New York

[D-Dey65]

I'd love to see that link. Also the Dunton Avenue proposal makes sense. I'm guessing it'd be a similar setup as the SSP exit WB for Carleton Avenue?

Did a quick mockup of what I'm thinking:



The other part I'd like is an EB Sunrise Service Rd. east of William Floyd, bonus points if it accesses the Southport Shopping Center. It'd help with Montauk Hwy traffic.

Unfortunately it isn't like the Heckscher Parkway/Carleton Avenue interchange (not that it'd work there), and it's not like your map either. I may have to search through the history on my PC  to find the link.

I'll tell you something I do know about the eastbound service road east of William Floyd; it was designed to go around the NYSDOT maintenance yard before reaching Titmus Drive.

[Rothman]

I'm just going to leave this here and walk away...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/08/21/dix-hills-lie-rest-stop/

[cl94]

I'm just going to leave this here and walk away...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/08/21/dix-hills-lie-rest-stop/

About flipping time they built it. All I have to say.

[Duke87]

I'm just going to leave this here and walk away...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/08/21/dix-hills-lie-rest-stop/

About flipping time they built it. All I have to say.

"This isn't a good location"

Thanks to Long Island's years of building nothing but suburban development without leaving any room for the freight infrastructure necessary to support it, there is no good location. Nobody wants trucks parking near their house but they gotta park somewhere if you like eating or being able to buy anything.

What's staggering about Long Island is how it's home to well over a million people (more than most cities) and yet it has no seaport facilities (other than an oil terminal in Inwood) and basically no ability to bring freight in by rail, either.

Everything has to be trucked in through New York City, contributing to all sorts of congestion - this is why there are so many trucks on the Cross Bronx always jamming things up. It's also why during midday hours the ramp from the Clearview southbound to the LIE eastbound is a perpetual mess, because it's a twisty low speed ramp with truck after truck after truck heading over it en route to Long Island. Since there's no direct ramp from the Van Wyck and every other highway out to Long Island is a parkway, this is the way trucks have to go.
And of course, because NIMBYs don't want ugly stinky trucks anywhere near their houses, there are no real truck stops on Long Island either, forcing truckers to either head back to where they came from in one shift, or park their rigs overnight in whatever odd spot they can.

This sort of insanity is why I find myself wishing everything east of the Cross Island would just sink into the Atlantic Ocean. Long Island is beyond help. They might as well put up signs saying "abandon hope all ye who enter here".

[SignBridge]

As a lifelong Long Islander I gotta agree that Duke87 pretty much nailed it.

[cl94]

Please, if the Town of Hempstead was a city, it would be the 16th largest in the nation. Insane amount of people on the island and there's no way to get stuff there. Few things complicating matters:

-53' trailers have to go in/out via the Clearview and Cross Bronx/Bruckner. No exceptions.
-48' trailers have to use Interstates. Could theoretically take I-278 to the LIE if going to/from the south/west. Things are a little fuzzy with these and it's unclear if such a truck could go from the Van Wyck to Sunrise Highway, for example.
-Combinations under 55' total length can use truck routes as well, which include Atlantic Avenue, Conduit Boulevard, and a few other major thoroughfares.

If anything, the truck regulations are a major reason why a Long Island Sound crossing is needed. Everything would go in/out via there regardless of how much the toll is because it would be relatively unrestricted.

[Rothman]

Unfortunately, whenever anyone brings up a Long Island Sound crossing in an official setting, they usually get committed to a mental institution.

[SignBridge]

For years the main obstruction to building a Long Island Sound bridge or tunnel (besides the cost) has been the affluent North Shore population who don't want it to ruin their idyllic lifestyle, and they have the political clout. That's why it doesn't happen and probably won't in my lifetime. Shame on all of us.

[Buffaboy]

I've never been to Long Island, which is probably rare here, but if it's as long as it seems on the maps I'm surprised there isn't one rest stop.

[mariethefoxy]

They might as well put up signs saying "abandon hope all ye who enter here".

OH GOD YES. As a long islander, this place is getting worse and worse as the years go by.

[noelbotevera]

Ok, if anybody lives in Long Island, let's just hope you are NOT, I repeat NOT a rich d-bag who hates every road that exists. Otherwise if it won't work, to build the LIS bridge, I like this strategy:
1. Demolish all roads in and leading to the Hamptons
2. Give at least two months
3. If they beg and plead you've done it right.
4. Restore the roads and build the bridge

Can't believe NYC ever tried this out.

[mariethefoxy]

Ok, if anybody lives in Long Island, let's just hope you are NOT, I repeat NOT a rich d-bag who hates every road that exists. Otherwise if it won't work, to build the LIS bridge, I like this strategy:
1. Demolish all roads in and leading to the Hamptons
2. Give at least two months
3. If they beg and plead you've done it right.
4. Restore the roads and build the bridge

Can't believe NYC ever tried this out.

I live there, MOST Long Islanders if you ask them, they would love a bridge from LI to Connecticut, but its the people on the North Shore AND the people in Southern Connecticut that are opposing it.

