Daily News from New York, New York • 749

Sunday, April 12, 1987 DAILY NEWS 3 are still in good shape. The 77-year-old suspension i bridge also tilts mostly because, engineers say, of the weight of subway trains running along its sides instead of the the center. Drivers and subway riders who use the bridge weekdays already suffer 45-minute deejays. Two of the bridge's seven lanes and two of its four subway tracks, all on the north side, have been closed since April 1985 while sup-. ports are added to the bridge.

Those lanes and tracks aren't expected to reopen until April 1988. Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridge repairs are considered emergency situations and work schedules can't be tv InV juggled for the convenience of drivers, Schwartz said, adding that "the bridges are safe." However, the city will do all the work it can in off-peak hours, and try to leave two lanes open at all times, he said. Little work can be done at night because of poor lighting and because of the noise construction creates. Mass transit offers the best escape, if the public would switch, Schwartz said. Bus service can be expanded, especially at bridges, he suggested.

At the Queensboro Bridge, a flatbed truck ferries bicycles across every 10 minutes and the bikers cross in a bus, he said. The service is free. But Schwartz warned that "the worst is yet to come" for Queens. Motorists creeping over the Queensboro Bridge while the upper roadways are being rebuilt face a worse ordeal after that job is finished, late in 1989, because the lower roadways are to be torn up then and replaced. Engineers estimate the lower roadway will be completed in 1993.

The 63d St subway from Manhattan to 21st St and 41st Ave. in Long Island City can ease the jam if it opens as scheduled in 1989 "and people can be persuaded to use it" Schwartz said. The Queensboro is the third most-heavily traveled bridge to Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is the heaviest, funneling 279,000 vehicles both ways daily. Minimal repairs during critical traffic perioas will have little effect on traffic along that route, Schwartz said.

Second in terms of use is the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, linking the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the George Washington; 171,600 vehicles travel over it on a typical weekday. Traffic congestion is aggra- bikes and cyclists across Queensboro Bridge. DCNNt CARUSO DAILY NEWS There is no danger of monitored New York City bridgesparticularly the East River bridges, that handle 1,444.000 vehicle trips daily collapsing under tramc, as did the state Thruway bridge in upstate New York Sunday morning, according to the man in charge of the city's massive bridge repair program. But George Zandalasini, the deputy director of engineering management for the Department of Transportation, added that the Williamsburg Bridge, whose four main cables are to be replaced, could be Id such poor condition by 1095 if nothing is done to repair it "that we would be uneasy The Manhattan Bridge, which will have a new anchorage to replace badly corroded bars holding a main cable, has a tendency to wobble, did Washington State bridge that collapsed in a storm in 1940. Both bridges were designed by the same man, Leon Moisseift But the Manhattan Bridge is more massive and designed to resist more wind sway, Zandalasini said.

Wind is not the cause of the Manhattan Bridge sway, he said; it comes from the weight of subway trains running along either side of the span. The bridgejs being reinforced to combat the swaying, he said. Federal funds for most of the city's $1.75 billion bridge repair programs are being released after Congress overrode President Reagan's veto of the highway aid bill two weeks ago, but the delay could set back the timetable, according to George Zandalasini, the deputy director of Engineering Management for the city Department of Transportation. "We've lost the momentum and our schedules may slip a bit'' Zandalasini said. "Well bave tost most of the summer construction season by the time bids are let out and contractors get rolling." The ambitious bridge re construction program under way since 1981, was scheduled to be finished is 1997.

Projects have been waiting since Oct 1, when Congress adjourned without approving the measure, he said. crisis pinched off the jnioney in the 1970s. Now there is federal money available for bridges and roadways on interstate routes, and the city and state jre rolling with a massive Bridge rehabilitation pro gram that started in 1981 and 15 scheduled to continue into 1997. The tan tor the overnaui is estimated at $1.75 billion. federal government is 75 or 80 of the yankroll, depending on the type of repair work, from the aeSurface Transportation As-'gtetance Act and as a trade-in Tor Westway funds.

The state contributes 19 rwhen federal aid amounts to '75 and provides 15 when sr the federal share is 80. The makes up the rest in each case. BIKE BUSES are used to terry vated by an extensive rebuilding of the Thomson and Skillman Aves. Bridge approach in Long Island City, under way since December 1983. That bridge is expected to reopen in January, but the agony won't be over then, he said.

The reopening will pave the way for the start of a massive reconstruction of the Queens Blvd. bridge over the Sunnyside rail yards. The Queensboro-Queens Blvd. projects will start together, with half of the bridge lanes and one-third of the boulevard lanes closed at the same time. Traffic planners believe it will be less painful for drivers to take the suffering in one dose rather than two, one after the other.

But before the boulevard can be closed to start work, the cost for the Brooklyn Bridge repairs at for the Manhat-tan Bridge, about the bill for the Williamsburg Bridge, and $226 million to repair the Queensbor-ough Bridge. Building a temporary detour when heavily-traveled arteries are closed for repairs is a big cost considering that the detours usually are plowed under later. Before the $37.5 million reconstruction of the Queens Blvd. bridge over the Sunnyside Rail Yards begins, $1.03 million must be spent to fix up the Honeywell St-Northern Blvd. Bridge for a detour.

Hawvft well Bridge's future'is up in the air," Zandalasini said. the Honeywell St-Northern Blvd. Bridge must be repaired -at a cost of $1.03 millionso it can be used as a detour. Massive congestion The Brooklyn Bridge is in better shape, with repairs expected to be completed by 1989. Anchorages for the main cables and the pedestrian promenade, which has been extended in Brooklyn to Tillary St, are still being rebuilt Steel parts in the flooring on the suspended ways and approaches are still to be replaced, and approaches and ramps on both ends of the bridge are to be rehabilitated and painted.

That work is expected to end by 1995. But massive congestion is predicted for Tillary which feeds entrances to the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges two blocks apart, when Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridge lanes are shut down. The Hamilton is not one of the four Harlem River bridges to be partially closed for repairs. Those are the Washington Bridge, a stone's toss north of the Hamilton, and the University Heights, McCombs Dam and 145th St bridges. The four crossings handle a total of 171,800 vehi-cle trips each workday, slightly less than half of the trips to and from the Bronx daily over nine Harlem River bridges.

The Washington Bridge repairs will interfere with Major Deegan Expressway traffic passing underneath, Schwartz said. "We have to protect the roadway from falling debris," he said. A protective cocoon over that stretch of expressway is being considered, he said. imp on quality Because it pays the big share, the federal government gets to approve designs before handing over the cash. "The feds want a 30-year design life," or quality of construction that would last for at least 30 years, Zandalasini said.

"We want more than 30 years, so we're paying forthat ourselves. We want to top the roadways with two inches of high-density concrete and ep-oxy, so we might get 50 years of life, but the feds didn't want to pay for the high-priced epoxy. We're paying for it ourselves. It costs about $150,000 to protect a bridge that may have cost $2 million to repair." The bill just to fix up the four East River bridges will add up to more than $797 million. Zandalasini estimated.