Taconic State Parkway - Engineering

Engineering

The parkway's engineering principles evolved over the four decades it took to build, with northern sections reflecting improvements in construction technology and lessons learned from the early days of construction. Some aspects of the original road remained consistent from end to end.

The Westchester County sections were laid out by the county's parks commission based on the parkways they had already designed. Its engineers later worked on the design of the upper sections. In its early days, the Taconic State Parks Commission (TSPC) did not have enough money to hire a full engineering staff, with terrain that presented some major challenges. Its engineer, E.J. Howe, on loan from the state's Department of Public Works, frequently complained about the commission's directive that he plan a route only where it had the land or expected to buy it, instead of planning a route and then buying the land. He also began negotiations with landowners, and his position was eliminated from the commission's budget after three years. His successor clashed with his superiors as well, and after he left in 1933 the commission relied on state DPW engineers for the rest of the construction.

Most of the original parkway was surfaced in reinforced concrete. Officials favored it despite its higher initial cost as compared to asphalt since it was less likely to need repair over its 50-year lifespan and reflected more light at night, improving safety. When the parkway reached Columbia County, asphalt was used instead due to its lower cost by that time. Asphalt was also used for repaving of segments to the south; today the original concrete remains only between the US 44 and northern NY 82 exits. From that point to the parkway's northern terminus, the asphalt is original.

The changes in the design of the northern Taconic also reflect higher speeds that mid-century automobiles were capable of, and improvements in construction technology. The track-equipped steam shovels that broke ground for the first section in Putnam County in 1931 were the most advanced excavators of the time. Over the next decade, the costs of moving a cubic yard dropped to almost half of what they had been in the early 1920s. Later in the parkway's development, engineers began using aerial photographs to plan the route.

The road's drainage system had some special features designed to avoid detracting from its scenic qualities. The roadway was crowned, with storm drain grates at the edge since there was no shoulder, to keep water from forming deep puddles that could cause accidents (these have been eliminated from modernized sections of the parkway in Westchester). The soft hand-fluted curbs also helped channel runoff to the basins, and in the median strips a central trench took water to underground pipes which drain into local streams.

The median strips themselves were not part of the original design on the lower sections of the Taconic, save for sections like Fahnestock State Park where designers used them to enhance the scenic capabilities of the road and create recreational opportunities. As the road was extended north during the 1930s, it became clear that the wider medians improved safety without sacrificing beauty, and starting with the NY 52 exit in East Fishkill it was made a standard element of the parkway's design.