Five bidders have reached out to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and expressed an interest in building the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

NYSDOT, along with the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), announced Tuesday that four of the five bidders are qualified for the job after undergoing "a thorough multi-agency technical review," officials said.

The four design-build consortiums deemed suitable are:

• Hudson River Bridge Constructors (a group including Dragados USA, Inc., Flatiron Constructors, Inc., Samsung C&T, E&C Americas, Inc., and Yonkers Contracting Company, Inc.)  

• Kiewit-Skanska-Weeks Joint Venture (Kiewit Infrastructure Co., Skanska USA Civil Northeast Inc., and Weeks Marine, Inc.)  

• Tappan Zee Bridge Partners, a Bechtel/Tutor Perini Joint Venture (Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation and Tutor Perini Corporation)  

• Tappan Zee Constructors (Fluor Enterprises, Inc., American Bridge Company, Granite Construction Northeast, Inc., and Traylor Bros., Inc.)

NYSDOT and NYSTA will now issue a request for proposal to each consortium, which requires them to submit a preliminary plan for building the span.

"After design-build proposals are submitted and reviewed, one of the four short-listed consortiums will be selected later this year to construct the new bridge," officials said in a press release.

Though no specific price has been hammered out yet, building the new Hudson River crossing without mass transit is expected to cost around $5.2 billion. The project will be funded by taxpayers.

"New York can now begin the single largest bridge project in its modern history," added New York State Thruway Authority Chairman Howard P. Milstein. "The eventual contract awardee will be setting a national standard for similar mega-projects that are completed on an accelerated and environmentally sound schedule."

Read what South Nyack homes may be demolished as a result here.

Read about the current bridge's shortcomings here.

Read about the possibility of a Tappan Zee tunnel here.

Read about the call for mass transit on the new bridge here.