Interstate 495 (New York)

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Interstate 495 Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System
Length:	71.02 mi[1] (114.30 km)
Formed:	1940 (LIE); 1958 (I-495)
West end:	Queens Midtown Tunnel entrance in Manhattan
Major junctions:	I-278 in Queens I-678/G.C. Pkwy in Queens I-295 in Queens Cross Island Pkwy in Queens Northern State Pkwy in Nassau NY 135 in Nassau Sagtikos State Pkwy in Suffolk Nicholls Road In Suffolk Wm. Floyd Pkwy in Suffolk
East end:	Suffolk CR 58 in Riverhead
Numbered highways in New York < I-490 NY 495 > Interstate - U.S. - N.Y. - Reference
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 495

Interstate 495 (abbreviated I-495, better known as the Long Island Expressway or L.I.E.) is a 71.02 mile (114.30 km) long Interstate Highway on Long Island, New York. The western terminus of the route is at the western portal of the Queens Midtown Tunnel in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The eastern terminus is at County Road 58 in Riverhead, Suffolk County.

[edit] Route description

[edit] Manhattan and Queens

I-495 in Queens with heavy traffic in both directions.

The expressway begins at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. Upon emerging from the tunnel in Queens, it is subdivided by name into two sections: the Queens-Midtown Expressway from the tunnel toll plaza to Queens Boulevard, and the Horace Harding Expressway from said intersection to the Nassau County line, though almost all locals use the "Long Island Expressway" to refer the entire length of I-495. A mile after entering Queens, the L.I.E. meets Interstate 278 (The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) at interchange 16. Not long after Queens Boulevard, the LIE meets the Grand Central Parkway, then immediately after, the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678). Because the two interchanges are so close together, the highway employs a collector-distributor road. I-495 passes the Clearview Expressway, then the Cross Island Parkway before entering Nassau County.

The "Queens Giant", the oldest and tallest tree in the New York metropolitan area, is very close to the Long Island Expressway in northeastern Queens (near the Douglaston Plaza Mall), and is visible while driving westbound.

[edit] Nassau County

I-495 in Nassau County

Heading into Nassau County, the expressway sports a High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane (HOV), which runs all the way into central Suffolk County. In its run through Nassau, it is the only major east-west highway that does not interchange with the Meadowbrook or the Wantagh parkways, which end to the south at the adjacent Northern State Parkway (which interchanges with the LIE three times, although it only actually crosses once, at Exit 37A from Northern). It does, however, interchange with the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway like the east-west parkways do, and often has heavy traffic.

[edit] Suffolk County

Heading into Suffolk County, the LIE continues its 8-lane configuration with the HOV lane all the way out to Exit 64 (NY 112). At this point, the HOV lane ends, and the expressway is reduced to 6-lanes total (3 eastbound, 3 westbound). In addition to the narrowing, the concrete Jersey barrier also ends at Route 112, replaced by a wide, grassy median. Also, the asphalt road surface is replaced by a concrete surface. From this point eastward, the expressway runs through rural and woodland areas on its trek towards Riverhead. Exit 68 (William Floyd Parkway) marks the terminus of the service road. Exit 70 (Suffolk CR 111) in Manorville is the last full-interchange, as it is the last interchange that allows eastbound traffic on, and the first to allow westbound off. After Exit 71 (Edwards Avenue), the expressway begins to narrow as it approaches its eastern terminus. Until about 2008, just before Exit 72 (NY Route 25), the 3-eastbound lanes narrowed to two, which in turn narrowed almost immediately to a single lane at Exit 73, which lies 800-feet east of Exit 72. All traffic would then flow off of Exit 73 onto Route 58, marking the end of the expressway. As of 2008, one lane has been added for Exit 72, and a separate one for 73, ending the squeeze into a single lane at Exit 73.

