Ahead of the Primary, Cuomo Administration Offered Sweeteners to Get New Bridge Open

NEW YORK — The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered the contractor building the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge enticements to meet a late August deadline to open, including the possibility of absorbing extra costs and reducing their responsibility for potential traffic accidents, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times.

The eastbound span of the bridge in the New York City suburbs was to have opened Saturday, and the day before, Cuomo held an elaborate ceremony that included a laudatory speech by Hillary Clinton.

The event was one in a parade of infrastructure-related achievements he has touted as the Sept. 13 Democratic primary against Cynthia Nixon has neared, including plans for a third track of the Long Island Rail Road and a revamped entrance to Pennsylvania Station.

But the bridge over the Hudson River did not open as planned.

Engineers worried that a “potentially dangerous situation” had developed involving the neighboring old Tappan Zee Bridge, which had destabilized and threatened to affect traffic on the new eastern span of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. The destabilization was unrelated to the construction of the new span, which is now expected to open as soon as Tuesday, weather permitting.

Cuomo’s political opponents, including Nixon, accused the governor of pushing for the bridge to be fully open ahead of Thursday’s primary, with the Republican candidate, Marcus Molinaro, saying “the bridge was opened to meet Gov. Cuomo’s political timetable without regard to public safety.” He called for a federal inquiry and said he knew of two unnamed officials involved in the construction who had raised concerns in advance.

The governor and his administration have denied playing a role in the timetable for the bridge’s opening. “We didn’t make the decision on the opening of the new span. The contractor did,” Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday. Cuomo mocked those accusing him of political motivation by saying it was as “nonsensical” as him saying “the world is flat.”

But in July, Cuomo’s administration was involved in negotiations about the timing of the opening. The letter obtained by The Times, dated July 18, was sent from Jamey Barbas, the state official at the New York Thruway Authority overseeing the bridge project, to Terry Towle, the president of Tappan Zee Constructors, the contractor.

“I am directing Tappan Zee Constructors (TZC) to complete all necessary work” for the new span to open on Aug. 24, 2018, Barbas wrote. She offered to absorb “premium additional costs” and absolve the contractor of responsibility for accidents that might occur if bridge work was continuing while traffic flowed.

“The authority will not hold TZC responsible for any traffic incidents(s) or damage to the work that results from shifting traffic on the bridge while all elements are not fully complete as permitted by this letter,” the letter said.

Barbas, in an interview, disclosed that the contract deadline for the bridge, which connects Rockland and Westchester counties, had been set more than a year earlier, for the span to be completed as of Aug. 15, 2018.

By July, she said it was clear the contractor would need more time, in part because of severe weather. She said the 10-day extension, part of the contract, was “my good-faith effort to help them get there.” Some administration officials disputed the notion that the concessions amounted to incentives, and Barbas described them as part of the normal give-and-take between the state and its contractors.

“The reality is the incentives didn’t go,” Barbas said, explaining that no additional costs were incurred as the bridge was completed by early September. She later said that her letter did not “suggest incentives.”

She declined to say whether Cuomo’s senior staff were directly involved during the interview. In a statement later, she said of the negotiations with the contractor, “I did so without advising or in consultation with anyone in the governor’s office.”

The contractor, TZC, did not answer questions and only said in a statement that the firm told the state that traffic could begin on Sept. 7 — the exact day of Cuomo’s event on the bridge. (The governor crossed the span in style, driving a 1932 Packard convertible once owned by Franklin D. Roosevelt to the “grand opening.”)

The bridge has become a flashpoint in the final days of the primary, with Cuomo’s rivals accusing him of putting politics above public safety.

Matthew Driscoll, the executive director of the New York Thruway Authority, which has responsibility for the bridge, called that a “black helicopter conspiracy theory” that is “wholly disproved on the facts.”

“The contractual date of Aug. 15 was set years ago before any thought of a Democratic primary ever existed in any rational mind,” he said.

Cuomo’s rivals have noted he is known as a hands-on executive and has been particularly invested in the new bridge. At its pageantry-filled opening ceremony, he grew emotional as he recalled his intense relationship with his father, for whom the span is now named.

Days earlier, Cuomo had taken a boat tour inspecting the new bridge. “We’ve been accelerating the second span. And Jamey and Matt and the entire team have been doing everything they can to shave time because the sooner we open the bridge, the sooner the traffic comes down,” he said, referring to Barbas and Driscoll. “And the sooner people get to enjoy what we’ve done.”