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New York area power brokers have been proposing a connection across the Long Island Sound for some 80 years. The notion of a bridge or tunnel between Long Island and either Westchester or Connecticut first gained traction in the 1930s. In the 1960s, Governor Nelson Rockefeller launched a fruitless campaign to build a bridge across the Sound. Governor Hugh Carey tried and failed to make it happen in the late 1970s. Now, Governor Andrew Cuomo is making a push of his own.
A new report from the New York State Department of Transportation details the feasibility of such a connection and paints a slightly optimistic picture for the idea. It narrows down three potential alignments for a bridge or tunnel: one between Oyster Bay and Port Chester; one between Kings Park and Bridgeport; and another between Wading River and New Haven. The study estimates that constructing one of these connections would cost $13 billion on the low end and $55.4 billion on the high end.
Cuomo advocated for the crossing (specifically a tunnel) in his State of the State address last week, though he failed to mention the previous administrations that have tried and failed to get such a project completed.
“We should continue to pursue a tunnel from Long Island to Westchester or Connecticut,” he said. “DOT has determined it's feasible. It would be underwater; it would be invisible; it would reduce traffic on the impossibly congested Long Island Expressway and would offer potential significant private investment.”
The governor’s speech came less than a week after the Federal Transit Administration said that it is not recognizing an agreement made between New York State and the Obama Administration on funding for the multibillion-dollar Gateway Program, a prospective pair of rail tunnels between Manhattan and New Jersey that some transit experts have called “the highest infrastructure priority in the nation.” If Cuomo wants to get his Long Island Sound crossing constructed, he'll also need the feds to chip in.
Even so, bridges have been one hallmark of Cuomo’s second term. In 2017, he debuted a shiny new span for the Tappen Zee Bridge (officially named after his father, former Governor Mario M. Cuomo) as well as a brand-new Kosciuszko Bridge.
At this point, Cuomo’s infrastructure aspirations seem endless. But if you ask any New York City straphanger about the governor's priorities, they’ll likely say that he should focus on fixing the subway before pushing for eleven-figure suburban projects.
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