ artwork goes across 11 panels along the bridge’s east façade. The artwork with interwoven shapes and symbols forms a visual lexicon that not only connect with the culture and the greater diaspora the city represents, but also acts as a bridge for dialogue and inclusiveness. 

    "We are thrilled to be collaborating with the city of Mount Vernon on this art initiative,” said Sandra Bloodworth, director of MTA Arts & Design. “It is truly a unique opportunity that allows Arts & Design to bring first-class artwork to the bridges traversing downtown Mount Vernon. Public art can help to shape the place, speak for its people, and transform a cityscape. The artwork on the Third Avenue Bridge did all of that. We look forward to completing the remaining bridges and the formation of an Art Walk for the city.” 

    “Ultimately, the work is about language and how powerful language can be, for both clarity and confusion. I want all the work I make to serve as a bridge—I think about language as a bridge, and symbols as language,” said Davis. “For me, the question becomes how we take these larger complicated ideas, that can be hard to explain, break them down into simple shapes, and then allow new dynamic, complicated conversations to form around them. That is my hope for this project.” 

    The Third Avenue Bridge is the latest of four bridges that span Metro North’s New Haven line in downtown Mount Vernon that the MTA has replaced in four years. The 14th Avenue Bridge re-opened on July 3, 2019, the 6th Avenue Bridge re-opened on Sept. 12, 2020, and the 10th Avenue Bridge re-opened on June 2, 2021. The MTA replaced the Park Avenue / 1st Avenue Bridge in 2011. 

    Metro-North will seek design-build proposals for the replacement of the South Street and Fulton Avenue bridges.