New $554.77 Million Kosciuszko Bridge Replacement Rising Over Newtown Creek

The most expensive New York State-funded public works project ever, the $554,770,000 replacement for the Kosciuszko Bridge is making progress. A tower crane and two concrete pillars on the east span have risen in the past few months and now make up part of the skyline.

The current phase of the aging bridge’s two-part replacement is on schedule to be completed by November 22, 2017. The current Kosciuszko will be demolished piecemeal once the new bridge has opened.

The old bridge, which spans the Brooklyn-Queens border, crossing over Newtown Creek, is to be replaced by a cable-stayed suspension bridge with steel cables and concrete pillars.

Construction on the replacement began this summer. When complete, it will have both bike and pedestrian paths. The bridge is being designed and built by a team that includes Swedish company Skanska, Yonkers’ Ecco II, Nebraska’s Kiewet, and Kansas designer HNTB.

A notorious spot for accidents and bottlenecks, the Kosciuszko has been called the most deteriorated of all the city’s elevated roadways by the General Contractors Association of New York. At a 2014 meeting about the fate of the bridge, a representative of the DOT said that the current bridge is unsafe and structurally unsound.

The New York State Department’s largest single contract in history, the replacement bridge has a $554,770,000 budget.

And in case you’re wondering how to pronounce it, in Brooklyn, it’s koss-ee-OSS-ko. (In Polish, it’s closer to ko-SHOOS-ko).

The view from Brooklyn at Nassau Avenue

The replacement’s concrete pillars as seen from the original bridge

The new bridge’s western pillar

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