Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent a letter today to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking for federal assistance to build a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The letter came the same day as the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council unanimously voted to back the replacement project after county executives Rob Astorino of Westchester and Rockland’s Scott Vanderhoef decided to back the plan after reservations over not having enough information.

Cuomo writes in the letter that the vote is “the latest milestone” in moving the replacement project forward after President Obama named it one of several projects around the country as being expedited for federal review and approval.

“The state has already completed a Project Labor Agreement which will save over $450 million in labor costs, and three international deisgn and construction teams are already competing to build a bridge with a useful life of over 100 years to serve generations of New Yorkers,” Cuomo wrote in the letter.

The project to replace the bridge at the Hudson River, which links Rockland and Westchester counties, is expected to cost around $5.2 billion. Cuomo has said previously he would seek up to $2 billion from the federal government for the project.

Cuomo this summer has made a point of pushing forward on the bridge replacement, saying the decade-long discussion of building a new span has been emblematic of what was wrong with state government. Cuomo released a flurry of public officials and bold-faced names backing the bridge project, which served apply pressure on Vanderhoef and Astorino, the latter of whom is considered a potential 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate.

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