Suffolk Notebook: County to Spend $32M on Infrastructure Fixes

Suffolk County officials will spend more than $32 million to fix ailing bridges and roadways in 2012, County Executive Steve Bellone announced on Friday.

The move, lauded by the Long Island Contractors Association, is expected to create 300 jobs related to construction work on roughly 16 scheduled projects that include fixing bridges, installing conservation systems at county facilities and resurfacing some of the county's cracked and worn roadways.

More specifically the plans include repairing and resurfacing County Road 111/Daniel Roe Highway from Sunrise Highway to the Long Island Expressway; County Road 105/Cross River Drive from Route 24 to Route 25; County Road 46/William Floyd Parkway from Moriches Middle Island Road to Route 25A; County Road 97/Nicolls Road from Furrows Road to Route 27' and County Road 19/Waverly Ave/Patchogue Holbrook Road from Route 27 to Broadway.

As for bridges the plan would complete rehabilitate the Landing Avenue Bridge, Shore Drive Embankment, Brown’s Creek Bridge and Quantuck Creek Bridge and Bulkhead.

Meanwhile emergency bridge repairs would take place at overpasses at Nicolls Road and County Road 16, County Road 99 and Waverly Ave, Sills Road and the Long Island Rail Road, and County Road 111 and East Moriches Road.

Under the $32 million plan the county will also replace traffic lights at 46 intersections, and launch a slate of energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects at county facilities, which includes changing to energy-efficient lighting and installing solar systems and green heating and cooling systems.

Red Light Cameras to Double
Suffolk plans to install 50 more red light cameras at major intersections, a move that'll double the amount of these often criticized monitoring systems to 100 in the county.

Red light cameras snap photos of drivers who run red lights at intersections, using the license plate information to send traffic violations to the drivers' homes.

However, locals have complained that the varying timing of yellow lights across the county makes this type of monitoring unfair.

According to the Long Island Press, the extra red light cameras could add $6 million in revenue annually to the county's books.

Crash Course
The Suffolk County Police plans to offer a nearly three-hour course for teens on avoiding an automobile crash, demonstrating tactics such as breaking, cornering and accelerating to avoid a dangerous wreck.

The course runs daily from July 9 to 13.

Call 631-852-6109 for more information.