Lighting the Nassau Expressway

To illuminate a darkened portion of Route 878, also known as the Nassau Expressway, at three major intersections — with Central Avenue, Broadway and Rock Hall Road — Nassau County acted on a request from the Village of Lawrence and loaned the municipality eight portable sets of lights.
Lawrence Mayor Martin Oliner said the lights are working as well as the village hoped. “We are looking right now at ways to remedy the problem permanently,” he said. “We are trying to work with additional resources. We’re hoping to procure state funding to fix this lighting situation.” The village is appealing to state legislators to consider fixing the lights a capital project and grant the village the necessary funding to get it done.
Such a project would require not only time and funding, but also major reconstruction of Route 878. According to village officials, in order to fix lights that haven’t worked properly since Hurricane Sandy, traffic on the highway would have to be redirected so wiring beneath the road could be repaired. Then that section of highway would have to be rebuilt.
“We are also looking at new ideas, new ways of thinking, to fix these lights, bringing in new talent to help us,” the mayor said.
The village is in charge of fueling, operating and maintaining the lights, which run on diesel fuel, according to Mary Studdert, a spokeswoman for the county’s Department of Public Works.

“The village will let us know when they’re done with them,” she said. “If the county needs the lights back for any reason, we will take them back.”
A majority of people who were asked, but declined to identify themselves, said that the lights help reduce the potentially hazardous conditions brought on by darkness, but would like to see better, permanent lighting installed.
Gail Solow, a Rockaway resident who works at the Congregation Shaaray Tefila, in Lawrence, and says she drives on the expressway every day, recalled that the problem with darkness on parts of the highway became more evident after Daylight Saving Time ended.
“After the hours changed, the lights wouldn’t come on,” Solow said. “It seems like other areas were fine, but from Central Avenue to the Atlantic Beach Bridge, the lights were dark.”
The lights have improved conditions for motorists and pedestrians, she said, but not as much as permanent repairs might. “A man was hit by a car a few days ago,” she said. “With the darkness, I can see how this could have happened. The portable lights are helpful, but not enough.”
Theodore Schiffman, 85, of Boca Raton, Fla., was struck by a car and killed while crossing Route 878 at Broadway on Nov. 28. The village would not comment on whether poor lighting along the road was a contributing factor.
“I think it’s a state responsibility to fix this road,” Solow said.