July 29, 2013 — Oysters living near the Tappan Zee Bridge will soon be on the move. With funding from New York State, 200,000 Eastern oysters are being relocated approximately three quarters of a mile south of their current location.
The Tappan Zee Bridge Project team must dredge the area in order to make room for the barges, pile drivers, and other heavy equipment that will be used for construction. Dredging is an underwater excavation process, in which bottom sediments are evaluated and disposed. The team is in the midst of a test piling program, involving 15 test pilings, which are identical to the piles that will be used to hold up the new bridge. By October, test pilings will be removed and permanent piles will begin to be installed. Dredging is slated to begin August 1st.
In order to save the oysters from being discarded with neighboring riverbed sediment, New York State has allocated approximately $100,000 to relocate the oysters. The oyster raking and relocation is part of a bigger environmental mitigation project that will cost $11.5 million.
“Our environmental permit requires certain environmental mitigation measures; the oyster relocation project is one of them,” said Brian Conybeare, special Tappan Zee Bridge Project advisor to the governor. “We are also doing wetlands enhancement, sturgeon tagging, sturgeon monitoring and a whole lot of other things to protect the wildlife in the river as a part of this project.”
Those involved with the project, such as Conybeare, were enthusiastic about the impact that they were having on the local environment. “The good news is that the Hudson River is coming back from its history of contamination. The river is getting cleaner, the oysters are starting to thrive again, and we are trying to help that process along as part of our environmental commitment.”