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Overcast Shore Road: Closer to better quality of life
Shore Road residents often say they feel their homes shake from passing cars and trucks, and that walking along their neighborhood is dangerous because there aren’t as many sidewalks as they’d like. This past year flooding has worsened, leaving many residents to trudge through ankle-deep water. Shore Road residents will see what they will consider a major safety concern upgraded in 2024.
Members of the Nassau County Legislature Rules Committee voted unanimously on Nov. 13 to sign off on funding for traffic engineering services for the expanded Shore Road streetscape, flood mitigation and traffic-calming project in Glen Cove and Sea Cliff. During the Rules Committee public hearing, Nassau County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton confirmed that a drainage study will be completed during the next several months as part of a broader scope streetscape project.
“We don’t know what’s happening with the pipes, and something’s happening because it’s not draining correctly,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “We have to find out what the problem is before we can address it.”
The county has allocated $2.2 million toward the project in its initial stages. DeRiggi-Whitton urged County officials to proceed with the project as expeditiously as possible. She began the process of securing necessary funding for the initial stages of the streetscape project when members of the Public Works, Finance, and Rules committees of the Legislature voted unanimously to approve $700,000 in additional bonding for the initial stages of the project in August. The county’s Department of Public Works will inspect the outflow pipes and order repairs where they are not functioning properly. The findings will be incorporated into a comprehensive drainage study, which will be used to launch the design phase for the approximately $9 million county streetscape project.
“It’s a major problem. The road is now flooding quite regularly, and it’s been noted that one of the outflow pipes may have been covered when someone did a sea wall,” said DeRiggi-Whitton, who serves on the Rules Committee. “We always knew that drainage would be a part of this project. While it always used to flood, now it’s flooding on a whole different level.”
But the group has had limited success. Although both the Nassau County and Glen Cove police departments officially monitor Shore Road and had its speed limit reduced from 30 miles per hour to 25, Cusumano says that speeding vehicles, including delivery trucks and other large vehicles, remain a serious problem.
The intersection of Albin Street and Shore Road sees many vehicles rushing to get through. Every day, Cusumano said, she sees near-collisions involving cars that don’t come to a full stop. She believes that part of the problem is that some of the motorists are driving down a steep hill. During a typical week, over 15,000 cars travel through the neighborhood. Now, a traffic diet, along with some aesthetic additions like more benches, will be constructed to remind people that they’re in a neighborhood and should drive carefully. She said one solution is to narrow the section of the road near Sea Cliff and Tappan beaches.
“Just putting the sidewalks in, which have to be handicap accessible, that in itself is going to narrow the road a little bit, and we’re also going to put in designated parking,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “When you’re driving, and you see a lane in front of you that’s wide and open, subconsciously your mind might say, ‘Okay, I’m safe, I can go a little faster,’ but when it’s a little bit narrower, it kind of sends a signal there’s not a lot of space for me to pass so I better slow down.”
DeRiggi-Whitton said public forums would be available to residents after engineers make their recommendations. This will give residents more say over how the road should be constructed.
