Sunrise set for night roadwork

Construction on a three-and-a-half mile stretch of Sunrise Highway has begun — and business owners and residents along the thoroughfare think it will be a great benefit once it’s all done.

Work on the $6.7 million westbound project began at Harrison Avenue in Freeport on May 5 and will continue to Broadway in Lynbrook. The $9.2 million eastbound project began on May 19, and crews started working on Sunrise at Harrison in Freeport and will make their way to the Wantagh Parkway.

Lynbrook Mayor William Hendrick said he is happy to see the work done on Sunrise Highway because of its potholes and generally poor condition. “It’s a great asset to our village,” Hendrick said. “It cleans up Sunrise Highway, which has been a little rocky lately.”

Bill Gaylor, the Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of government affairs, said that because the construction will be going on at night, there should be no adverse effect on the local business. In fact, he said there should only be a positive impact on business once the construction is completed.

“The better condition the road is in, the better it is for all of us,” Gaylor said. “I applaud the Department of Transportation for taking the initiative.”

Greg Zizzo, a driver for Cancos Tile in Lynbrook, agreed that the construction will not hurt business. “It’s happening at night, so it’s not really going to affect us,” he said.

Lynbrook Department of Public Works Superintendent Phil Healy said that the village’s only involvement with the work was in its planning. He said that a main goal was to make Sunrise Highway safer for pedestrians. “There’s always things you can do to make it nicer and calm down traffic,” he said.

According to Healey, there will be improvements to nine pedestrian signals by increasing their visibility and adding enhanced crosswalk countdown signals. There will also be increased pedestrian ramps to make them more accessible and safer. Healey said the plan is to add more crosswalks through the center island of Sunrise Highway.

To minimize the impact of construction on motorists, pedestrians, residents and businesses, the majority of the work will be performed in stages on shorter sections of the highway from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., officials said. Night construction is scheduled for Sunday through Thursday in the eastbound direction, and Monday through Friday in the westbound direction.

While the resurfacing work will take place at night, some tasks, such as cleaning catch basins, will be performed from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Officials added that at least one lane will remain open at all times. DOT officials suggested that motorists consider alternate routes, such as Merrick Road, to avoid slow traffic — especially around 10 p.m. They added that drivers are being alerted about construction operations by overhead electronic signs.

The local work, which began this week, is part of the state’s Sunrise Highway Pavement Improvement Project. Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald said that roughly $16 million has been allocated for construction on New York Route 27 along two stretches of the highway, which state officials said has seen serious wear and tear from traffic and the heavy snowfalls of the 2013-14 winter.

“This project means a major improvement for the pavement along Sunrise Highway, resulting in a smooth ride for motorists who have had to deal with rough road conditions caused by the unusually harsh winter,” McDonald said in a statement. “Under the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, we are putting drivers first, ensuring roadwork disruptions are kept to a minimum, and providing a safer, smoother ride for the more than 50,000 drivers who use this section of Sunrise Highway each day.”

DOT spokeswoman Eileen Peters said construction would include removing the worn top layer of pavement on all eastbound and westbound travel lanes, making base repairs, cleaning catch basins, removing unused manhole covers and installing a new asphalt overlay. Traffic signal vehicle detectors will be replaced, and new pavement markings will be laid, she said.

Peters noted that this project was planned several years ago, as state officials said the 8.6 miles of road targeted in the eastern and western projects were identified as needing improvement based on the DOT’s normal pavement evaluation process. The constant snowfalls and icing throughout this past winter made the Sunrise Highway Pavement Improvement Project all the more urgent, she said. 

“Our crews had been out in Nassau County virtually every single day all through winter when weather allowed it, making repairs after the constant freezing and thawing of ice and snow,” she said. “This particular roadway was hit very hard, as were most roadways on Long Island. It was good foresight that this project had been planned.”

The Sunrise Highway Pavement Improvement Project should be completed by the end of the year, Peters said. Posillico Civil, Inc., a Farmingdale-based company, and Intercounty Paving, Inc., of Hicksville, are working on both projects.