Cuomo Bridge design-build team sues NY State agency to prove it's owed $900M

The builder of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in New York has filed a lawsuit against the state's Thruway Authority, claiming that the consortium of builders is owed $900 million in extra costs incurred during the bridge's construction.

According to a report from Construction Dive, Tappan Zee Constructors (TZC)—a design-build team made up of Fluor Corp., American Bridge Co., Traylor Bros. Inc., and Granite Construction—filed the lawsuit to request that the New York State Thruway Authority provide documents about the project that could prove the consortium's claim regarding the outstanding extra costs. TZC claims the authority violated state law by not providing the documents when the consortium and its attorneys filed a public records request to them in April 2018.

TZC says that since the initial request was submitted, the authority has "intentionally" delayed producing the requested records. A number of documents related to the project budgets as well as communications between various agencies involved on the project are all necessary for TZC to make its case for reimbursement. The design-build team for the bridge construction project said in its filing that the year-and-a-half delay in providing the requested documents is "unfair and unreasonable" and asks the court to order the authority to release the documents to them within 20 days.

The first span of the nearly $4 billion Cuomo Bridge opened to traffic in August 2017, while the second span opened in September 2018. The 3-mile structure carries traffic over the Hudson River between Rockland and Westchester counties in New York. The bridge replaced the original Tappan Zee Bridge, which was demolished earlier this year.

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SOURCE: Construction Dive