Huntington LIRR south parking lot expansion completed

The expansion of the south parking lot at the LIRR station in Huntington has been completed, with an additional $4 million improvements in store.

The lot now has 253 new parking spaces, an increase of 29 since renovations started last fall, town officials said.

Other updates include a new accessible sidewalk on the east side of Fairground Avenue; drainage and lighting improvements; resurfacing with new asphalt paving; two-way traffic flow and reconstruction of the southern retaining wall, Huntington Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said in a news release.

“The best is yet to come,” Smyth said. “We anticipate moving forward on more commuter infrastructure upgrades at the Huntington train station with recently approved grant funding.”

The latest lot renovation was paid for with approximately $431,000 from the town Department of General Services and $175,000 from the operating and capital budgets approved by the town board in February 2021 and $140,000 approved by the board in June 2021. 

EV conduits were also installed for the potential installation of electric vehicle charging stations, the release said.

Next up are improvements including elevator replacement in the north garage, structural concrete repairs to the town's pedestrian footbridge over the tracks at the western side of the garage, paving the north lot and additional paving on the south side, such as the entrances and exits to the south garage.

Those updates will be paid for with $4 million secured under the State and Municipal Facilities Program.

In 2018, the town announced the money from the program would be used for parking facilities improvements at the Huntington LIRR Train Station.

On April 5, 2022, town officials received state authorization to proceed with reimbursable improvements.

Town spokeswoman Lauren Lembo said the state doesn't release the grant funds until after expenditures to perform the work as outlined in the grant application have been made.