Redirect billions for rail tunnel to car tunnel
Mega-developer Vince Polimeni is floating the idea of a $10-billion, 16-mile tunnel under LI Sound, from Highway 135 in Syosset to Rye that would be entirely funded by private investors.
In response to the story "MTA touts LIRR-East Side plan" [News, March 21] and the subsequent letter ["LIRR tunnel not needed," March 25], both are off the mark. To even think of sending any money to save Long Island Bus is absurd.
The one and only project the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should ever be permitted to consider is the Cross-Sound Tunnel to connect the northern terminus of the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway with Interstate 287 in Rye, in Westchester County, similar to the Bayville-to-Rye bridge envisioned by Robert Moses.
Moses made the proposal in 1966. Unfortunately, several factors, not the least of which was the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority merger with the MTA, killed the project. This is a project whose time has come. If the $8.1 billion is truly there, the economic benefits would be enormous, and ecological issues would be minimal with a tunnel.
Just think how much less traffic there would be on the Long Island Expressway, Northern State Parkway, Cross Island Parkway and the Throgs Neck and Whitestone bridges.
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