New York State Route 27

NYS Route 27
Map of Long Island with NY 27 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by NYSDOT, NYCDOT and Suffolk County
Length:	120.58 mi[3] (194.05 km)
Existed:	mid-1920s[1][2] – present
Major junctions
West end:	I-278 in Brooklyn
	Belt Parkway in Howard Beach I-678 / NY 878 in South Ozone Park Belt Parkway in Laurelton Meadowbrook Parkway in Freeport Wantagh Parkway in Wantagh Robert Moses Causeway in West Islip Southern State Parkway / Heckscher Parkway in Islip Terrace NY 24 in Hampton Bays
East end:	Montauk Point State Park in Montauk
Location
Counties:	Kings, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk
Highway system
Numbered highways in New York Interstate • U.S. • N.Y. (former) • Reference • County ← NY 26A NY 27A →

New York State Route 27 (NY 27) is an east–west 120.58-mile (194.05 km) long state highway extending from Interstate 278 in the New York City borough of Brooklyn to Montauk Point State Park on Long Island, New York, United States. Its two most prominent components are Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway.

East of the interchange with the Heckscher State Parkway in Islip Terrace, NY 27 acts as the primary east–west highway on southern Long Island.

The entire route in Suffolk, Nassau, and Queens was designated by the New York State Senate as the POW/MIA Memorial Highway.

Every township on the South Shore is accessible through Sunrise Highway.

Contents 1 Route description 1.1 New York City 1.2 Sunrise Highway 1.3 Montauk Highway 2 History 2.1 Designation and early realignments 2.2 New York City 2.3 Long Island 2.3.1 Eastward extension 2.3.2 Older interchanges 2.3.3 Proposed interchanges and crossings 2.3.3.1 North Lindenhurst area 2.3.3.2 Oakdale Merge 2.3.3.3 Patchogue area 2.3.3.4 Southaven area 3 NY 27A 4 Major intersections 5 References 6 External links

Route description

New York City

Route 27 begins at Interstate 278 (Gowanus Expressway) in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and uses the Prospect Expressway. This road is a short sunken highway that runs southeast through Park Slope and Windsor Terrace. Due to the space constraints of building in an already-urbanized area, the highway stretches a little over 2 miles (3.2 km) and has an inconsistent entrance-exit scheme. There are two exits going towards Ocean Parkway: one at 10th Avenue and 19th Street, the other at Greenwood Avenue and East 5th Street; it has an entrance on 17th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues and another entrance on 19th Street and 7th Avenue. In the opposite direction, there are exits at Ocean Parkway and Fort Hamilton Parkway, 8th Avenue and 18th Street, 4th Avenue and Prospect Avenue, and Hamilton Avenue and Prospect Avenue; there are entrances at Ocean Parkway and Fort Hamilton Parkway, and at 11th Avenue and Terrace Place. The eastbound entrance to the road from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is closed weekday mornings to facilitate traffic entering Manhattan.

From the south end of the Prospect Expressway, which continues south as Ocean Parkway, NY 27 makes its way east to Linden Boulevard via Caton Avenue. Eastbound traffic exits at Fifth Street and makes a left onto Caton Avenue, crossing over the Prospect Expressway, while westbound NY 27 turns south on Coney Island Avenue and west on Church Avenue to meet the expressway's south end. Eastbound trucks are directed to exit earlier, at 10th Avenue, and take McDonald Avenue south to Caton Avenue.

Linden Boulevard enters Queens and merges into Conduit Avenue. Conduit Avenue soon splits as frontage roads for the Belt Parkway, running east past the north end of John F. Kennedy International Airport. Near the city line, the Belt Parkway turns north, and NY 27 becomes Sunrise Highway.

