Government

Roundabout work expected to begin in Greenport next year

A proposed roundabout at the intersection of Route 48 and Main Street in Greenport is being studied together at the state level with three other projects, including one in Calverton and two in East Hampton. 

The state Department of Transportation combined the projects under one Statewide Transportation Improvement Number and says they will improve safety at four intersections.

These projects call for:

• Widening the intersection and adding turn lanes and Route 25 at Edwards Avenue in Calverton, in the Town of Riverhead.

• Widening the intersection and adding turn lanes at Route 114 (Sag Harbor Turnpike) at Stephen Hands Path in East Hampton Town

• Widening the intersection and adding turn lanes at Route 114 (Sag Harbor Turnpike) at Goodfriend Drive in East Hampton Town and

• “Potentially constructing a roundabout” at state Route 25 at County Road 48 in Greenport, in the Town of Southold.

“They are all lumped together in a single project. How they’re connected is beyond me, but that’s the way they’re doing it,” said Greenport Village Administrator Paul Pallas at last Thursday’s village work session.

The Route 48 intersection is in the Town of Southold and the unincorporated part of Greenport. 

State officials say that including several locations in one project is used to save on design and legal costs.

DOT spokesman Stephen Canzoneri called it “a multi-location safety enhancement project, currently scheduled to go to bid in the fall of 2022, which is in the design phase.”

“These enhancements will provide a better traffic flow through the intersection and therefore decrease the accident rate at each location,” the DOT said on its web site. 

The DOT said it would pursue a roundabout at this intersection in 2018 after ruling out a traffic signal there. 

The intersection currently has a blinking caution light for east and west-bound traffic and a blinking stop light and a stop sign for traffic heading north out of Greenport. 

The current status of the project is “in development,” and the bid opening for the job is expected to be in Fall 2022, according to the DOT web site. It says construction is expected to begin in winter of 2022/2023 and is expected to be completed in Fall 2023.

Mr. Pallas said he was told by state officials that the design approval is expected around August of 2021.

The project cost is about $5.3 million, and state and federal funding will be used, according to DOT.