As deadline for comments approaches, officials register opposition to more trucks on North Fork roads

The deadline for written comments is approaching on the regional freight transportation plan that calls for the “enhancement” of ferry services out of Orient that would boost truck traffic on local roads by an estimated 3,000 more trucks each year.

The Cross Sound Enhancement Project was originally sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Transportation as a measure to reduce traffic on the congested interstate highway that runs parallel to the Connecticut coast. It would improve Cross Sound Ferry vessels to increase the number of trucks they could transport and reduce emissions from the vessels’ engines. The idea is for tractor trailers traveling between the NYC metro region and New England to take the ferry and use Long Island roads — avoiding the “congested” Interstate 95, which travels through Connecticut to the boroughs of NYC.

The plan says it will divert 3,000 tractor-trailers off I-95. But it also means diverting the truck traffic onto Route 25 on the North Fork. That doesn’t sit well with local residents or officials.

State Sen. Ken LaValle says the plan is “ill-conceived” and called on the N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Council to withdraw it altogether. In a March 24 letter to NYMTC co-chairs Joan McDonald, commissioner of the state DOT, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, LaValle said the rural roads of the North Fork were not designed for heavy truck traffic and their use by tractor trailers would put pedestrians and bicyclists at risk.

“This proposal flies in the face of all of our transportation, environmental and sustainability efforts that so many have worked so hard to implement,” LaValle wrote.

“I cannot believe this plan has been fully explored. There is no way these rural roads can handle the influx of 3,000 trucks,” LaValle wrote.

Bellone has already registered his objections to the plan with NYMTC staff. So have First District Legislator Al Krupski and Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell.

Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said Wednesday he “strenuously objects” to the idea and had written a letter registering his objection with NYMTC.

“I can only assume you’ve never traversed the roads in Riverhead and Southold,” Walter wrote.

“In fall harvest season, it takes one hour to get from the terminus of the expressawy to the Riverhead-Southold town line,” Walter wrote.

“We wish to applaud your refforts to bring truck drivers to Riverhead to frequesnt our shopping district but I don’t think that was the plan,” he wrote.

Walter pointed out that there are really no good alternative routes for trucks besides Route 58 to Route 25. “Sound Avenue is a narrow two-lane road that’s been designated by New York State as a scenic corridor,” he wrote.

“If this plan is adopted, I would suspect the Riverhead Town Board would weight-limit Sound Avenue,” he said.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said Thursday she, too, is weighing in against the plan. Sound Avenue, she said, has already become a truck route.

“Our roads can’t take this kind of abuse,” Giglio said.

Written comments are due in writing by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31 and may be mailed to:

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council
Attn: Howie Mann
Nassau/Suffolk Transportation Coordinating Committee
Room 6A19
250 Veterans Memorial Highway
Hauppauge, NY 11788

Comments may also be sent by email to:
howard.mann@dot.ny.gov