Why Long Island Sound bridge proposals, connecting to Connecticut, Westchester and beyond, keep coming back

When a Connecticut-based housing developer proposed a $50 billion bridge across Long Island Sound recently, he garnered a flurry of local media coverage.

Given Long Island’s cul-de-sac geography and notorious traffic, any proposal to boost connectivity is bound to get attention on the Island.

But the idea itself is not new: Proposals for a cross-Sound bridge go back to at least 1938. Most recently, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo commissioned a $5 million feasibility study for a bridge or tunnel crossing in 2017.

Supporters of the idea argue it could bolster Long Island’s economy, increase access to New England and facilitate evacuations in the case of a major hurricane or other disaster. But past efforts have failed because of their cost, environmental impact and opposition from communities where the project would be built.

Steve Shapiro, the developer with the latest pitch, has not released any detailed plan for connecting I-95 in western Bridgeport, Connecticut, to the Sunken Meadow State Parkway in Kings Park. Shapiro estimated the outlay for a bridge for vehicles and a train by extrapolating from the cost per mile of New York's Tappan Zee Bridge. He said it would be paid for with a $39 or $40 toll each way, although he wants a federal loan for constructing the private project.

"I think [the bridge] would be great for the Island, great for us here in Connecticut, and something that's long overdue," he told Newsday.

Bill Bleyer, president of the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Bay, noted there's little detail about the route, costs and funding. While he opposes the idea on environmental and economic grounds, he acknowledged the idea never seems to die.

"Like Frankenstein, it just keeps coming back from the grave," he said.

Below is a brief history of Sound crossing proposals and their pitfalls.

A brief history of Sound bridge and tunnel proposals

The first proposed Sound crossing was on the East End. The 18-mile bridge, put forward by U.S. Sen. Royal Copeland of New York in 1938, would have connected Orient Point to either Connecticut or Rhode Island via Plum and Fishers islands, but Copeland died the same year and the idea faded.

In 1957, then-Gov. Averell Harriman rejected two proposals for bridges — one from the North Fork to Rhode Island and another from Oyster Bay to Port Chester in Westchester County, citing cost and low traffic predictions.

In the 1960s, urban planner Robert Moses championed building a bridge from Oyster Bay to Rye. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller initially supported the proposal, but abandoned it in 1973 amid opposition in Westchester and Long Island’s North Shore. Opponents donated 3,000 acres of waterfront land to create the Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge, blocking the path of the proposed bridge to the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway. (That expressway, planned to accommodate the bridge, was left ending abruptly at Jericho Turnpike.)

In the mid-2000s, Centre Island developer Vincent Polimeni proposed a road and rail tunnel from Rye to Oyster Bay and even engaged a prominent tunneling firm. The project would have been privately funded through a $25 toll, but it failed to get state support and lost traction after the 2008 U.S. financial crisis.

In 2017, Cuomo commissioned a feasibility study for a bridge or tunnel from three Long Island locations: Oyster Bay (to Port Chester or Rye), Kings Park (to Bridgeport or Devon, Connecticut) and Wading River (to New Haven or Branford, Connecticut).

The report noted the crossings could improve Long Island’s access to freight and expanded labor markets, promoting economic growth in the region. It recommended a tunnel or a tunnel-bridge combination from Oyster Bay, or a bridge or tunnel-bridge combination from Kings Park "for further study."

Afterward, Cuomo briefly promoted the option for a tunnel from Nassau to Westchester County, but Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino, then-State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-East Northport), then-State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), and a coalition of North Shore mayors opposed the idea.

Facing strong opposition in Westchester, too, Cuomo abandoned the proposal.

Common pitfalls

Past efforts to build a tunnel or bridge have been complicated by the fact that Connecticut’s political leaders have not shown the same interest as New York’s in a Sound crossing. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont recently called the proposal "incredibly complicated and supremely expensive."

The Oyster Bay-to-Westchester projects that Rockefeller and Cuomo promoted would have been entirely within New York, avoiding the need for bistate cooperation but also reducing the crossings’ usefulness as timesavers for trips to New England.

Opposition to past projects has been spearheaded by local residents and environmental groups worried about impacts on wetlands, the Sound, waterfront views and local traffic. Environmental concerns stem from the construction process, as well as long-term runoff from a bridge into the Sound.

The 2017 feasibility study, prepared by Montreal-based engineering firm WSP, said tunnels have less environmental impact by going underneath sensitive wetland areas. However, they are far more expensive: A bridge from Oyster Bay to Rye could cost $8.5 billion, but a tunnel would cost between $31.5 billion and $55.4 billion (in 2016 dollars), depending on the number of lanes and tubes. Tolls for such a crossing could be expected to generate a maximum of $556 million annually, it said.

A mid-Island crossing like Shapiro’s proposal could substantially reduce travel time to Connecticut for those willing to pay the toll, and he told Newsday he thinks it would reduce congestion on the Island. But according to WSP’s modeling, which looked at bridges and tunnels for vehicles, a new crossing could actually divert New York City traffic onto Long Island — with total time spent in traffic increasing about 1% to 4% in Nassau County if built in Oyster Bay, or by 6% to 11% in Suffolk if built in Kings Park.

Shapiro told Newsday he is in touch with someone who "works in Washington for the President's administration" about his proposal, but declined to name them.

The U.S. Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.