LIE Gets New Traffic Patterns Near Cross Island Pkwy.

Costing $130 million, DOT crews are currently building a series of 14 interconnecting ramps and bridges linking a two-mile stretch of highways. Their plans also call for building a needed ramp from the eastbound LIE to the southbound lanes of the Cross Island.
High on the construction agenda are the areas ecological upgrading projects along 12 acres of the adjacent Alley Pond Park. DOT workers will shortly begin constructing a series of pedestrian trails and underpasses in the park, along with area-wide drainage and reforestation programs to complement the 200 tulip trees that were saved when the States HOV lane plan was abandoned three years ago.
Construction of a new drainage system, plus the dredging and restoration of Alley Pond Park in the southeast quadrant of the giant intersection have also been scheduled. The new interchange design will allow existing park trees to be saved, and minimize storm water run-off to adjacent wetland.
CB 13 Chairman Bernard haber expects the bulk of the tie-up including work to be completed by next year.
Key to the two highways upgrading, said DOT Deputy Regional Design Engineer Jim Wilson, is the projects plan to reconfigure the spaghetti-shaped ramps that currently link the LIE and the Cross Island. Their design, he said, causes a constant dangerous criss-crossing of vehicles driving between the two roadways. These movements become even more hazardous during inclement weather or nighttime hours when visibility is more limited.
An estimated 140,000 vehicles travel along this short, but busy, corridor every day, and the fourth of July holiday could add even more headaches for commuters.
Current DOT plans call for HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes to be operational on the LIE in Suffolk and Nassau counties, right up to the Queens county line. However, two special 1.1-mile long fourth lanes in Queens will funnel traffic to and from the county line.
These lanes are necessary because a massive bottleneck would be created when the vehicles using the LIEs 40-mile long, four-laned HOV system would try to cram into the thee lanes at the Queens county line during the morning rush hours. Similarly, this system will send eastbound vehicles directly into Nassaus HOV channels starting at Exit 32, during evening hours.
Elimination of the current muddled lane alignments between the LIE and Cross Island will facilitate the movement of traffic, cut congestion, and promote a safer flow of traffic, said Wilson.
to do this, however, the two Douglaston Pkwy. Exit 31 accesses are being closed down. Eastbound LIE motorists traveling to Douglaston Pkwy. will exit at East Hampton Blvd. (Exit 30) and head east on West Valley Rd. to their destinations. Westbound motorists will exit at Little Neck Pkwy. (Exit 32) into the LIE service road until Douglaston Pkwy.
Since the resultant closures had caused local grumbling, the LIE/CIP Task Force conducted an on-site meeting last June 21 voted to accept this plan. The Task force was composed of local elected officials, CB 11 members, governmental agencies, and local activists.