Sunrise Highway

Sunrise Highway begins in eastern Queens as a six to eight lane arterial. It heads east into Nassau County, passing through Valley Stream and Rockville Centre on its way to Merrick, where it connects to the Meadowbrook State Parkway by way of an interchange. NY 27 continues into Suffolk County, where it veers to the northeast to bypass Copiague to the north. At an interchange with NY 109 in West Babylon, Sunrise Highway becomes a six-lane expressway with two two-lane service roads. The route continues on, meeting the Robert Moses Causeway near West Islip. In East Patchogue, New York, the highway is reduced to a four-lane expressway after the NY 112 exit. Between County Route 16 in Brookhaven and CR 46 in Shirley, the median is lined with pine trees in front of South Haven County Park. The setting along these roads is similar to the one on the Southern State Parkway west of Belmont Lake State Park. The last exit that Sunrise Highway has with a state highway is near Hampton Bays, where it meets NY 24.

East of NY 24, Sunrise Highway crosses over the Shinnecock Canal and merges with County Route 39 to become North Highway, a four-lane undivided highway. The county-maintained highway continues east near the village of Southampton before ending at an intersection with Montauk Highway.

Montauk Highway

Montauk Highway is the name that NY 27 carries from just east of Southampton by the Princess Diner to the east side of Montauk, where it becomes the Montauk Point State Parkway, a Robert Moses-designed highway leading to Montauk Point State Park. This section is also shared by New York State Bicycle Route 27. It is two lanes wide, with the exception of some four-lane sections in some hamlets and the village of East Hampton. Inside East Hampton Village, NY 27 becomes Woods Lane, and then Main Street. It has an intersection with the southern end of NY 114 before entering "downtown." After passing Newtown Lane and North Main Street, NY 27 changes names once again to Pantigo Road, which is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[4] In the hamlet of Amagansett, NY 27 changes back to Main Street, before becoming Montauk Point State Parkway east of Amagansett.

History

Designation and early realignments

NY 27 was assigned in the mid-1920s and initially extended from the New York City line to Amagansett.^[1][2] It began at the point where Merrick Road exited Queens and entered Nassau County and mostly followed Merrick Road and Montauk Highway east to Amagansett. From East Patchogue to Brookhaven, NY 27 followed South Country Road instead, passing through the downtown section of the village of Bellport.^[2][5] The NY 27 designation was extended eastward along Montauk Highway to Montauk Point by 1930.^[6] On February 24, 1930, South Country Road was added to the Suffolk County highway system as County Route 36.^[7] NY 27 was subsequently realigned to follow Montauk Highway between East Patchogue and Brookhaven.^[8]

Ca. 1931, NY 27 was realigned west of Oakdale to follow Sunrise Boulevard, a new, parallel highway to Merrick Road and Montauk Highway, between the New York City line and Massapequa and several local roads from Massapequa to Montauk Highway at Oakdale. The former routing of NY 27 from Massapequa to Oakdale became NY 27A, which connected to NY 27 in Massapequa by way of County Line Road.^[9][10] Sunrise Boulevard was extended eastward to Oakdale ca. 1934 as a realignment of NY 27.^[11][12] One portion of NY 27's former routing between NY 27A in Massapequa and the Suffolk County line is known as Old Sunrise Highway and remains state-maintained to this day as NY 900D, an unsigned reference route.^[13] Sunrise Highway was built over the Brooklyn Waterworks aqueduct.^[14] Said aqueduct goes past the south side of Aqueduct Racetrack.

New York City

In December 1934, the route was extended west into New York City. NY 27 followed Sunrise Highway, Linden Boulevard, and Flatbush Avenue through Queens and Brooklyn to the Manhattan Bridge, from where it continued into Manhattan along Canal Street to a terminus at 6th Avenue (then-U.S. Route 1A and later NY 1A).^[15] The route was realigned slightly in the early 1940s to follow Atlantic and Washington Avenues, Eastern Parkway, Buffalo Avenue, and Rockaway Avenue between Flatbush Avenue and Linden Boulevard.^[16][17] NY 27 was altered again in the mid-1960s to continue west on Linden Boulevard, Caton Avenue, and Church Avenue to the south end of the Prospect Expressway. The route turned north here, following the freeway north to its end at the Gowanus Expressway (then-NY 27A), where NY 27A now ended.^[18][19] The Prospect Expressway was constructed during the 1950s, and was planned by Robert Moses.

