By DEBBIE ROSEN
Keyspan Energy is responsible for some of the work, placing new ducts into ten-inch trenches on smaller, local roadways. Pipes filled with communication cables will be installed into the ducts, and the new will help control electrical and gas information to Keyspan, sending it via fiber-optic lines to the Barrett Power Station on McCarthy Road in Island Park.
Although the company would not say how much the project will cost, Jason Cohen, vice president of Keyspan Communications, said it will be mitigated by various companies utilizing the fiber-optic lines.
"We open the streets once and drop the lines," said Mr. Cohen. "The benefits here will not be just for Keyspan, but for phone companies, DSL lines for computers, and these companies will pay additional taxes to the community."
Keyspan began the work during summer and is expected to finish in several months, weather permitting. Motorists can plan on each roadway being worked on to be closed for up to two days. On Weidner Avenue in Oceanside between Yost Boulevard and Messick Avenue, Hawkeye Construction dug a ten-inch trench just before 8 A.M. Dec. 6. Crews sealed up the street and the job was completed just after 5 P.M. the same day.
Within the next two to three weeks, Weidner, Messick, Bayside and Woods avenues and Court Street are to undergo construction. During the early weeks of January, lower Lincoln Avenue, Fulton and West Cortland avenues and Long Beach Road will be torn up. Because of the length of the roads, work on Fulton Avenue and Long Beach Road is expected to last more than two or three days.
Residents will be notified in advance by fliers placed on house doors.
Along with local roads ripped up by Keyspan, Nassau County is in the midst of its Traffic Signal Upgrade Project, causing the road near Oceanside High School to be covered with construction crews and trucks. Brower Avenue is just one street affected by the work, which will improve roads in Oceanside, Rockville Centre and Baldwin. The project will modernize the current traffic-signal system by placing under sidewalks fiber-optic lines that will lead to the traffic signals. These fiber-optic lines will then be hooked up to the main system in Mineola.
Patricia Audinot, assistant regional director of the state transportation department, said new, fiber-optic cables will act more efficiently, as well as improve pedestrian safety by allowing more time to cross roadways. Work began on the 5.6 miles of roads in July, and the entire project is scheduled for completion in August 2001. A total of 33 traffic signals will be updated along Atlantic Avenue, Oceanside Road, Brower Avenue and Long Beach Road in Oceanside. Other traffic signals on Lakeside, Center, North Village and Hempstead avenues will also be brought up to date.
According to the state DOT, phase one of the project, the tearing up of sidewalks, is nearly completed. Residents will see the work on Brower Avenue, from Davison Avenue to Ayers Place, finished by year's end. Phase one on the east side of Oceanside Road, from Mott Street to Davison Avenue, and the north side of Davison Avenue, from Oceanside Road to Brower Avenue, are already done.
