After two decades, Bayville Road improvements approved

For years, residents of Locust Valley and Lattingtown have been complaining about the dangerous conditions on Bayville Road. But thanks to a vote by the Nassau County Legislature’s Rules Committee, the problems with the road will soon be addressed.

Complaints about the safety of Bayville Road go back more than two decades, according to Bob Fagiola, Lattingtown’s mayor. Because the road is owned by the county and not the village, Lattingtown is unable to make improvements, beyond adjusting the speed limit.

Several times over the years, governments of Lattingtown have asked the county legislature to get involved in improving the road. The county has responded by ordering a number of engineering surveys, and each one confirmed what many residents already knew — that the road was unsafe.

The village cannot even erect signage or hang traffic lights on the road. Fagiola said he has tried to do so several times in the past, but the county had rejected his requests while waiting for further reviews of the road conditions.

“Issues with Bayville Road have been discussed for more than 20, 25 years. That’s no exaggeration,” Fagiola said. “The county had proposed, again 20 or 25 years ago, to move forward and make the road safer. That never happened.”

There are a variety of problems with the road, according to Fagiola, who added that it was built in the 1930s. Citing previous engineering reports, he explained that the lane widths are smaller than county requirements, which increases the risk of accidents.

He added that sight lines “are not what they should be,” and there are drainage problems as well. Finally, there’s a soft shoulder, which means that it isn’t paved, and made instead of gravel and packed dirt.

Finally, on July 17, the Legislature’s Rules Committee voted unanimously to approve a roughly $1 million “on-call traffic engineering services contract” with Greenman-Pederson Inc. Representatives of Greenman-Pederson could not provide any details about the contract by press time, and Chris Boyle, the county’s director of communications, did not respond to a request for comment.

The committee also approved the use of roughly $337,000 to prepare design plans for what is being called the Bayville Road/Horse Hollow Road Complete Streets Project.

Josh Lafazan, the county legislator whose district includes Bayville Road, explained that the Legislature is taking the community’s input into account, calling its response a “bottom-up approach.”

He said that since Bayville Road also abuts Locust Valley Intermediate School, it is even more important that improvements be made.

“What’s important here is that there’s going to be community and stakeholder input,” Lafazan said. “The best ideas for the community come from within the community itself.”

He added that part of the reason for the widespread support for the legislation, after over 20 years of inaction, is a bipartisan consensus among current legislators that the county’s infrastructure is aging and in widespread need of improvement.

On Aug. 7, the Legislature also voted unanimously to approve amendments to the 2023-26 capital budget authorizing another $350,000 in bonding for traffic calming and streetscape improvements on Bayville Road. Traffic calming, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is “the combination of measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, alter driver behavior, and improve conditions for non-motorized street users.”

Those measures include adding speed bumps, increasing the size of sidewalks and bike lanes, and increased signage. Lafazan said that in his conversations with county officials and the public works department, he stressed the importance of taking climate resiliency into account, including by increasing drainage on the road.

There is currently no timeline for the project, which is still in the planning stages. Lafazan said he was planning to convene meetings of stakeholders “right away,” and re-emphasized his focus on encouraging community input.

In the meantime, the Village of Lattingtown will be looking into reducing the speed limit on Bayville Road from 40 mph to 30 mph, Fagiola said, adding that he was hopeful that with these improvements, the road will offer much safer trips between Lattingtown and Bayville.