The Long Island Sound link is a proposed bridge or tunnel that would link Long Island to the south with New York or Connecticut to the north across Long Island Sound. The most recent proposal involves a tunnel between Rye, New York on the mainland and Oyster Bay on the island. Feasibility studies for both bridges and tunnels have been conducted for numerous entry points, as listed in the chart below.

Background

Long Island is connected via tunnels and bridges to Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Bronx. People who wish to travel from Long Island to upstate New York or New England via automoblile have no better option than cross the Throgs Neck Bridge or the Whitestone Bridge, which are located on the northwestern corner of Long Island. Ferry service between Connecticut and Long Island is available year round. Private companies operate automobile ferries between Bridgeport, CT and Port Jefferson on central Long Island, and between New London, CT and Orient Point on eastern Long Island.

A bridge or tunnel to the center of the island would make most of the island more accessible, and would reduce the travel time of certain routes by hours. However, the cost of a bridge would be large and it would be likely to have adverse environmental impacts.^[1]

Proposals

A variety of bridge routes have been proposed:

1. A bridge connecting Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, with Sands Point on Long Island. This bridge would lead to a possible spur of Bronx-White Plains Expressway onto Long Island via the unbuilt Western Nassau Expressway in Nassau County.
2. A bridge connecting Rye in Westchester County, New York, with Oyster Bay on Long Island. This bridge would be an extension of Interstate 287 onto Long Island via the existing Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway in Nassau County.
3. A second bridge connecting Rye to the City of Glen Cove on Long Island. This bridge would have connected to the Glen Cove Arterial Highway on Long Island.
4. A bridge connecting Asharoken, New York to either Stamford, or Norwalk, Connecticut. This bridge would have connected to the unbuilt Babylon-Northport Expressway in Western Suffolk County. In Norwalk, it would have led to the already upgraded U.S. Route 7, while in Stamford, it would more than likely have connected to the unbuilt Pound Ridge-Stamford Expressway, and lead back into New York.
5. A bridge and possible dam connecting Poquott, New York to Bridgeport, Connecticut. This bridge would have connected the unbuilt Suffolk County Road 110 (A.O. Smith Turnpike) to CT 8/25.
6. A bridge connecting either New Haven, Connecticut or East Haven, Connecticut, with Shoreham, New York, on Long Island. This bridge would be an extension of Interstate 91 which would continue through Long Island via the already existing William Floyd Parkway.
7. A bridge connecting Riverhead, New York with Guilford, Connecticut. This bridge would have connected at an alternate extension of Interstate 495 to Exit 59 on the Connecticut Turnpike.
8. A bridge connecting Old Saybrook, Connecticut with East Marion, New York. This bridge would have connected the east end of the Long Island Expressway with CT 9 near Interstate 95 in Connecticut.
9. A causeway and bridge connecting Orient Point, New York, with Rhode Island along a series of islands between the North Fork of Long Island and an eastern terminus at Interstate 95 in Rhode Island.

All nine ideas were discussed in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, but all were canceled. Some were reconsidered during the 1990s, but the New York State Department of Transportation backed away from the idea in belief that it would not relieve congestion. Long Islanders seem to favor a bridge but New Englanders are not very supportive of the idea, claiming that it would benefit Long Island at their expense.

Current proposal

In January 2008, this idea re-entered public discussion when developer Vincent Polimeni proposed building a privately-financed, tolled tunnel between Oyster Bay, Long Island and Rye, Westchester County, featuring two tubes carrying three lanes of traffic each and a third tube for maintenance and emergency access. The route would connect Route 135 (Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway) on Long Island to Interstate 287 in Westchester County. It would cost $10 billion and would not be completed until at least 2025. The proposed tunnel would be 16 to long, making it the world's longest highway tunnel, longer than the Lærdalstunnelen in Norway.^[2] A hearing on this proposal was held in Syosset on January 24, 2008.^[3]

Proposals by year

The idea for a bridge dates back to the 1930s, but most studies were done in the 1960s and 1970s. Details can be found at the cited reference.^[1]

• 1965 - Bertram D. Tallamy Associates performed a study for the New York State Department of Public Works
• 1966 - New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller began a concerted effort to build a bridge across the Sound.
• 1971 - Creighton, Hamburg, Incorporated studied 8 bridge proposals for the New York State Department of Transportation.
• 1979 - New York Governor Hugh Carey set up a tri-state advisory committee to study building a bridge across the Sound.^[1]
• 2001 - Robert Wiemer proposed a tunnel to link Oyster Bay and Rye.^[4]
• 2007 - Long Island based entrepreneurs Vincent Polimeni and his son Michael, engineers Hatch Mott MacDonald, bankers Bear Stearns, and Rubenstein Assoc PR people proposed a tunnel between Oyster Bay and Rye.

Proposals by location

Proposals for the Sound link are listed below from west to east.^[1]

References

External links

• http://www.crosssoundlink.com
• NYCROADS.com:
  • A Comprehensive Study for Proposed Long Island Sound Crossings; Part One
  • Proposed Long Island Sound Crossings; Comparative Data on Alternative Crossings: Part Two
  • Proposed Long Island Sound Crossings; Current Cost Estimates: Part Three
  • Proposed Long Island Sound Crossings; Correspndence from Robert Moses
  • Oyster Bay-Rye Bridge
  • Shoreham-New Haven Bridge
  • Eastern Long Island Sound Crossings
• Kurumi.com:
  • Long Island Sound Crossings
  • 
• The Philadelphia Inquirer:
  • World's longest highway tunnel proposed for N.Y.

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