State DOT Installs Sunrise Highway Turnaround At The Request Of Inlet Road East Residents

Leaving home isn’t an easy task for residents living off Inlet Road East in Shinnecock Hills.

For years, the secondary road off County Road 39, just east of the former Lobster Grille Inn, offered no safe options for residents to make a left turn onto the busy road, explained Lorraine Duryea, a longtime Inlet Road East resident. “It’s been an ongoing tragedy for everyone there,” she said.

Until the State Department of Transportation recently installed a turn-around on the westbound side of Sunrise Highway, just west of where County Road 39 begins, it was a headache for Inlet Road East residents to get to the eastbound side of the road.

The residents had two options, according to Ms. Duryea: make a dangerous left turn over County Road 39’s four lanes, or drive nearly three miles out of their way on secondary roads to make a turn at the light at the Peconic Road intersection.

Ms. Duryea pointed out that the new turnaround will be useful for motorists who miss a turn while going to a County Road 39 business. Before the turnaround was installed, a driver had to wait for an exit to travel back east.

Ms. Duryea said she and her neighbors had pushed for years, in vain, for a traffic light to be installed on County Road 39 at Inlet Road East. The turnaround, she said, is a compromise that Assemblyman Fred Thiele came up with to appease both the homeowners and the DOT.

The turnaround—a $1.7 million project that opened on February 6—took less than two months to complete, according to DOT Spokesman Stephen Canzoneri.

“The New York State Department of Transportation is pleased that a new turnaround was constructed, giving Inlet Road area residents safer and easier access to eastbound Route 27, which they had requested,” Mr. Canzoneri said in an email.

Mr. Thiele credited the persistence of the Inlet Road East homeowners—who pitched in writing letters to lawmakers and attended meetings with engineers—with getting the project done.

“It was really driven by local residents who were having trouble in their local community,” Mr. Thiele said.