Prior to 1970, NY 27A continued north to the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan by way of the Gowanus Expressway, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, and the West Side Elevated Highway.^[18] On January 1, 1970, NY 27A was truncated eastward to its current western terminus in Massapequa while NY 27 was extended northward along NY 27A's former routing to the Holland Tunnel, where it ended at Interstate 78 and NY 9A.^[20] However, by 1973, NY 27 was cut back to its interchange with the Gowanus Expressway while Interstate 478 was assigned to both the Battery Tunnel and all of the West Side Elevated Highway south of the Lincoln Tunnel.^[21][22]

Long Island

Robert Moses developed plans for an elevated expressway along Sunrise Highway through Nassau County which was to feature 10 to 12 lanes. The downtown villages along the route effectively put a stop to the idea. This expressway would have provided a truck link for the South Shore of Long Island.^[23]

The portion of Sunrise Highway between North Lindenhurst and the town of Southampton was gradually upgraded into a limited-access highway. At the east end of the highway, Route 27 abruptly became a three-lane highway east of the Shinnecock Canal at the point where NY 27 became concurrent with County Route 39. This area was known as the "Shinnecock Squeeze" as traffic on the two-lane NY 27 eastbound was "squeezed" into a single lane. In 2006 and 2007 Suffolk County and Southampton officials began using traffic cones to adjust the lanes to accommodate peak travel in what was called the "traffic cone program." At the end of summer 2007, work began on adding another eastbound lane to North Sea Road. The construction snarled traffic on CR 39 and the Long Island Rail Road added three trains each way going from Speonk to East Hampton during the construction.^[24] The new eastbound lane opened in April 2008.

Eastward extension

The first proposals for an extension east of the Shinnecock Canal came in the 1950s. In 1969, the New York Legislature approved a $160 million plan for the extension for the limited access route to be flanked by bicycle and equestrian trails. The eastbound and westbound roadways were to be separated by wide wooded medians. For the most part, the road would have run a mile or two to the north of existing Route 27, thus avoiding the populated centers through which it now goes. The extended Sunrise Highway would have had interchanges with County Route 38 (North Sea Road) and County Route 39 (County Road), County Route 79 (Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Road), NY 114 (East Hampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike), County Route 40 (Three Mile Harbor Road), and County Route 45 (Amagansett-Springs Road) before merging back into the existing Montauk Highway. The exits would have been sequentially numbered from 67 to 72. The plan failed and Governor Hugh Carey cancelled it in 1975. Other suggestions have included building a limited-access road on either side of the Long Island Rail Road Montauk Branch.

Older interchanges

As Sunrise Highway was upgraded during the 1970s and 1980s many interchanges were redesigned and replaced.

• The original interchange with the Robert Moses Causeway in West Islip had two parkway-style arch bridges over two lanes of NY 27. When the service roads were built in Western Islip Township between 1969 and 1972, parkway-style bridges were added for them as well.

• The interchanges at Fifth Ave and Brentwood Road in Bay Shore had parkway-style arch bridges as well as cloverleafs. When the service roads were added, the parkway-style bridges were removed and replaced with more modern style structures that exist today. The original cloverleafs were modified to align with the new service roads.

• As with the interchanges to the west, Islip Avenue (NY 111) and Carleton Avenue (Suffolk County Route 17) in Islip Terrace originally had parkway-style bridges crossing over Sunrise Highway. However, only Islip Ave had a partial clover leaf on the west side of the bridge. The eastern side of the bridge used side streets for access, as did both sides of the Carleton Ave bridge. This section of Sunrise Highway wasn't even divided. Since 1983, both have much more modern bridges over service roads, and the old cross streets connect to those service roads and other side roads instead. Islip Avenue connects to NY 27 at exit 45 while Carleton Avenue meets the Sunrise Highway at exit 46.^[25]

Proposed interchanges and crossings

Besides the replacement of interchanges in Western Suffolk County, Sunrise Highway had proposed interchanges and crossings that were either never built, or were built according to alternate design specifications.

