In 2018, the new Tappan Zee Bridge officially opened to huge fanfare. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo drove across the span in a convertible, and named the bridge after his late father, Gov. Mario Cuomo.

But for months behind the scenes, workers had known about a potentially dangerous problem: dozens of bolts being used to hold pieces of the bridge together were breaking. 

In his investigation for the Albany Times-Union, Brendan Lyons reported that the problem came to light in 2016, when a bolt broke and hit an ironworker in the face. A safety manager, looking into the issue, interviewed other workers and engineers. He concluded that broken bolts were widespread, and that the contractor Tappan Zee Constructors was trying to cover up the problem.  

Lyons also reported that the state attorney general's office downplayed those allegations and the potential threat to the bridge's safety. He said the state didn't interview any of the workers or engineers he spoke to — not even the worker responsible for disposing of the broken bolts. 

"If I'm the attorney general or the inspector general, that would be like you're conducting a murder investigation and you don't interview the guy whose job it was to pick up the shell cases," he said.   

Lyons said the state hasn't made its findings public, either. 

Click "Listen" for Lyons's conversation with WNYC's Sean Carlson.