[edit] History

This section does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Because of the cancellation of the Mid-Manhattan Expressway, I-495 does not meet Interstate 95. The LIE was constructed in stages starting in 1939, when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was built, until 1972, when its Riverhead terminus was finished. Plans have existed to construct a Long Island Crossing that would extend the LIE across Long Island Sound to either Guilford, Connecticut, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, or Rhode Island via a series of existing and man-made islands, but a lack of funding as well as public opposition have killed these proposals.^[2]

Previously, the LIE was New York State Route 495 to the east of the Clearview Expressway (Interstate 295), but in the 1980s, the NY 495 signs were taken down and I-495 extended to the east end of the LIE.

Originally, I-495 was to stretch from the Queens Midtown Tunnel and I-278 to I-295, the Clearview Expressway. Plans later included creating the Mid-Manhattan Expressway across Manhattan to the Lincoln Tunnel, to connect to I-95 in New Jersey. These plans were eventually cancelled, and the NJ stretch of I-495 was downgraded to a NJ state highway. However, Long Island lobbied to extend I-495 east, upgrading NY 24 to NY 495 and then I-495, to Riverhead where it terminates at NY 25. Since I-495 extends from a city outward, it is technically a spur, which should have an odd first digit. Even first digits are usually assigned to bypasses and beltways. A proposed Orient-Watch Hill Bridge would have connected I-495 back to I-95 in Rhode Island.

From 1994 to 2005, High-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV) were added to I-495. Beginning with a small section in Western Suffolk County, the lanes were added in subsequent sections until their completion on June 30, 2005. There is one HOV lane in each direction, in the median of the highway. They now run from Exit 31 Cross Island Parkway to Exit 64 at Medford in central Suffolk County.^{[citation needed]}

From 6:00 am to 10:00 am and from 3pm (15:00) to 8 pm (20:00) Monday through Friday, the HOV lanes are limited to buses, motorcycles, and Clean Pass vehicles without occupancy requirement and passenger vehicles with at least two occupants. Trailers and commercial trucks are always prohibited therein.^[3]

Smaller highways continue on from the end of the LIE to Greenport on the North Fork and past the Hamptons to Montauk on the South Fork. Cynics have suggested that the acronym "LIE" is appropriate since, due to the high volume of traffic on it, the term "expressway" is just that, a lie. This volume of traffic has led to the nickname of "The World's Longest Parking Lot." However, that title is now somewhat erroneous. Many Long Island residents admit, thanks in part to recently finished construction of an HOV lane stretching from the Queens border to Exit 64, that the LIE tends to move better than the island's east-west parkways, the Northern State Parkway and the Southern State Parkway. Traffic jams still occur in the Queens and western Nassau sections of the LIE during rush hour.

One could argue that the highway is technically only referred to as the Long Island Expressway in Nassau and Suffolk counties, while in Queens, the service roads are called the Queens-Midtown Expressway (between the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Queens Boulevard) and Horace Harding Expressway (between Queens Boulevard and the Nassau County line), and are generally signed as such like any other city streets. It is common to refer to the service roads by these names - particularly Horace Harding - in local usage, for instance when referring to the location of a business on that address. The names may have been intended to refer to sections of the expressway proper, but current guide signs (and Queens residents) simply refer to it as the Long Island Expressway.

Horace J. Harding (1863-1929) was a finance magnate who directed the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and the New York Municipal Railways System. Harding used his influence to promote the development of Long Island’s roadways, lending strong support to Robert Moses’s “great parkway plan.” Harding also urged construction of a highway from Queens Boulevard to the Nassau County Line, in order to provide better access to Oakland Country Club, where he was a member. After his death, the Queens-Nassau County section of the LIE was named for Harding. Horace Harding was not related to the former President Warren G. Harding.

Suffolk County Road 48 was originally intended to become part of the North Fork extension of the Long Island Expressway.^[4]

[edit] Proposed interchanges and service road configurations

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As the Long Island Expressway was being built across Long Island, it was specifically being designed to accommodate certain topographical conditions and proposed interchanges.