North Lindenhurst area

Plans to construct a cloverleaf interchange with Suffolk County Route 2 (Straight Path) in Copiague have existed for some time. However, in recent years, planners have realized that such an interchange would be too close to the cloverleafs with Suffolk County Route 47 (Great Neck Road) to the west and Suffolk County Route 3 (Wellwood Road) to the east. To further complicate matters, a widened Suffolk County Route 28 was extended to Sunrise Highway near the Straight Path intersection in the late-1980s. No interchange has been built yet for this area.

Oakdale Merge

The Oakdale Merge is a convergence of Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway between Great River and Oakdale abutting the southern edge of Connetquot River State Park. The Montauk Highway predates the Sunrise Highway in the area. When Sunrise Highway was extended east of Amityville in 1940, it terminated at Montauk Highway at the entrance to Connetquot River State Park.^[26] In 1953, Sunrise Highway was extended to East Patchogue; a 0.5 mi (0.80 km) overlap of New York State Routes 27 and 27A was created, with at-grade intersections connecting the highways.^[27] A segment of this alignment remains south of the eastern interchange.^[28] Route 27A was truncated east of the overlap in 1972.^[29]

Plans to upgrade the interchange have existed since its creation. During the early-1960s, the Suffolk County Department of Public Works considered designating a county highway to connect Nicoll's Road in Lake Grove through Long Island MacArthur Airport to the east end of the merge. As recently as 1981, the New York State Department of Transportation planned to add service roads and a proper interchange at both ends of the merge.^[30] However, pressure from environmental groups seeking to avoid damaging the parkland stalled construction. NYSDOT eventually reconstructed Sunrise Highway in eastern Islip township into a freeway during the 1990s, resulting in the present configuration. The entrance to Connetquot River Park remained as an at-grade intersection, accessible only from the westbound lane. Former segments of Montauk Highway now exist on both sides of the interchange,^[28] and sections of both roads were converted into fishing areas owned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The east end of the merge was the scene of numerous accidents, resulting in its reconstruction in 1999; a new off-ramp to the service road for Pond Road was built, resulting in a renumbering of Exit 47 as Exit 46A.^[31]

Patchogue area

While none of the interchanges north of Patchogue were built until the period between 1988 and 1993, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) had known the need for them and planned them decades before their eventual construction.

• Waverly Avenue (Suffolk County Route 19) was originally proposed as a cloverleaf interchange. Today, exit 52 with CR 19 is a diamond interchange instead.^[32][33]
• North Ocean Avenue (Suffolk County Route 83) was originally proposed to be accessible via connecting ramps to side streets such as Austin Avenue along the eastbound lane and Sinn Street along the westbound lane. Today, exit 53A is a half-diamond interchange while Austin Avenue and Howard Avenue are dead end streets. Sinn Street never reached North Ocean Avenue.
• Maple Avenue crossed the median on NY 27 between North Ocean Avenue and NY 112 until 1975. This road could also have been used as potential connecting ramps to both roads. Today, the north section only intersects the westbound service road, while the south section was convered into a dead end street north of Austin Avenue.
• NY 112 was originally proposed to be accessible via connecting ramps to side streets such as Franklin Avenue along the eastbound lane^[32] and an extension of Sinn Street along the westbound lane. Sinn Street was acquired by NYSDOT east of Route 112 in the early-1960s, and was gradually abandoned.^[33] Today, exit 53 is a diamond interchange instead, and Sinn Street, Austin Avenue, and Franklin Avenue are dead end streets.
• Washington Avenue and Phyllis Drive were also originally proposed to be accessible via connecting ramps to side streets such as Franklin Avenue along the eastbound lane and an extension of Sinn Street along the westbound lane. Phyllis Drive was actually part of NY 27 until Sunrise Highway was extended to Eastport in 1957.^[33] Today, both roads are only accessible to the service roads. Some residents have been waiting for a potential pedestrian bridge connecting the two ends of Washington Avenue.

