The Details On How They'll Fix County Road 39

By Fred Katz

The highway construction which will begin in September will affect travel from the end of The Sunrise Highway for six miles east to North Sea Road and County Road 39. It is hoped it will be finished by Memorial Day 2008, though it is estimated that the workers will be operating on the road until 2011, which is the unofficial final completion date for the project.

Most people running the construction site anticipate the funding to be somewhere at the higher end of $40 million to $60 million. According to Chief Engineer for the Suffolk County Department of Public Works Bill Hillman, there is much more government funding needed in order to finish the project. Hillman, along with Southampton Town Supervisor Patrick Heaney, hopes that the town of Southampton will put enough money into the project in order to finish by the completion date sometime in 2011.

Currently, there is only a westbound, two-lane highway between North Road and the intersection of Montauk Highway and County Road 39. The objective for the construction is, by that completion date, to build an identical two-lane highway going eastbound, to help New Yorkers get out to their country houses faster.

The renovation does not only include this identical two-lanes, but also more u-turn possibilities for the convenience of even more drivers on the road. Currently, drivers can go miles without hitting a u-turn point, which can send them off course and frustrate them. The draft for the new road shows more u-turn points along the highway. By the end of the overhaul, there are going to be u-turn possibilities at the intersections of County Road 39 and Shrubland Road, County Road 39 and Greenfield Road, County Road 39 and Tuckahoe Lane, County Road 39 and Magee Street and County Road 39 and Hubbard Street. According to Hillman. The goal is to have a turn around opportunity once every mile on the road.

The delay times at the traffic lights of Magee Street and Hubbard Street, which are well-known for making drivers wait for an extended amount of time, will be shortened. Also, adding a stoplight to Tuckahoe Lane is not out of the question. As councilwoman Linda Kabot pointed out, there is no traffic light at the conversion of Tuckahoe Lane and County Road 39. As a mall and a condominium complex are being built there, this could become more and more of a hazard and cause more and more congestion in the highway. It will become even more of a safety hazard for pedestrians crossing the street there. Although Supervisor Heaney has not commented on adding another traffic light, he does agree with the councilwoman's point and has not ruled out the possibility of building a small footbridge over the highway for people to cross.

With the construction of the roads comes the modernization of the roads. Although most of the construction on the highway will simply consist of repair and renovation, some of it will bring parts of the East End into the Twenty-First Century. In the 1600s, certain roads in Southampton were given to town trustees as property. Until today, these people have been grandfathered into caring for the roads, as the government has no right to take this land away from their families. However, now, the trustees are willing to donate the western part of Inlet Road East, which was given to their families 400 years ago, in order for the construction to be performed on it. Currently, The western part of Inlet Road East is just a small dirt path. However, according to Public Transportation and Traffic Safety Director Tom Neely, the town of Southampton plans to pave the road. Neely also says that another road will be build in order to connect Inlet Road to Inlet Road East.

Hopefully, the town of Southampton will be able to meet its interim completion date of Memorial Day, 2008. However, with setbacks, this construction could extend over the summer, possibly until Labor Day of 2008 or later. And that will not be good.

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