Calls grow for officials to add Nicolls Road overpass to multimillion-dollar Route 347 project in Stony Brook

The ongoing reconstruction of State Route 347 through Brookhaven and Smithtown has prompted calls for the multimillion-dollar project to include an overpass at the Nicolls Road intersection in Stony Brook.

Elected officials and area residents told Newsday the chronically congested interchange — which sees extensive traffic tieups at least twice a day from Stony Brook University students and staff, Smith Haven Mall shoppers and others — needs a bridge like the one that resolved snarls when it was built three decades ago at the intersection of Nicolls and Middle Country roads in Centereach.

Plans for the Stony Brook overpass have been floated since Route 347 reconstruction began in 2010, but were never finalized, officials said.

“The main thing holding it up, of course, is always money,” Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) told Newsday, adding an overpass would add at least $30 million to $60 million to the project’s cost. “It’s an expensive endeavor to make a new overpass.”

An Oct. 31 statement from Gov. Kathy Hochul said the next phase of Route 347 reconstruction from Hallock Road in Stony Brook to Nicolls Road is “currently in the design phase.” The statement made no mention of an overpass.

Route 347 is being rebuilt in stages on a 12-mile route from Route 454 in Hauppauge to Route 25A in Mount Sinai. Sections in Hauppauge, Nesconset and Port Jefferson Station are finished or nearing completion, officials said.

The project, which is about one-third complete, has cost more than $200 million so far, state officials said in the Oct. 31 statement.

Some Stony Brook residents and Brookhaven Town officials said the state shouldn’t pass up the chance to build an overpass at Nicolls Road. 

“It’s always a bottleneck,” Bruce Sander, a leader of the Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners civic group, told Newsday, adding that if an overpass isn’t built, “it’s only going to make it worse because [drivers are] going to go from 55 mph to nothing.” 

Ambulance and fire truck drivers often are delayed for crucial minutes as they respond to emergencies or take patients to Stony Brook University Hospital, Setauket Fire District manager David Sterne told Newsday. 

“Sometimes the ambulances will just sit there with their sirens on with nowhere to go,” he said. “I think if everybody had a magic wand … [an overpass] is something that I think everybody would want.”

Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association, a lobbying group, said state officials seem “receptive” to the idea of an overpass. Herbst said he would push for funding in state budget negotiations next year.

“A lot of the people who live in that area live with that [congestion] on a daily basis, and it’s just frustrating,” he said.

Brookhaven Councilman Jonathan Kornreich said a bridge would come as a relief for the university’s more than 15,000 employees and 25,000 students.

“We’ve got 45,000 people a day on that campus,” he said. “We can’t have them stuck at the light.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.