Southaven area

West of the Carmans River near Southaven County Park in South Haven, there was once a plan to combine the eastbound service road with Montauk Highway, in a similar manner to that of the Oakdale Merge.

NY 27A

NY 27A (17.31 miles or 27.86 kilometres) is an alternate route of NY 27 across southern Long Island from Massapequa Park to Oakdale, accessing Babylon and Islip.^[3] It was assigned ca. 1931.^[9][10]

Major intersections

County	Location	Mile[3]	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Kings	Brooklyn	0.00		I-278	Exit 24 (I-278)
		0.01	1	Hamilton Avenue	Westbound exit only
		0.24	2	3rd Avenue, 4th Avenue	Eastbound entrance and westbound exit
		0.61	3	7th Avenue, 8th Avenue	Eastbound entrance and westbound exit
		0.91	4	10th Avenue, 11th Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance. All trucks to NY-27 eastbound must exit
		1.45	5	Fort Hamilton Parkway	NY 27 leaves the Prospect Expressway eastbound
		1.76	6	Church Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance. NY 27 joins the Prospect Expressway westbound. Commercial vehicles leave eastbound, enter westbound
		1.76		Ocean Parkway	Continuation of Prospect Expressway beyond Church Avenue
		East end of freeway section
Queens	Howard Beach	9.03		Belt Parkway (Southern Parkway)	Exit 17 (Belt Parkway)
	South Ozone Park	11.51		I-678 / NY 878	Southern terminus of I-678; northern terminus of NY 878
	Laurelton	14.71		Belt Parkway (Southern Parkway)	Exit 23B (Belt Parkway)
Nassau	Freeport	23.89		Meadowbrook Parkway	Exit M8 (Meadowbrook Parkway)
	Wantagh	26.73		Wantagh Parkway	Exit W5 (Wantagh Parkway)
	Seaford	27.93		NY 135	Exit 2 (NY 135)
	Massapequa	28.83		NY 107
	Massapequa Park	31.04		NY 27A	Western terminus of NY 27A
Suffolk	Amityville	32.07		NY 110 – Amityville, Huntington	Interchange
	Copiague	32.94		CR 47 (Great Neck Road) – Copiague, Farmingdale	Interchange
	North Lindenhurst	34.17		CR 3 (Wellwood Avenue) – Lindenhurst, Melville	Interchange
		West end of freeway section
		35.32	37	NY 109 – Babylon, Farmingdale
	West Babylon	36.45	38	Little East Neck Road / Belmont Avenue
		36.93	39	Hubbards Path
	North Babylon	38.26	40	NY 231 – Babylon, Huntington
	West Islip	39.75	41	Robert Moses Causeway – Robert Moses Park, Sunken Meadow Park	Exit RM1 (Robert Moses Causeway)
	Brightwaters		42	Manor Lane	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		41.13	43	CR 13 (Fifth Avenue) – Bay Shore, Brentwood
	Bay Shore	42.40	44	Brentwood Road – Brentwood, Bay Shore
	Islip	44.06	45	NY 111 – Smithtown
	East Islip	45.74	46	CR 17 (Carleton Avenue) to Heckscher Parkway / Southern State Parkway – East Islip, Central Islip, Heckscher State Park	Eastbound exit and entrance; exit 44 (SSP/HSP); eastern terminus of Southern Parkway; western terminus of Heckscher Parkway
				Heckscher Parkway / Southern State Parkway / Connetquot Avenue – New York, Heckscher State Park	Westbound exit and entrance
		47.41	46A	NY 27A / CR 85 – Oakdale, Great River	Eastbound exit only; eastern terminus of NY 27A; western terminus of CR 85
	Oakdale		47	Pond Road south	Eastbound exit only
			47A	Oakdale–Bohemia Road – Bohemia, Oakdale	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		50.16	48	Locust Avenue – Bohemia, Oakdale
	Bohemia	51.06	49	CR 93 (Lakeland Avenue) – Ronkonkoma, Sayville	To Long Island MacArthur Airport via Johnson Avenue
			50A	Johnson Avenue – Sayville, Bohemia	Westbound exit only; to Long Island MacArthur Airport; formerly CR 112
