Rallying for Nassau Expressway overhaul

About 100 residents from the Five Towns and surrounding communities, including Queens, attended a rally at Five Towns Mini Golf & Batting Range on Rockaway Turnpike in Lawrence on Oct. 5.
The idea, according to County Legislator Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence), one of the organizers of the rally, is to “keep the pressure on the state to get this done. It’s very critical.”
Kopel is seeking the complete overhaul of the Nassau Expressway — otherwise known as State Route 878 — in two areas where it is known by two different names: Rockaway Boulevard in Queens and Rockaway Turnpike in Nassau County. The entire expressway runs from the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue, in Ozone Park, Queens, to the Atlantic Beach Bridge in Lawrence.
Kopel, along with Assemblyman Philip Goldfeder (D-Howard Beach), want the expressway to be completed with its northern section, near the Belt Parkway and the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, connected to its southern portion, which runs from the Atlantic Beach to Rockaway Boulevard.
The legislators said that connection would allow traffic to bypass Rockaway Boulevard, easing congestion and ideally creating a safer emergency evacuation route. According to nycroads.com, 40,000 vehicles per day use these roadways.
New York State’s Department of Transportation has a Nassau Expressway overhaul project scheduled for 2025. The legislators are looking for the state to significantly move up its timetable. “We are standing with the community and hopefully bring attention to a problem that is, quite frankly, getting worse,” Goldfeder said.
A $6 million project is expected to begin later this month that will repair the expressway after a severe winter and upgrade drainage along the section that runs from Lawrence to the Atlantic Beach Bridge. “That is definitely important that the road gets repaired and drainage is improved,” said Village of Atlantic Beach Mayor George Pappas.