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Having gone 50 years without a paint job, Hell Gate bridge is rusty but doesn't need painting, Amtrak officials told a U.S. Senate hearing last week.
The bridge, which carries Amtrak passenger trains and Conrail freight trains from Queens to the Bronx, was the subject of a special Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
Amtrak president W. Graham Clator Jr. testified that painting the span over the East River would be costly - $43 million - and unnecessary, since it is structurally sound, despite surface rust.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and Rep. Thomas Manton, both Democrats, complained that the 73-year-old railroad bridge has not been painted in more than 50 years. And, they said, pieces of the viaduct have fallen into residents' yards and onto streets and cars.
"We are satisfied there is no problem of safety or longevity by not painting the...