Cuomo Will Debut Phase One Of New Kosciuszko Bridge With 'Spectacular' Light Show Thursday

Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning to celebrate the opening of half of the new Kosciuszko Bridge Thursday night with a 'spectacular' Top 40-coordinated LED-light show, his office confirmed Monday. The plan, first reported by the Daily News, is significantly less pyrotechnical than the old Kosciuszko Bridge implosion planned for Summer 2017.

The Queens-bound span of the bridge will be open to traffic in both directions on Thursday, according to Cuomo's office. The aforementioned implosion will clear the way for the bridge's second phase, which will begin construction this May.

The new bridge in its entirety is scheduled for completion by 2020, with five Queens-bound lanes on one span, and four Brooklyn-bound lanes plus a bike lane/walkway on the other. Until then, the Queens-bound side of the bridge will carry three lanes of traffic in both directions, connecting Greenpoint to Maspeth on the Queens side.

Thursday's LED show will be the first "performance" in Cuomo's New York Harbor of Lights project, a larger plan for LED-illuminate bridges across the city announced last October. Cuomo, who is a big fan of large-scale infrastructure projects (available funding notwithstanding), waxed on the "limitless" possibilities of illuminated bridges: as eye candy, and as tourist magnets.

"Just imagine the possibilities when you illuminate all of those crossings," Cuomo said at the time. "They can all be choreographed, they can all be synchronized, they can all be the same color, they can operate in series."

The lights will turn on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., and will coordinate with the spire of the Empire State Building. Cuomo will stand by the bridge for some remarks, alongside massive speakers. Tune into iHeartRadio to experience the sound-and-light show from afar.

Cuomo's office has yet to set a final date for the old bridge explosion.

LED lights will be installed on all seven MTA bridges and tunnels in NYC by May 2018, according to the Governor's Office. The full list includes the Henry Hudson Bridge, Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, RFK Triborough Bridge, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Hugh L. Carey Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, and George Washington Bridge.