If you look at William Floyd Parkway on the map, it ends at NY 25A and theres not a whole lot there to the north of where the highway ends, the suburban development kinda ends a bit before that. Shoreham and Rocky Point may be on the North shore but they're relatively Middle class areas, unlike the super rich areas near the top further west. The big issue there is going to be a few things:

1) Environmentalists
2) NIMBYS in Shoreham that do happen to protest
3) NIMBYS in Southern Connecticut
4) The Ferry Lobby which is another thing people don't mention, Ive heard the ferry companies (Orient-New London and Port Jeff-Bridgeport) lobbied heavily against the bridge also.

The other issue with that location is where does the bridge touch down on the New Haven side.

[The Nature Boy]

I know nothing about all about development on Long Island and only a little about New Haven but...........

What about extending I-91 across the Long Island Sound into New York, re-signing I-495 as I-91 and having it terminate at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel?

I-91 would be signed north-south in much the same manner that I-95 is through CT.

[cl94]

The most recent proposal is a tunnel between Rye and Oyster Bay. With this, I-287 would be extended through the tunnel and down the SOB. Enough cleared ROW exists on the Oyster Bay side to get started and the Rye end is practically on the water. A bridge-tunnel would make the Rye approach easier and might lower costs. This proposal has the advantage of providing an easy bypass of the Cross Bronx while still serving Nassau County.

I could also see a Bridgeport-Stony Brook crossing. Would connect Nicolls Rd and Route 8. The Sound is narrower here than it is near New Haven and it still has major highway connections on both ends. I-91 would be ideal, but it's the widest part of the Sound.

[The Nature Boy]

The most recent proposal is a tunnel between Rye and Oyster Bay. With this, I-287 would be extended through the tunnel and down the SOB. Enough cleared ROW exists on the Oyster Bay side to get started and the Rye end is practically on the water. A bridge-tunnel would make the Rye approach easier and might lower costs. This proposal has the advantage of providing an easy bypass of the Cross Bronx while still serving Nassau County.

I could also see a Bridgeport-Stony Brook crossing. Would connect Nicolls Rd and Route 8. The Sound is narrower here than it is near New Haven and it still has major highway connections on both ends. I-91 would be ideal, but it's the widest part of the Sound.

I honestly just want to get rid of I-495 in NY because it's a misuse of an even digit 3di.

You could extend I-91 through a multiplex with 95 through Bridgeport and then cross the Long Island Sound, build a connection down to the LIE and then sign it as I-91 (with everything to the east being signed as I-391).

I have an idea that I'll post in Fictional Highways

[Jim]

The best proposal I've heard (I'm sure it was just in threads on this forum, not from any official source) for an I-495 renumbering is to extend I-80 along the LIE instead.  Get it there along the Cross Bronx and one of the bridges.  Combine that with I-87 being extended along much of current I-278 and NY 440, connecting back to I-287 in NJ and you have a much-improved numbering in the NYC area, in my opinion.  Seems unlikely to happen, though.  If NY ever gets on board with mileage based exit numbering, maybe that would be the time to push for some renumberings like these.

[The Nature Boy]

NYC's interstate numbering is a total disaster. It's like someone drunkenly assigned numbers to the 3dis down there.

[cl94]

NYC's interstate numbering is a total disaster. It's like someone drunkenly assigned numbers to the 3dis down there.

They all made sense if the network was completed. Other than not connecting to the parent, I-278 and I-678 have compliant numbering. 695 and 895 are compliant. 495 was supposed to cross the Sound. 295 and 878 were added later. There is really no reason to change numbers other than to make a very insignificant portion of the population happy. And, given how NYC really only allows trucks on Interstates, they all have to remain Interstates or risk making truck travel even worse than it already is.

[The Nature Boy]

What was the original plan for I-495 crossing the Sound? I've never heard the story of why that never happened.

[Buffaboy]

Just squeezing this in, I understand bridge pouring is underway on the Utica arterial, no?

[Pete from Boston]

What was the original plan for I-495 crossing the Sound? I've never heard the story of why that never happened.

http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/eastern-sound/

[Zeffy]

What was the original plan for I-495 crossing the Sound? I've never heard the story of why that never happened.

http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/eastern-sound/

That site just does not load correctly for me...which is odd because it used to.

[cl94]

What was the original plan for I-495 crossing the Sound? I've never heard the story of why that never happened.

http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/eastern-sound/

That site just does not load correctly for me...which is odd because it used to.

I'm having the same issue.

[D-Dey65]

As a lifelong Long Islander I gotta agree that Duke87 pretty much nailed it.

I agree with everything except the line about everything east of the Cross Island sinking into the Atlantic. Plus the congestion on the Cross Bronx is the best reason to revive the Mid-Manhattan and Lower Manhattan Expressways.

Unfortunately, whenever anyone brings up a Long Island Sound crossing in an official setting, they usually get committed to a mental institution.

Ask me if I give a shit. If you've read any of my posts, you know I don't.

[cl94]

Widening the Cross Bronx wouldn't do anything unless there's another bridge between the Bronx and the island or I-95 gets widened up to New Haven. If they could dualize the Throgs Neck and improve the Clearview, that's one thing, but there are multiple bottlenecks. It's at the point where the best thing to do is build the bridge as far out as possible to get as much away from the area as possible.