• Exit 30 was originally a partial cloverleaf interchange with Cross Island Parkway. Eastbound Exit 30S was for Easthampton Boulevard with a connecting ramp to the Southbound Cross Island Parkway. Exit 31 was originally a Westbound Only interchange for Douglaston Parkway.^[5]

• Exit 39 was originally a full-cloverleaf interchange. After dozens of reconstruction projects the NYSDOT finally arranged it so that the only inner-ramps from Glen Cove Road are south-to-eastbound, and north-to-westbound.^[6]

• Exit 39A was intended for the proposed extension of the Wantagh State Parkway near Powell Road in Old Westbury. It was going to be a "Y" Interchange with an east-to-southbound only off-ramp and a north-to-westbound only on-ramp running beneath Powell Road.^[7]

• Exit 40 originally had only same-directional off-ramps under the Expressway to realigned sections of NY 25. When Exits 41 N-S was originally constructed, it had no south-to-west connecting ramp. Westbound access to the expressway was provided at the nearby Exit 40 on-ramp at NY 25.^[8]

• An alternate design for Exit 42 was to be similar to the one proposed for NY 135 and Bethpage State Parkway

• Westbound Exit 46 was originally a partial cloverleaf.^[9] Exit 47 was intended for the extension of the Bethpage State Parkway near Washington Avenue in Plainview. This was to be a partial cloverleaf with southbound only off-ramps in both directions, and northbound only on-ramps in both directions. The West-to-Southbound ramp was also to have an additional connecting ramp to a two-way frontage road for a development and an industrial area near Exit 46.^[10]

• The original rights-of-way for the service roads between Exits 48 and 49 were intended to weave around the steep Manetto Hills area of the main road, rather than running parallel to the road as it does today. The land between the service road and the main road was reserved for housing developments. The right-of-way for the original westbound service road still weaves through the development on the north side of the road.^[11] Exit 49 was originally a cloverleaf interchange with the outer-ramps connecting to the service roads nearer to NY 110. This was in preparation for NY 110's formerly proposed upgrade into the Broad Hollow Expressway. After the project was canceled in the 1970s, the west-to-northbound on-ramp was moved to nearby Suffolk CR 3 (Pinelawn Road) and the original ramp was replaced with a Park & Ride. Other outer-ramps were eventually moved further away from NY 110.

• Exit 52 (Commack Road/Suffolk CR 4), was intended to be moved west to an interchange with the formerly proposed Babylon-Northport Expressway(realigned NY 231) in the vicinity of the two parking areas. These ramps were supposed to be accessible from the service roads.

• The westbound off-ramp and service road at Exit 54 (Wicks Road/Suffolk CR 4) originally terminated at Long Island Motor Parkway east of Wicks Road. The westbound on-ramp was squeezed between the northwest corner of the Wicks road bridge and Exit 53. Excessive weaving between Exits 52, 53, and 54 caused the NYSDOT to reconstruct all three interchanges into one, and replace the west-to-southbound off-ramp to Sagtikos State Parkway with a flyover ramp.^[12]

• Exit 55A was meant to be a trumpet interchange for the Hauppauge Spur of NY 347, between Long Island Motor Parkway(Exit 55) and NY 111(Exit 56). The service roads were supposed to go around the interchange, rather than run parallel to the main road. Ramps on the east side of Motor Parkway and west side of NY 111 were to be eliminated.

• Between Exits 57 and 58, there was a proposed extension of Northern State Parkway.^[13][14]

• Prior to the construction of the interchange with Nicolls Road (Suffolk CR 97), Exit 62 was for Morris Avenue and Waverly Avenue eastbound, and Morris Avenue westbound.^[15][16]

• Between Exits 63 and 64 the eastbound service road was supposed to weave around a recharge basin and replace a local residential street. Residents would have lived on both sides of the service road, similar to the segment between Exits 59 and 60.

