Suffolk County Department of Public Works Meeting

The County presented a plan for the road that identified the three Town Centers that evolved from the Visioning meetings: the Hawkins Avenue Downtown Center; the proposed High-Point Center adjacent to Waldbaums; and the Morris Avenue Center at the east end of the project. They showed special colored pavement treatments for the turn lanes and crosswalks in the Town Center areas and have proposed the use of modern WALK/DON’T WALK pedestrian signals with special count down timing features to make the areas safe and pedestrian friendly. The plan also showed a reduction of the speed limit for the full length of the road from the current 45 MPH to 35 MPH, with a further reduction to 30 MPH in the Town Centers. 
However, the actual lane configuration for the roadway itself was basically the same plan that was presented by the County at the Community Visioning meetings:

• The eastern section of the road from Holbrook Road to Morris Avenue is still proposed as a three-lane road with one lane in each direction and a continuous center turn lane. The Civic agrees with and supports the plan in this area.
• The three Modern Roundabouts that were proposed by the Visioning team to replace the signalized intersections at Hans Boulevard-Patchogue Holbrook Road, Cenacle Road-Smith Road and at Holbrook Road have been deleted because the county’s estimates for traffic volumes at those intersections would have required large two-lane roundabouts.
• The area where there continues to be disagreement with the County is the western section of the road between Ronkonkoma Avenue and Holbrook Road where the proposed road plan still calls for two travel lanes in each direction with a continuous center turn lane (five lanes in total).

The design for the western section of the road was discussed in great detail with the County engineers and they explained that the five-lane road is required because of the high traffic volumes at five critical intersections: Ronkonkoma Avenue, Hawkins Avenue, Hans Boulevard-Patchogue Holbrook Road, Cenacle Road – Smith Road, and Holbrook Road. The heavy north/south traffic volumes at these intersections require additional green traffic light time, so essentially there is insufficient green time left over to move the east/west traffic on Portion Road in a single lane. The County has compensated by adding a second through lane in each direction.
Further discussion resulted in a compromise solution to the problem at four of the five critical intersections. It was proposed by the Civic that limited widening to two lanes in each direction with a center turn lane for two short sections of roadway between Ronkonkoma Avenue and Hawkins Avenue, and also between Cenacle Road-Smith Road and Holbrook Road, would overcome the capacity problems at these locations and would be acceptable to the community. Tapered lanes would be provided to safely transition the traffic from the short widened sections of road, back to the typical three-lane roadway width.
The discussion then centered on the Hans Boulevard-Patchogue Holbrook Road intersection, which also has capacity problems according to the County engineers. It has always been part of the of the Portion Road project to re-align Hans Boulevard to line up with Patchogue Holbrook Road and eliminate the offset intersections that currently operate very inefficiently. However, the County maintains that, even with the intersection re-configured as a traditional intersection, the high traffic volumes still require that Portion Road be five-lanes wide at the intersection. And to make matters worse, they have determined that it is then necessary to make all of Portion Road five-lanes wide from the widened section at Hawkins Avenue all the way to the widened section at Cenacle Road-Smith Road. 
The Civic strongly indicated that it was unacceptable and detrimental to the community to fully widen out about a mile of road just because the problems at one intersection in the middle could not be overcome.
There was then a detailed discussion about the problems at this intersection and possible alternate solutions that could prevent the extensive road widening. It was suggested that the current and projected traffic volumes at the intersection be re-examined and that better access and interconnection between the four large adjacent shopping centers (Stop&Shop; the Movie Theatre; Sears Hardware and Waldbaums) be studied. The Visioning meeting had identified many opportunities in this area for trips to, from and within these shopping centers to be made more efficiently by minimizing and/or eliminating the need to travel through the congested Portion Road signalized intersections.
Finally, the Town of Brookhaven Traffic Safety staff that were at the meeting agreed to conduct a two-month study of the Hans Boulevard-Patchogue Holbrook Road intersection to see if there are ways to reduce the amount of traffic traveling through that intersection so that Portion Road does not have to be widened as proposed by the County.
Hopefully the Town study will result in an alternate solution that will be acceptable to the County and the Community. We have consistently asked the County for a road that would adequately and safely move traffic and at the same time improve and enhance the community. The Civic remains committed to that goal.