New York State Route 347

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NY Route 347
Smithtown Bypass Neconset-Port Jefferson Highway
Length:	14.48 mi[1] (23.30 km)
Formed:	1966
West end:	NSP/NY 454 in Hauppauge
East end:	NY 25A in Mount Sinai
Counties:	Suffolk
Numbered highways in New York < NY 346 NY 348 > Interstate - U.S. - N.Y. - Reference

New York State Route 347 is an east-west highway on Long Island that spans between Hauppauge and Mount Sinai, New York.

[edit] History

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Originally built by Suffolk County in the 1950s, the road was one of two county roads. Southwest of New York State Route 25 it was known as Suffolk CR 85 (Smithtown Bypass), and northeast of NY 25, it was desiganted Suffolk CR 80 (Nesconset-Port Jefferson Highway). Though the road acts as an extension of the Northern State Parkway east of Veterans Memorial Highway in Hauppauge, Robert Moses planned an altogether different right-of-way for an extension of the Northern State. In fact, the Parkway was planned to have an interchange with the Smithtown Bypass west of Suffolk CR 16 (Terry Road).

New York State acquired the roads in 1966 and designated the new, unified route as New York State Route 347. Suffolk County Routes 85 and 80 were moved to Montauk Highway in conjunction with New York State Route 27A east of Great River. Suffolk County hoped that by transferring jurisdiction to the state, it would be easier to upgrade the road into the limited-access highway as was originally intended. Efforts to upgrade the highway into a limited-access highway have frequently been stalled by rampant development, the high cost of land acqusistion, and community activism. When the Smith Haven Mall was built in 1969, it became a major attraction, and sent a message to developers that Route 347 was up for grabs.

For six years, the western terminus of Route 347 was with two county roads, Suffolk County Road 76 (with which it shared a block-long concurrency) and the western terminus of Suffolk County Road 78. In March 1968, Suffolk CR 76 was eliminated west of NY 347. When New York State acquired the Veterans Memorial Highway on March 29, 1972, it put both termini of NY 347 at state highways as it originally planned, even though road's western terminus was not where it was originally intended to be (see "Hauppauge Spur" below).

In 1973, the New York State Department of Transportation tried once again to transform Route 347 into an Expressway again, only this proposal included the widening of NY 25 west of Route 347 and the addition of frontage roads along Route 25.^[2] This too, was cancelled by community opposition, as well as revived plans to upgrade the road again between 1987-1988, and has been stalled again by the same forces that have kept it from being upgraded for decades. A grass-roots organization called the Committee for a New 347 has advocated turning NY 347 into a limited-access greenway.

In 1977, the NY 347 designation was extended along a concurrency with NY 454 to the interchange with Northern State Parkway.

[edit] Hauppauge Spur

Once New York State acquired Nesconset Highway and the Smithtown Bypass from Suffolk County, they planned to add a spur directly to the Long Island Expressway. Contrary to the map displayed here, the location of the terminus was intended to be between Exits 55 and 56. Part of the spur was to replace the southern half of New York State Route 901A.^[3][4]

[edit] Suffolk County Road 26

Another extension was planned by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, known as the North Brookhaven Expressway (Suffolk CR 26), which would have begun west of Pipe-Stave Hollow Road and ended at the intersection of New York State Route 25A and William Floyd Parkway (County Route 46). This idea was never carried out due to community opposition. A very faint vestige lives on, however, in the new "Rocky Point Bypass" section of NY 25A, which was constructed in the late 1990s.^[5]

[edit] McNamara development and bribery scandal

As if things were not bad enough for efforts to improve Route 347, John M. McNamara, a local automotive dealer and developer, cluttered the road with new developments. A shopping center between Old Town Road and Arrowhead Lane which had a service road in front of it, had fallen on hard times. McNamara took over the reconstruction of the shopping center in the late-1980s as part of an effort to revitalize it, which unfortunately included the dismantling of the service road. His project failed, but eventually it was discovered that he was bribing various government officials in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, Village of Port Jefferson, and even the New York State Department of Transportation. Unfortunately, this revelation did nothing toward facilitating improvements to the highway.

[edit] Major intersections

County	Location	Mile	Roads intersected	Notes
Suffolk	Hauppauge	0.0	Northern NY 454	Western terminus of NY 347/454 concurrency.
		2.2	NY 454	Eastern terminus of concurrency.
		3.0	NY 111	Hauppauge Road.
	Village of the Branch		Northern	Unbuilt extension.
	Smithtown	4.9	CR 16	Terry Road.
	Nesconset	6.9	NY 25	Jericho Turnpike.
	Lake Grove	9.2	CR 97	Nicoll's Road.
	East Setauket		CR 110	Formerly proposed A.O. Smith Turnpike.
	Port Jefferson Station	13.4	NY 112	Patchogue Road north of NY 347.
	Mount Sinai	14.5	NY 25A	Hallock Avenue

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Proposed North Shore Expressway @ NYCROADS.com
• NY 347 (Greater New York Roads)
• NYSDOT Official Proposed Reconstruction Plans