			50	Lincoln Avenue – Ronkonkoma, Sayville	No westbound entrance
	Bayport	52.44	51	NY 454 / CR 97 (Nicolls Road) – Blue Point, Stony Brook	No access to NY 454 eastbound; eastern terminus of NY 454; to Long Island MacArthur Airport
	Patchogue	54.07	52	CR 19 (Waverly Avenue) – Holbrook, Patchogue
		54.82	52A	CR 83 (North Ocean Avenue) – Mount Sinai, Patchogue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; southern terminus of CR 83
		55.31	53	NY 112 (Medford Avenue) – Port Jefferson, Patchogue	To CR 83 (westbound NY 27)
		56.72	54	Hospital Road – East Patchogue	To Brookhaven Memorial Hospital
	Bellport	57.48	55	CR 101 (Sills Road) – East Patchogue, Yaphank
		58.42	56	Station Road – Bellport, Yaphank
	Brookhaven	60.47	57N-S	CR 16 (Horse Block Road) / CR 21 (Yaphank Avenue) – Farmingville, Ronkonkoma, Yaphank	Partial cloverleaf at Horse Block Road; east-to-south off-ramp and south-to-west on-ramp at Yaphank Avenue
	Shirley	62.65	58N-S	CR 46 (William Floyd Parkway) – Mastic Beach, Wading River	To Smith Point County Park, Brookhaven Airport, and Brookhaven National Laboratory
	Moriches	66.35	59	Wading River Road – Wading River, Center Moriches	Formerly CR 25
		67.28	60	Railroad Avenue – Chapman Boulevard, Center Moriches, Manorville	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	Eastport	69.60	61	CR 51 / CR 55 – East Moriches, Riverhead, Eastport, Manorville	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		70.96	62	CR 111 – Manorville	Formerly proposed Port Jefferson-Westhampton Beach Highway; originally planned as a cloverleaf interchange with collector/distributor roads
	N of Quogue	75.47	63N-S	CR 31 (Old Riverhead Road) – Westhampton Beach, Riverhead	To Francis S. Gabreski Airport
		76.95	64N-S	CR 104 – Quogue, Riverhead	Formerly NY 113
	Hampton Bays	81.15	65N-S	NY 24 (Riverhead-Hampton Bays Road) – Hampton Bays, Riverhead
	Southampton	82.94	66	CR 39 (North Highway) – Shinnecock Canal	Quarter-cloverleaf interchanges
				CR 39 west (North Highway)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; west end of NY 27 / CR 39 overlap
		East end of freeway section
				David Whites Lane	Eastern terminus of CR 39; western terminus of CR 39A
		89.68		Montauk Highway	Eastern terminus of CR 39A and NY 27 / CR 39A overlap
	Bridgehampton			CR 79 (Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike) – Sag Harbor	Southern terminus of CR 79
	East Hampton	100.17		NY 114	Southern terminus of NY 114
	Montauk	120.58		Montauk Point State Park
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

External links

• Alps' Roads – New York State Route 27
• New York Routes – New York State Route 27
• New York State Highway Termini – New York State Route 27
• The traffic circle at the eastern terminus of New York State Route 27, at Montauk Point
• NYC Roads article on New York State Route 27
• NY 27 (Greater New York Roads)
• Oakdale Merge @ Empire State Roads.com
• NYCroads.com - Prospect Expressway (NY 27)
• NYSDOT - Gowanus Project

Expressways in New York City Manhattan–Bronx Bruckner (I-95/I-278) Cross Bronx (I-95/I-295) Major Deegan (I-87) New England Thruway (I-95) Sheridan (I-895) Throgs Neck (I-695) Trans-Manhattan (I-95) Brooklyn–Queens Brooklyn–Queens/Gowanus (I-278) Clearview (I-295) JFK Long Island (I-495) Nassau (NY 878) Prospect (NY 27) Van Wyck/Whitestone/Hutchinson River (I-678) Staten Island Staten Island (I-278) West Shore/MLK (NY 440)