The Orient community stands united in its opposition to a freight transportation plan that would divert an estimated 3,000 trucks per year off I-95 and onto Long Island roads via the Cross Sound Ferry’s New London to Orient water route.
Every arm in the room shot up when Orient Association president Bob Hanlon asked for a show of hands in opposition to the plan. The vote followed an information session and discussion among local elected officials or their representatives and the 100+ people who filled Poquatuck Hall to capacity this morning for the hastily called meeting.
Orient Association representatives will attend a public meeting Wednesday in Manhattan to register the community’s staunch opposition to the plan.
“It can only be described as a bone-headed idea,” Southold Supervisor Scott Russell told the standing-room-only crowd.
The idea is not new. It was also included in the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council’s 2010 Regional Freight Plan and was selected by the U.S. Maritime Administration as part of the “America’s Marine Highways Funding Program.”
Russell said it’s “disturbing” that the Cross Sound Enhancement Project “even found its way into” the regional freight plan, “because that implies the support of NYMTC and the [New York State] DOT.”
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. The project would improve Cross Sound Ferry vessels to increase the number of trucks they could transport and reduce emissions from the vessels’ engines.
A Cross Sound Ferry Services representative told Hanlon the company is not looking to expand its boats to accommodate more trucks, the association president reported. The enhancement project was intended to upgrade the boats to reduce impacts on air and water quality, Hanlon said the company representative told him.
But the description of the project in a document on the Maritime Administration’s website also highlights other types of improvements.
“One of many public benefits offered by this project is improved livability through reduction of traffic in highly congested urban centers,” according to the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. “Other benefits include emissions reductions, energy savings and land-side
transportation infrastructure maintenance savings,” the Maritime Administration says on its website.
“Clearly the people that drafted this plan never spent one day traveling from Orient Point to 495,” Russell said.
“The lack of local knowledge is what fueled this,” he said, pointing out that the truck route the plan is suggesting features a railroad trestle that makes the road impassable by 18-wheelers.
“We need to make sure they get local knowledge,” Russell said to loud applause.
The supervisor said he’s already sent a letter of opposition to NYMTC, outlining his objections to the proposal, including: the rural nature of local roadways, lack of infrastructure and serious safety concerns for residents whose homes are as little as 30 feet from the road, as well as pedestrians and bicyclists.
County Legislator Al Krupski said he and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone are firmly opposed to the proposal. Bellone, it turns out, is actually a member and co-chair of the nine-member council. Council member are the county executives of Suffolk, Nassau, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties, the chairman of the MTA, the NYC planning director and the commissioners of the NYC and NYS departments of transportation.
But Bellone wasn’t aware of the project, Krupski said, and immediately voiced opposition to it.
“The NYMTC program, finance and administration committee will consider this plan at its April 22 staff meeting. At this meeting I will urge removal of the Cross Sound Enhancement Project from the regional freight plan and will not vote in favor of the plan until it is removed,” Bellone wrote yesterday in a letter to the NYMTC staff member coordinating review of the plan.
In a letter to the Orient Association which Krupski delivered to the group this morning, the county executive said the Cross Sound Enhancement Project was Bellone included in the plan without consultation with NYMTC or the local community, which he commended for “unearthing this footnote which may have served as the basis for poor planning and poor public policy.”
Mark Woolley, an aide to Rep. Lee Zeldin, told the crowd the congressman is opposed to the plan, which he believes to be “ill-advised.” Zeldin, who serves as vice chair of the infrastructure subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee pledged in a statement read by Woolley to “work hard to prevent this scheme” that will adversely affect his constituents.
East Marion Community Association president Robin Imandt said she intended to poll her membership at a meeting also taking place this morning but felt “pretty confident” the group will also oppose the project. [The EMCA later voted to oppose the plan, Imandt said this afternoon.]
Community members present used words like “appalled” to describe their reaction to the proposal and wondered aloud what other — as-yet undisclosed — long-term plans affecting the North Fork might be secreted away in other volumes in NYC, Albany or Washington.
Homes dating back to the 17th century line Main Road, often quite close — within 20 or 30 feet — to the roadbed.
Road conditions and safety were other topics that worried residents.
“According to the New York State DOT, one fully loaded 18-wheeler does the same amount of damage to a road as 9,600 cars,” said Bud Griffiths, a Main Road, Orient resident, a statement that drew gasps from the audience. Griffiths, a retired state trooper, asked who would be weighing these trucks. “Unless they are being weighed they will load them so they weigh 150,000 pounds,” he said. “The state would need to put a scale here somewhere,” Griffiths said.
“There is no median,” said Carolyn Peabody of Orient. Oncoming headlights are blinding on the two-lane road, she said. The headlights of oncoming tractor-trailers are even worse, she said.
Barb Pfanz of East Marion said she hopes the proposal might be “the straw that
breaks the camel’s back. It might finally make the powers-that-be realize we need an alternate transportation hub away from the North Fork, which is the last bastion of life on Long Island,” Pfanz said. “We have to protect it. It’s just a pity that in NYC they don’t hear this,” she said.
“From greed and ignorance, they will run us over.”
An overview of the proposed freight plan will be presented at two public meetings on Wednesday, March 18, at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., at the NYMTC offices at 25 Beaver Street, Suite 201, N.Y., N.Y. 10004. The agency asks people who wish to attend to “RSVP” by calling 212-383-7200 or writing to Shawanna.Brown@dot.ny.gov.
Interested persons may attend online webinars on Wednesday, March 18 at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Register for the 3 p.m. session here.
Register for the 6:30 session here.
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
