On Monday, Feb. 3, the New Hyde Park Road LIRR main line at-grade crossing will be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic for seven months. It will be closed so that Third Track Constructors (3TC) can construct a five-lane roadway under the LIRR. Closing the crossing completely will reduce the roadway construction time by almost 25 percent and allow for an accelerated timeframe to reconstruct the New Hyde Park Railroad Station to accommodate 12-car trains. This will cut the time 3TC is in our neighborhood by at least six months. The VNHP Mayor has and still opposes the full closure while Garden City and Nassau County are in favor of full closure. Their cooperation netted them additional project amenities and funding opportunities.
The impacts of this closure are monumental. 3TC’s traffic engineers estimate that Covert avenue will see an increase in vehicular traffic of between 79 percent and 106 percent. The potential of 25,000 vehicles a day using Covert Avenue for seven months is very real. The impacts on my block, South 12th Street, could be as severe as when Covert Avenue was closed for months. Simple steps can be taken to mitigate the impacts. Wrong steps will make it worse.
It is important to move vehicles through the area as quickly as possible. People should be able to efficiently drive through to the Jericho Turnpike and Covert Avenue business districts, the Lake Success Quadrangle Business Center, and back home to southwest Nassau County. People driving through the immediate Village of New Hyde Park LIRR main-line area should hinder south side residents as little as possible. The more that drive through vehicles remain in the area, the more south side New Hyde Park residents are inconvenienced.
I offer some possible solutions. The potential of 25,000 vehicles a day on Covet Avenue is real. It is important to move this traffic from Jericho Turnpike to Stewart Avenue. The Covert Avenue north and south side stop signs at Sixth Avenue must be temporarily removed. Morning rush hour features vehicles backed up from Sixth Avenue to the LIRR Hempstead Line at-grade crossing. Evening rush hour features vehicles backed up from Sixth Avenue to Jericho Turnpike. The sign at southbound Covert Avenue and Fifth Avenue that indicates there is a stop sign 160 feet away is a hazard and should be removed. Several rear-end accidents have already occurred at this location because drivers have mistaken the sign for a stop sign and at the last seconds slammed on the brakes.
New Hyde Park Road must be closed at the south side of the intersection with Jericho Turnpike. Why? People will drive to Plaza Avenue and make a right then a left onto Herkimer then a right onto Second Avenue. Then what? Massive gridlock. What about trucks that use Plaza Avenue west of New Hyde Park Road? Temporarily make South 16th Street and South 17th Street one-way south roads, and South 18th Street and Hoffman Road one-way north roads. Trucks will only drive-through in or out – not both ways on the same street. Once New Hyde Park Road is done two-way traffic can resume.
Installing speed bumps and or a partial closure of South 12th Street is not needed. The northbound South 12th Street at Fourth Avenue stop sign is completely unnecessary. The traffic on South 12th Street, my block for 54 years, needs to be moving through as quickly as possible. My South 12th Street neighbors and I are going to be slammed by traffic again, but the faster this project is completed the faster all of New Hyde Park will benefit tremendously.
I respectfully request that the Village of New Hyde Park Mayor consider these suggestions, engage his board members and the many thoughtful constituents who are eager to find solutions that may not be realized unless adjustments are made with all due diligence, flexibility and a nimbleness sometimes not exhibited by the government closest to the people.
