Giant Crane dubbed ‘I Lift NY’ arrives at Tappan Zee Site

After waiting at a dock in Jersey City since January, one of the world's largest floating cranes made its debut on Monday morning at the construction site of the new Tappan Zee Bridge (TZC).

The super crane is 400-foot-long and has been nicknamed "I Lift NY". It was greeted by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who was surrounded by dozens of crane-ogling journalists and officials on a 149-passenger ferry off Piermont.

He said, "I truly love this crane. Every New Yorker should love this crane because it's saving us a lot of money, as much as a billion dollars".

Governor Cuomo made the decision to construct a new bridge over the Hudson River in order to replace the troubled and aging three-mile-long Tappan Zee Bridge. The total cost of the bridge is just under four billion dollars and it is set to be completed in 2018.

The main purpose of the crane is to raise 350-foot-long pieces of steel decking that have been prefabricated on land, and swing them into place.

The crane was positioned a half mile south of the existing bridge. According to Darrell Waters, TZC's president, on Wednesday it will pass beneath the existing Tappan Zee, which is about 139 feet above the water line. The crane will clear the underside of the deck by about three feet.

Waters said that the crane will start work this week, and construction, concentrated in the river until now, will become more vertical and visible by the end of the year.

The governor said that the state needs more information about what the toll will be when the new bridge opens in 2018.