“The door is just opening, and it will be open for years,” says new Tappan Zee Bridge spokesperson Brian Conybeare on job opportunities to come with the newly approved multi-billion rebuild project.
Conybeare assured Patch that these jobs would not only come, but in abundance and diversity.
Unlike projects of this scope in the past when the team is ready to go with all their subcontractors in place, this project, notes Conybeare, was approved at only "20 percent design."
Meaning there’s many more months of design work to be done before any official construction begins, with many subcontracting jobs left to be filled.
In fact, Conybeare says only a small percentage of these subcontractor positions are hired out, leaving “a ton of opportunities out there.”
Just what sort of jobs and how many?
Although he couldn't offer numbers at this point, he said the positions will be “very wide ranging” from manual labor to office work: they will be looking to hire accountants, security guards, iron workers, “all kinds.”
, was just selected several weeks ago and will meet the public officially Monday night at the Tarrytown Marriott at 7 p.m. Here they plan to talk more specifically on job opportunities and present a more vivid idea of what’s to come, though some of the answers will remain necessarily vague for now.
“They just got notice to proceed two weeks ago," said Conybeare, "so they’re not about to hire this week. Things will become more clear in days and weeks to come. The window is wide open on this.”
There's a job seminar this week at the Greenburgh Public Library, but Conybeare notes, “that’s not our event, but the library’s monthly forum they asked us to speak at.” He said the bridge will hold their own job seminars and fairs and make announcements on that front as information comes. Some meetings will target minorities and the disadvantaged, he said.
A rough timeline on the work in the near horizon:
- They plan to get into the water as soon as late March with test boring.
- Test pile driving by late May or June.
- Dredging within a tight three-month required window as per the FEIS, starting in August.
- There’s no official groundbreaking date set, Conybeare said.
- Design work could continue for another year.
Despite hosting 96 public meetings already under his brief tenure, Conybeare said they will keep at it to continue to give the public more information as it comes and get feedback.
So far, we know the bridge's price tag ($3.14 billion) and its footprint but many particulars within that framework have yet to be determined.
Tonight, it's time to meet the design team "we'll be spending the next five years with," Conybeare said.
