Sidewalk, crosswalk improvements coming to Huntington Station this spring

Motorists who use New York Avenue through Huntington Station, get ready for more construction: A $4.6 million project to upgrade the roadway and pedestrian areas between Depot Road and Ninth Street is set to begin soon, town officials said.

The officials hosted an information session last week at the Community First Aid Squad in Huntington Station to discuss the project, which is being funded by the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative program. 

The work is the beginning of improvements promised to the community for years. 

The plan includes widening and updating sidewalks; making new, safer crosswalks; and adding garden areas and pocket parks. The improvements might expand as far south as 11th Street, officials said.

Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said in an email the initiative will help revitalize the area and its aesthetic, and restore a walkable downtown area to attract pedestrians, including commuters using the Long Island Rail Road station. That station is about 600 feet north of where New York Avenue and Depot Road converge. 

“It’s a long-overdue effort to restore the Huntington Station area to a social, [cultural] and economic center of the town,” Smyth's email said.

Coming soon: Repaving NY Avenue

Town spokeswoman Christine Geed said in an email the project will begin “shortly and have to be done by the end of June" because of the state's repaving schedule of New York Avenue. A sewer installation project unrelated to the initiative also has to be completed by the end of June, ahead of the repaving.

That work — repaving 1.6 miles of the main north-south roadway, from Depot Road to Jericho Turnpike — is expected to begin this summer and be completed by the end of the year, a state Department of Transportation spokesman told Newsday in an email Friday.

Since last summer, New York Avenue through the heart of Huntington Station has been ripped up for the sewer installation. Patched pavement and metal plates in the roadway have made it a difficult ride for motorists, Newsday previously reported.

The hamlet has been a target of revitalization plans in recent years.

In 2023, Huntington Station was named the winner of the sixth round of the state's Downtown Revitalization Initiative — an economic development program aimed at creating more opportunities for downtowns by awarding money for selected projects.

In 2024, the state announced that six projects in the community would be funded by a $9.7 million grant from the program. Project ideas were submitted by a committee of local stakeholders. The streetscape project is the first to be tackled and received the largest portion of the grant.

Other projects in the works

The other approved projects that will eventually move forward in Huntington Station are:

• A $2 million project to redevelop the Huntington Opportunity Resource Center at 1264-1268 New York Ave.
• A $1.09 million grant to MDG Property Owners LLC to build two three-story buildings at 1328 New York Ave.
• A $600,000 grant to assist small businesses with paying for exterior renovations.
• An $802,000 grant to redesign a portion of a parking lot south of the Huntington LIRR station.
• A $536,000 grant for the Huntington Public Library Station Branch to create a new open space and play area.

Frank Cosentino, president of the Huntington Station Business Improvement District, said he’s "finally" encouraged that there is now action behind ideas that have been floated for years.

“It’s no longer just hearsay and talk,” he said. “I think it will be nothing but good for the Huntington Station area.”