By GREGORY ZELLER //
From the Department of Good News and Bad News comes the latest leg of the State Route 347 Reconstruction Project – officially, the seventh stage of the decade-long road-modernization effort.
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul waved a green flag over the next phase of the multifaceted $250 million effort, this time reconstructing a one-mile stretch of the state road between Hallock Road and Nicolls Road (County Route 97) in the Town of Brookhaven.
The good news is the $44.7 million phase inches the project – which will ultimately remake about 15 miles of the busy Smithtown Bypass between State Routes 454 in Hauppauge and 25A in Port Jefferson Station – toward its finish line, and toward Route 347’s ultimate destiny as “a 21st Century multimodal boulevard,” according to the governor’s office.
The bad news is Phase Seven covers a stretch of Route 347 already notorious for traffic jams: a thick retail-restaurant-medical park corridor connecting the bustling Smith Haven Mall complex and Nicolls Road, a major north-south connector leading into the heart of Stony Brook University’s virtual cityscape.
Anthony Palumbo: Route cause.
Anyone who’s driven Route 347 during the Thanksgiving-Christmas season is familiar with this bottleneck zone. But easing traffic congestion is the whole point, according to State Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Riverhead), who joined Hochul to announce the next phase of the long-term Smithtown Bypass redux.
“The modernization of State Route 347 is a much-needed investment in our region,” Palumbo noted. “This project is a win-win for the region and an important upgrade to help make this thoroughfare a welcoming gateway to the community and Stony Brook University.”
The next-mile effort includes several upgrades designed to both relieve congestion and enhance motorist and pedestrian safety, with several considerations for mass-transit riders. Right at the top: creation of a consistent third travel lane for most of the Hallock-Nicolls stretch.
Phase Seven is also slated to include the installation of a raised stone median between the eastbound and westbound lanes, featuring indigenous Long Island plants; enhanced traffic signals, packing audio and visual pedestrian-crossing timers; and new road signage indicating speed-limit changes during peak and off-peak commuter hours.
Also on tap are recessed, solar-powered bus stops, set back from the roadway in designated “pull-off areas,” and a new section of the Parks-To-Port Greenway, a shared-use path adjacent to the roadway’s eastbound travel lanes featuring bicycle racks and shaded rest areas.
Bypass operation: The $250 million modernization project covers the roughly 15-mile entirety of the Smithtown Bypass.
While delivering on its multimodal vision, the Hallock-Nicolls stage is projected to create 580 construction-phase jobs – a great use of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, according to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who said in a statement that the Route 347 project will “create a safer conduit for our communities while creating good paying jobs in the process.”
And it’s happening “several months ahead of schedule,” noted Gov. Hochul’s office, speeding Route 347 toward one of the master project’s most challenging phases – a new bridge carrying the state route over Nicolls Road. That anticipated Phase Eight is now expected to commence in 2028, a full six years sooner than originally planned.
Albany’s infrastructure investments are “moving full speed ahead,” Hochul said Monday.
“We are reimagining the State Route 347 corridor to better accommodate the evolving needs of Long Islanders and make it easier and safer for motorists, pedestrians and mass-transit riders to travel along this important roadway,” the governor added.
