Submitted by Best_Line6674 t3_110efp9 in nyc
iliveoffofbagels t1_j88hu6i wrote
Reply to comment by Best_Line6674 in Bronx is snubbed as MTA pursues IBX plan by Best_Line6674
>Why is there no highway tunnel/bridge from Long Island to Connecticut or somewhere in Westchester?
from wikipedia(but remember tio look up the page's cited sources for more details)
>Moses ran into a problem once the proposal was brought to the Federal Highway Administration. Opposition to the bridge was beginning to form on both sides of Long Island Sound. In addition, plans to turn the Oyster Bay area into a bird sanctuary and a protected park made working on the highway harder, as building on such protected places is forbidden by law. Faced with growing opposition, Governor Rockefeller canceled the plans for the bridge on June 20, 1973, nine years after the first proposal by Moses.[12]
.... and then more recently
> In January 2008, this idea was revived when developer Vincent Polimeni proposed building a privately financed, tolled tunnel between Oyster Bay on Long Island and Rye in Westchester County, featuring two tubes carrying three lanes of traffic each and a third tube for maintenance and emergency access. The route would connect Route 135 (Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway) on Long Island to Interstate 287 in Westchester County. It would cost between $12 and $16 billion[13] and would not be completed until at least 2025. The proposed tunnel would be 16 to 18 miles (26 to 29 km) long, making it the world's longest highway tunnel, longer than the Lærdal Tunnel in Norway.[14] A hearing on this proposal was held in Syosset on January 24, 2008.[15]
During his second term, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also proposed a tunnel connecting NY 135 to Rye. This is also a highway in two tubes and a third tube for maintenance. After a polarizing debate, the NYSDOT released a statement saying the tunnel would not be moving forward at this time.[16]
....
ultimately, many people argue against it. It's been proposed over and over in several forms, but nobody wants it, but the opposition is too strong. Fuck dude... if in the 50's we couldn't get people to be alright with making a connection from Route 135 in Oyster bay through the rest of the north shore and across to Rye, we sure as hell ain't going to do it easily any time soon with way more people living through the possible path now.
Best_Line6674 OP t1_j88mso0 wrote
That sucks a ton of baloney bricks. Why in the world would people oppose it? Who cares about what they think? Have any of them thought of the loads of traffic that would probably decrease going through half of NYC just to get to NJ? If people could just go through from Connecticut, go through Long Island, go over the Verrazzano bridge, through Staten Island, it probably would save a lot of time then going through I-95, I-87, or Bronx River Parkway just to end up in the Bronx and cross the only two bridges from Bronx to Queens (which gets traffic at times), or go to Manhattan which has traffic, taking the FDR and going over the Manhattan or Brooklyn Bridge or the tunnels.
More people going through Long Island would probably mean a lot more less traffic for all the other roads/bridges in the city, I would at least hope.
Pinuzzo t1_j89ml2e wrote
Any Oyster Bay - Stamford connection would be too expensive to build and maintain and would be too close to the existing Bronx-Queens bridges to have that big of an impact in reducing vehicle-miles traveled
Best_Line6674 OP t1_j8a93hi wrote
Sure it would be too expensive, but to close to existing Bronx-Queens bridges? Calverton is no where near the two only bridges, which gets a lot of traffic and takes up time for those trying to get into Queens easier. It would definitely have a big if an impact if cars can just get off I-95 before going into southern Westchester, besides taking up less time to travel since you'll have less traffic on the other two bridges now that the tunnel exists. Also won't have to go through all of that just to get to Queens, but instead just take the LIE to the other highways that would take you to the Verrazzano
Pinuzzo t1_j8aear7 wrote
Well the tunnel proposal was to extend NY135 from Oyster Bay to the I287 in Port Chester, nowhere near Calverton, NY and also not even connected to CT.
Southbound traffic from I95 from CT to NJ through Queens/Long Island is unlikely to relieve much congestion for anyone since all the LIE/BQE/Belt Pkwy is already near capacity anyway.
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