Identifying LI's infrastructure needs

At the end of 2009, the Long Island Regional Planning Council released a massive report that had a lot to say about the region's future, including its infrastructure -- the roads, sewer systems, rail lines, water treatment and energy.

But since then, the future has looked dim for the council, with Nassau withdrawing funding and Suffolk saying it will have to do the same. Now the business group Action Long Island says it will piggyback on the part of the council's report dealing with infrastructure. ALI chairman Sheldon Sackstein said Monday the organization's committees on transportation, health and energy will take an inventory of the Island's infrastructure and go a step further than the council did, proposing specific projects to deal with roads, sewer systems and rail links. The data, Sackstein said, will be turned over to the Island's congressional delegation, which ALI hopes will seek federal money for projects.

"We want to put together a playbook," said Sackstein. "We want to be able to say, 'Here's what's missing.' We want to fill in the blanks."

The council's report, called "Sustainable Strategies for Long Island 2035," said the Island's infrastructure has become "outdated" and is "in need of repair."

"Chronic traffic congestion is constant -- the result of limited access to mass transit, low-density development," it said.

Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association, which is working with ALI on the project, said two specific suggestions would be an expansion of the Sagtikos Parkway and a motor truck facility at Pilgrim State Hospital, off the parkway in Brentwood. Such improvements would help to bring about Heartland Town Square, a $4-billion development planned for Brentwood -- a mini-city with 8,999 apartments, 3.4 million square feet of office space and a million square feet of shops and restaurants.

"The more proactive we are, the more we can help public officials," Herbst said.

Sackstein said his organization will be meeting with some members of the Island's congressional delegation at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury June 10.

He said he would like ALI's study to examine the possibility of underground rail systems, with a first pilot project going north to south, from Huntington to Amityville.

Michael White, executive director of the planning council, said the organization continues to work, using money the two counties provided in the past. He agreed future funding is uncertain but said the council still plans to examine "the big picture" of infrastructure issues.

Sackstein said time is of the essence. "This is not a question of one little road," he said. "It's a lot of things" about the Island's future.