Politics & Government

Construction Set to Improve Safety on Smithtown Boulevard

Left-turn lanes, raised median to be added to Smithtown Boulevard in coming months.

Construction is getting underway to begin a series of safety improvements to Nesconset intersection where a teen was seriously injured in 2007. 

Suffolk County Department of Public Works will move forward with plans to install a raised center median and create left-turn lanes for the Smithtown Boulevard at the Gilbert Avenue/Sheppard Lane intersection in Nesconset. Construction will begin within the next month or two, and be finished by the end of 2013, according to Legis. John Kennedy, R-Nesconset. 

Suffolk officials hired RBA Group to conduct a study of the intersection in June 2011, who reported 32 accidents durring the three-year period between January 2007 to December 2009. 

Most of the crashes were rear-end accidents at a right angle and several drivers were using the striped center area and roadway shoulder to go around those waiting to make a left onto Gilbert. 

The plans  are to create two-way left-hand turn lanes along Smithtown Boulevard to create storage space for turning vehicles and prevent rear-end accidents. A left-hand turn lane will be constructed for drivers entering Gilbert Avenue. These changes will be combined with work to re-align the intersection. 

A new raised median will be installed west of Gilbert Lane as a traffic-calming effort, in efforts to get drivers to slow down and reduce their speed in Smithtown Boulevard. 

The Smithtown Boulevard and Gilbert Ave/Sheppard Lane intersection became a safety concern after a Nesconset teen was hit by SUV while attempting to cross on a bicycle.

Tom Archer of Nesconset, whose son Benjamin suffered a traumatic brain injury, told Newsday the road improvements should "keep somebody else from getting hurt at that corner."

"I'm glad that something good came out of Ben getting hurt," Archer told Newsday. "We're going to prevent other people from getting hurt."

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