Danger? That’s water under the bridge: Cuo

Gov. Cuomo wanted to make one thing perfectly clear Sunday: The new bridge named after his dad is not in any danger from a collapse of the neighboring Tappan Zee Bridge it replaced. Motorists, on the other hand . . .

One day after safety concerns postponed the planned opening of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the governor tried to clarify the danger posed by a sudden toppling of the Tappan Zee into the Hudson River.

“If you have traffic on the new span and the old bridge were to collapse or part of it was to collapse or part of it was to fall in the water, or part of it was to hit the new bridge, that could be a public-safety issue,” Cuomo said. “You have cars driving down the new span and all of a sudden they see part of a bridge fall, somebody could panic, there could be car accidents, etc.

“If a piece of the old bridge actually hit the new bridge, obviously that would be a problem,” he added.

Cuomo’s explanation, made during a news conference in his Manhattan office, came in the wake of Saturday’s embarrassing announcement by the state Thruway Authority that the eastbound span of the $4 billion bridge named after his dad, a three-term governor, didn’t open as planned. It is now expected to open next Tuesday.

Workers heard a “loud pop” while dismantling the old Tappan Zee Bridge late Friday afternoon, raising the possibility that it was no longer stable and could potentially topple north onto the eastbound span.

Hours earlier, Cuomo — a longtime fan of vintage American cars — drove former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 Packard across the eastbound span to celebrate its planned opening. The westbound span opened in August 2017 and currently carries traffic in both directions.

Republican gubernatorial candidate and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro accused Cuomo of rushing to open the second span ahead of his Thursday Democratic primary battle with former “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon.

“My campaign has knowledge of at least two whistleblowers who came forward earlier to express concerns that the Governor’s political calendar was driving the bridge’s construction schedule,” he wrote in a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board.

An NTSB spokesman said its authority was limited to investigating “transportation accidents,” and noted: “Other state and federal organizations are responsible for approving, evaluating and monitoring the construction and maintenance of bridges.”