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County officials will host a public meeting via Zoom, to discuss a planned project on North Sea Road, on March 28 at 7 p.m. KITTY MERRILL
With at least three local lawmakers still aghast and irked by the news of an extensive, two-year Suffolk County project to install sidewalks on County Road 39 in Southampton, the county’s Department of Public Works announced a second project — one that likely means more traffic turmoil on the horizon.
Thanks to federal infrastructure aid, they’ll be undertaking a road reconstruction project targeting North Sea Road. It’s slated to run all the way from County Road 39 in Southampton to the intersection with Noyac Road, a distance of some 2.6 miles.
DPW officials will host a public meeting, via Zoom, on the North Sea Road project on the evening of Tuesday, March 28, at 7 p.m. County Legislator Bridget Fleming is co-hosting the meeting.
The DPW is in the final design stage of the project. It includes resurfacing and installing continuous curbs and sidewalks throughout the corridor, and upgrading pedestrian accommodations in accordance with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.
Existing traffic signals at intersections with County Road 39 and Sandy Hollow Road will be upgraded. A new traffic signal will be added at North Sea Road’s intersection with North Sea-Mecox Road, a tenth of a mile from the light where Sandy Hollow Road merges into North Sea Road.
Drainage improvements are planned to alleviate flooding throughout the corridor and eliminate direct runoff to Alewife Creek, according to an advisory announcing the meeting.
The improvements will follow on the heels of a $9.6 million, two-year project on County Road 39. It was the subject of a March 6 public meeting and entails the installation of sidewalks on both sides of the road from Tuckahoe Road to Boathouse Road on the north side and to the Sunrise Highway merge to the south. That work will mean alternating lane closures throughout the course of the project, but one lane in each direction will always remain open, officials said. They said their work schedule will be crafted to avoid peak commuter times and is slated to commence this fall.
“As someone who has sat in standstill traffic at the canal in the afternoon on a weekday because of a single lane closure for tree trimming, I can tell you unequivocally that there simply are no ‘off-peak’ travel times during the day on CR 39,” Southampton Town Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara wrote in a letter to Fleming last week.
McNamara wrote the legislator expressing concern about the project. She asked that the work be undertaken at night, and noted officials said they’d have to poll residents in the area about whether night work would be too disruptive. “No one polled the businesses owners who will have their livelihoods impacted by this work for two years, or the thousands of commuters who will see their already difficult commute impacted further,” she said.
Pointing out that town officials have been striving to find strategies to handle congestion on County Road 39 and Montauk Highway, the councilwoman said she was “completely dismayed” the town was not included in the planning of the project.
Additionally, she said sidewalks cut into the narrow shoulder along the road still would be dangerous for people walking to a bus stop or trying to cross the busy road. The county bus currently makes several stops in the travel lane, slowing down traffic, because there are no shoulders or carve outs.
“This plan does nothing to address that situation,” McNamara asserted. “I have grave concerns about pedestrians being trapped on a sidewalk by a 3-foot retaining wall or a 4-foot chain link fence should a car leave the roadway, which is only 6 inches from the proposed sidewalk,” the lawmaker wrote.
Chris Fiore, the mayor of North Haven Village, was less careful in wording his reaction to the idea.
“I don’t know who benefits from the [County Road] 39 sidewalks — this is like Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘39 Steps,’ it’s a fascinating mystery to me,” he said.
“It’s $10 million!” he exclaimed, emphasizing the word “million.” “I can’t imagine all the good we could do with $10 million that actually means something and makes a difference.”
Like McNamara, he thinks bus shelter carve-outs, plus more bus shelters, are a more reasonable alternative. “To me, it’s an ill-planned, not at all thought-out situation,” he said. “It’s a preposterous proposal, and it’s so tone deaf, I’m gobsmacked.”
Southampton Village Trustee William Manger called the County Road 39 project “a ludicrous idea.” Repaving the road will cause enough upheaval — the addition of the sidewalk will “just be too much,” he said.
By Tuesday, March 21, the Village Board had drafted a letter to county officials in opposition to an idea the lawmaker said “doesn’t make a lot of sense.” According to Manger, four of the five members had signed off, and he was waiting to hear from Trustee Robin Brown.
“Some of that money could be spent on a more reasoned approach to try to determine how best to help alleviate the traffic problems that we have rather than to do something that’s going to contribute more to the traffic problems on County Road 39,” Manger concluded.
