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Tappan Zee Bridge Project Starting To Take Shape

SOUTH NYACK, N.Y (CBSNewYork) -- The multi-billion dollar Tappan Zee Bridge project is rising up in the Hudson River.

"I have to say, driving over today to see the supports, actual supports, I said to myself 'it's actually happening!'" Mayor of White Plains Tom Roach told CBS2's Lou Young.

Roach marveled along with just about everyone else that the $3.9 billion bridge is actually beginning to take shape, rising up on a thousand piles driven down into the river bedrock.

"The piers are starting to come up, the concrete legs that will hold up the roadbed and the new bridge, and you're starting to see the first structural steel as well," said Brian Connybeare, the governor's advisor with New NY Bridge.

There are single structural steel assemblies 400 feet long and 12 feet high, barged downriver from a plant near Albany and lifted into place by one of the largest floating cranes in the world.

Even once nervous neighbors of the project have turned into awed fans of the engineering marvel they're witnessing. The apprehension is gone, Young reported.

"It's like night and day. It seems pretty benign now," said Don Burd, of South Nyack.

The first span is on schedule to open late next year. That's when the old bridge will come down.

The second span built in its place should open in 2018.

Planners are already looking past the opening to the creation of a new rapid transit system to use on the new bridge, Young reported.

About 21 double-decker buses will be running in 15-minute intervals from White Plains to Suffern across the river and points in between, Young reported.

The state transportation commissioner said the first route in the new Hudson Links bus system is a done deal.

"(Young: You're talking about a whole new bus system?) That's correct. (Young: And the money's there?) The $91 million dollar capital investment is there," said NYS Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald.

This, even as the state continues to cobble together funding for the project that is being built even though the end-game funding isn't nailed down.

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