County Route 97 (Suffolk County, New York)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

County Route 97
Nicolls Road
Length: 14.38 mi (23.14 km)
South end: CR 85 near Blue Point
Major
junctions:		 NY 27 near Patchogue
I-495 in Farmingville
CR 16 in Farmingville
NY 25 in Centereach
NY 347 in Lake Grove
North end: NY 25A in Stony Brook
County routes in New York
Suffolk County

Suffolk County Road 97, also known as Nicolls Road, is a major county road in Suffolk County, New York. It runs north and south from County Route 85 (Montauk Highway) on the border of Bayport and Blue Point to New York State Route 25A in Stony Brook. The road started out as two different main highways through two different colleges in Suffolk County.

Contents

[edit] State University of New York at Stony Brook

The oldest section of Nicolls Road was built in the early-1960's between NY 25A and the Nesconset-Port Jefferson Highway, now known as NY 347. The railroad bridge that carries the Port Jefferson Branch of the Long Island Rail Road replaced an older and narrower one over a former section of Sheep Pasture Road. County Route 97 winds through the hills of the State University of New York at Stony Brook with numerous underpasses before its descent back into suburbia. Nicolls Road bisected two sections of Oxhead Road between Sycamore Avenue and Hawkins Road.

In the mid-1970s, the driveways and pedestrian underpasses around SUNY Stony Brook were relocated in a major reconstruction project.

[edit] Suffolk County Community College

The next oldest section of Nicolls Road was built on the ground of the former Suffolk Sanitorium, which was converted into the main campus of Suffolk County Community College.

In order to reconnect the western section of Horse Block Road back to Portion Road, two side roads were built. A north-south frontage called Leeds Boulevard and an east-west street called Horse Block Place, between Leeds Boulevard and College Road.

An interchange with Suffolk County Road 16(Portion Road) was built in 1971.

[edit] Merging two college roads

Local streets such as Hawkins Road were reconstructed as a frontage road between Pond Path Drive and Wireless Road, while Bette Ann Drive was built as an additional frontage road along the northbound lane west to Mark Tree Road. At the intersection with Hawkins Road and Wireless Road, the southern terminus of the formerly proposed Suffolk County Road 110(A.O. Smith Turnpike) was intended to be built with an interchange. A.O. Smith Turnpike was to replace Wireless Road, and continue north of New York State Route 347, towards the vicinity of Port Jefferson Harbor leading to a possible bridge to Bridgeport, Connecticut Along with the merging of these sections was the 1971 extension south of Portion Road to the Long Island Expressway. The Division Street overpass was built in 1975, four years after the at-grade intersection was built.

The interchange with New York State Route 25 was originally built as a widened median intersection that was intended to be a cloverleaf with outer ramps that connected to local streets like North Hammond Road and South Coleman Road. After years of delays and rampant development, the interchange was finally built as New York State's first Single Point Urban Interchange in 1998.

[edit] South of the Long Island Expressway

The construction of Nicolls Road south of Exit 62 on I-495 required an extension of Long Island Avenue to Union Avenue, which was cut off by the road and turned into on-off ramps for Long Island Avenue. Two long bridges were built over the Long Island Avenue Extension, the main line of the Long Island Rail Road and Furrows Road(unmarked Suffolk County Road 90), which was formerly proposed to be built as part of a Central Suffolk Highway designed to reconnect the two broken ends of New York State Route 24 between East Farmingdale and Calverton. The rest of Nicolls Road remains a limited-access highway until reaching Greenbelt Drive East and Greenbelt Drive West, south of the interchange with Suffolk County Road 19(Patchogue-Holbrook Road).

The interchange with New York State Route 27 was originally an intersection that replaced an intersection with Sylvan Avenue, which became a dirt road north of Sunrise Highway. Like the one with New York State Route 25, it was built as a widened median for the purpose of being upgraded into a cloverleaf interchange. In the 1980s it actually was built as a cloverleaf, but to the newly installed sevice roads along Sunrise Highway, which required the elimination of two nearby roadside parking areas. Many road maps still mistakenly show these parking areas.

In addition, the median at the intersection with Suffolk County Road 85(Montauk Highway) was wideded for the purpose of adding a trumpet interchange that was never built.

[edit] External links