Regional transportation planners may have shelved the idea of rerouting 3,000 tractor-trailers from I-95 to the North Fork but they are still looking at ways to ship freight across Long Island Sound to relieve highway congestion in New York City.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council in a draft regional transportation plan released this week includes a feasibility study for a proposed deep water port in Shoreham, to be located at the site of the abandoned nuclear power plant. Gov. Andrew Cuomo included studying a Shoreham port part of his 2016 agenda for infrastructure improvements.
The draft plan says a deep water port at Shoreham “would provide a place where cargo can arrive by ship and reduce the truck traffic currently utilizing our roads, bridges and tunnels.”
The study will “determine potential market(s), assess the viability of direct marine transfers of imports from New York City metropolitan area ports, and evaluate whether the potential advantages of the Shoreham site are sufficient to overcome any existing constraints.”
The Shoreham port study is identified as an “aspirational vision project” that is still “relatively undefined” and without identified funding sources.
“It’s just a really dumb idea,” said Sid Bail of the Wading River Civic Association. “There is no harbor there and it’s at the widest point in Long Island Sound,” Bail said. He believes a Shoreham Port will be a non-starter.
The regional plan — which covers the period of federal fiscal years 2018 to 2045 — does not identify any transportation improvement projects for East End roads, trains or buses.
It includes implementation of the final phases of the $565 million Route 347 corridor reconstruction project and bus rapid transit routes along Route 110 and Nicolls Road. It also includes the completion of the LIRR East Side Access Project and the construction of an uninterrupted second track between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma on the LIRR Ronkonkoma Branch.
The draft plan also includes a “high-level feasibility study” to evaluate potential Long Island Sound crossing locations along the
north shore of Nassau and Suffolk counties and points in Westchester County and southwestern Connecticut.
The plan’s executive summary says the draft covers all major modes of transportation from a regional perspective, including roadways, public transportation, bicycles and pedestrian facilities, goods movement and special needs transportation.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council is a metropolitan planning council mandated by federal law to regionally plan for and make decisions on the use of federal transportation funding.
The draft plan is available online at the NYMTC website.
The council has announced “public review meetings” this month, including two at the Riverhead county center. The meetings will take place in the Maxine Postal Legislative Auditorium at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. on May 23.
A 30-day public comment period began on May 1 and ends at 4 p.m. on May 30.
Comments may emailed to nymtc-public-info@dot.ny.gov or sent by postal mail to:
New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, Attn: Public Comment Period, 25 Beaver Street, 2nd Floor | New York, NY 10004
