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Recent stress tests indicate the Williamsburg Bridge is in muchbetter condition than expected and it may not be necessary to replaceit, engineers who monitor the bridge said yesterday. "We still have a lot more tests to complete," said Peter Sluszka, vice president of Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist and Birdsall, the company that has monitored the bridge's safety since April. "But from what we've seen so far, the bridge seems to be in much better shape than everyone thought."
Sluszka spoke outside a meeting in Manhattan of 30 engineering firms from nine countries competing to design a replacement for the crucial East River crossing.
The firms must submit their designs by March 4 to a task force of city and state transportation officials and private-sector engineers. The Williamsburg Task Force will choose as many as three winners by June 3. Then it will advise the Federal Highway Administration, which funds most major bridge projects, on whether the city should fix the bridge or replace it.
Opened in 1903, the Williamsburg Bridge carries an average of 104,000 vehicles and 415 subway trains each weekday between Brooklyn and Manhattan. A 1985...