• Exit 68 was originally planned to be built as a cloverleaf interchange without collective-distributor roads.^[17] Additionally in the 1970s, Suffolk County Department of Public Works was proposing an extension of East Main Street in Yaphank (Suffolk CR 102), that would've terminated at the west end of this interchange.^[18]

• In the 1960s and 1970s Suffolk County Planning Department was considering an extension of Suffolk CR 55 to the Grumman Calverton Naval Air Base between Exits 70 & 71. This would have provided an additional interchange known as Exit 70A. Exit 71 itself was intended to be a cloverleaf interchange with Nugent Drive, and an additional Hamptons Spur of the Long Island Expressway.^[19] After the cancellation of this proposal it was merely proposed to be a complete diamond interchange.

An earlier usage of NY 495 was the Long Island Expressway heading east from the Clearview Expressway, which is currently Interstate 295. In the 1980s, the NY 495 signs were taken down and Interstate 495 was extended to the eastern end of the Long Island Expressway.

[edit] Exit list

This section contains a table that is missing mileposts for one or more junctions. Please help by adding the missing mileposts.

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
New York	New York	0.00		37th-40th Streets	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		0.00		34th Street (NY 495 west), 35th Street - Midtown Manhattan	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		1.01	Queens Midtown Tunnel under the East River
Queens
			13	Borden Avenue - Pulaski Bridge	No westbound exit
		1.53	14	NY 25A east (21st Street) – Long Island City	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			15	Van Dam Street	No eastbound exit
			16	Hunters Point Avenue, Greenpoint Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		2.61	17W	I-278 west (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) – Brooklyn, Staten Island
		2.61	17E	I-278 east (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) – La Guardia Airport, Bronx	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			18	Maurice Avenue	Eastbound exit is part of exit 17
		5.27	19	NY 25 (Queens Boulevard) / Woodhaven Boulevard
			20	Junction Boulevard	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		6.91	21	108th Street	Westbound exit is part of exit 22A
		7.25	22A	Grand Central Parkway – Triboro Bridge, Kennedy Airport
			22B	I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) / College Point Boulevard – Whitestone Bridge, Kennedy Airport
		8.45	23	Main Street
		9.10	24	Kissena Boulevard
		10.02	25	Utopia Parkway, 164th Street, 188th Street
		11.04	26	Francis Lewis Boulevard	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		11.43	27	I-295 (Clearview Expressway) to Grand Central Parkway / NY 25 – Bronx	Signed as exits 27S (south) and 27N (north)
			28	Oceania Street, Francis Lewis Boulevard	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		12.31	29	Springfield Boulevard
		12.91	30	East Hampton Boulevard, Douglaston Parkway	Eastbound exit only
		13.27	31S	Cross Island Parkway south – Kennedy Airport
		13.27	31N	Cross Island Parkway north – Whitestone Bridge	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		14.25	32	Little Neck Parkway
Nassau	Lake Success	15.43	33	Lakeville Road, Community Drive - Great Neck
	North Hills	16.37	34	New Hyde Park Road
		17.57	35	To Northern Parkway / Shelter Rock Road – Manhasset	Westbound exit is via exit 36
			36	Searingtown Road - Port Washington
	North Hempstead	18.95	37	Willis Avenue - Mineola, Roslyn
	East Hills	20.14	38	Northern Parkway east – Hauppauge	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	Old Westbury	20.31	39	Glen Cove Road - Hempstead, Glen Cove
	Jericho	24.07	40	NY 25 – Mineola, Syosset	Signed as exits 40W (west) and 40E (east)
		25.23	41	NY 106 / NY 107 – Hicksville, Oyster Bay	Signed as exits 41S (south) and 41N (north)
			42	Northern Parkway west – New York	Westbound exit only
			42	Northern Parkway east – Hauppauge	Eastbound exit only
	Syosset	43A	Robbins Lane	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		27.07	43	South Oyster Bay Road - Bethpage, Syosset
		27.83	44	NY 135 – Seaford, Syosset	Signed as exits 44S (south) and 44N (north) eastbound
	Plainview	28.17	45	Manetto Hill Road - Plainview, Woodbury	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		28.95	46	Sunnyside Boulevard - Plainview
			48	Round Swamp Road - Old Bethpage, Farmingdale
Suffolk	Huntington
		31.82	49	NY 110 – Amityville, Huntington	Signed as exits 49S (south) and 49N (north)
		34.25	50	Bagatelle Road - Dix Hills, Wyandanch
		35.87	51	NY 231 to Northern Parkway – Babylon, Northport
		38.56	52	CR 4 (Commack Road) – North Babylon, Commack	Westbound exit is part of exit 53
	Smithtown
		39.28	53	Sagtikos Parkway – Bay Shore, Sunken Meadow Park
	Islip
		39.90		Wicks Road (CR 7)	Part of exit 53
		41.72	55	CR 67 (Motor Parkway) – Central Islip
		42.66	56	NY 111 – Islip, Smithtown
	Islandia	44.30	57	NY 454 (Veterans Highway) – Patchogue, Commack
		45.64	58	Old Nichols Road - Central Islip, Nesconset
	Islip	47.50	59	CR 93 (Ocean Avenue) – Oakdale, Ronkonkoma
	Brookhaven	48.19	60	Ronkonkoma Avenue - Lake Ronkonkoma, Sayville	Former CR 29
		49.62	61	CR 19 (Patchogue-Holbrook Road) – Patchogue, Holbrook
		51.24	62	CR 97 (Nicolls Road) – Stony Brook, Blue Point
		53.04	63	CR 83 (North Ocean Avenue) – Mount Sinai, Patchogue
		54.29	64	NY 112 – Patchogue, Port Jefferson
		55.44	65	CR 16 (Horse Block Road) – Centereach, Shirley
		57.41	66	CR 101 (Sills Road) – East Patchogue, Yaphank
		58.55	67	CR 21 (Yaphank Avenue) – Yaphank, Brookhaven
		60.17	68	CR 46 (William Floyd Parkway) – Wading River, Shirley
		64.05	69	Wading River Road - Wading River, Center Moriches	Former CR 25
		65.25	70	CR 111 – Eastport, Manorville
		69.27	71	NY 24 – Hampton Bays, Calverton	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	Riverhead	70.75	72	NY 25 – Riverhead, Calverton	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		71.02	73	CR 58 (Old Country Road) – Greenport, Orient	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance

