The MTA has approved a significant $249 million contract to implement a dehumidification system for the cables of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which is crucial for maintaining the bridge's integrity for the 220,000 daily vehicles. This initiative addresses the issue of cable corrosion, largely caused by humidity, and aims to maintain humidity levels below 40% within the cables. This is part of a broader strategy to enhance the longevity and durability of MTA's bridges, with plans to extend similar systems to additional suspension bridges in New York City.
The centerpiece of the work is a new dehumidification system for the four main suspension cables of the double-decker span, which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn.
Essentially all of those cables, the wires bound up inside those cables, suffer from corrosion over time, and it's humidity that really accelerates the corrosion.
The goal is to get us back to under 40% humidity within that tightly bound cable, and keep it there.
It's a new system for us, but it's become a widely accepted method of preventing steel cable corrosion around the world.
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