[edit] NY 495

Mile	Destinations	Notes
0.0	Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River
	39th Street	Westbound exit and entrance
	NY 9A / 42nd Street – Uptown Manhattan, Theater District	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	36th Street	Intersection (eastbound only)
	30th-31st Streets (Lincoln Tunnel Expressway)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	35th Street	Intersection
1.1	To I-495 east / 34th Street – Downtown Manhattan, Madison Square Garden	Intersection

[edit] See also

• Mid-Manhattan Expressway

[edit] References

• Old Hagstroms Maps and Road Atlases

[edit] External links

• nycroads.com LIE info. (7/04)
• Interstate 495 - New York (AARoads.com)
• I-495 (Greater New York Roads)
• Long Island's Official Online Community & LIE Relief Site
• Long Island Expressway @ NYC Road Geek

v • d • e Auxiliary routes of Interstate 95 Florida: 195 • 295 • 395 • 595 • 795 (future) — North Carolina: 295 (future) • 795 — Virginia: 195 • 295 • 395 • 495 • 595 (former) — District of Columbia: 295 • 395 • 495 • 695 (unsigned) — Maryland: 195 • 295 • 395 • 495 • 595 (unsigned) • 695 • 795 • 895 — Delaware: 295 • 495 • 895 (former) — Pennsylvania: 695 (unbuilt) • 895 (unbuilt) — New Jersey: 195 • 295 • 495 (former) • 695 (unbuilt) • 895 (unbuilt) — New York: 295 • 495 • 695 • 895 — Connecticut - Rhode Island - Massachusetts: 195 • 295 • 395 • 495 • 695 (unbuilt) • 895 (unbuilt) — Maine: 195 • 295 • 395 • 495 (unsigned)