Sunrise Highway expansion proposal: Suffolk politicians call for third lane from Patchogue to Center Moriches
Few things unite Long Islanders more than a shared hatred of traffic, though opinions vary on how to solve it.
On Tuesday, a group of Suffolk politicians gathered in Patchogue to call on the state to fix what they say is a bottleneck along Sunrise Highway between Exits 53 and 59, from Patchogue to Center Moriches. Their proposed solution: add a third lane in each direction to that roughly 10-mile stretch of road.
The group of Republicans included State Sen. Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue), Assemb. Joe DeStefano (R-Medford), Legis. Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue) and Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, who said the expansion is necessary to accommodate growing traffic, especially from NYU Langone’s planned expansion of its Patchogue hospital near Exit 54.
"This is about safety," Murray said. "This is about ending the bottleneck ... it used to be Friday evening, Friday afternoon in the summertime was when you'd see everything backed up. No longer — it’s 365 [days per year]."
A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation said any expansion for the highway was not imminent.
"While there are no immediate plans in place for the stretch of highway under discussion, the Department recognizes the importance of service roads along Sunrise Highway and has added an upgrade of these facilities to reduce congestion to its long-range plan for consideration in future capital programming," spokesman Stephen Canzoneri said.
Brian Gilligan, chief of operations for South Country Ambulance, and Daniel Glenn, of the North Patchogue Fire Department, said they support the project, noting difficulties navigating backups during emergencies on the western portion of the stretch.
But Michael Shenoda, a professor of traffic engineering at Farmingdale State College, said the eastern part of the stretch, toward Exit 59, is more rural and state traffic data does not yet justify a third lane there — unless future development brings more traffic. The proposal would make the highway three lanes for about three miles east of the junction with the William Floyd State Parkway.
"The western end of that stretch I would say it definitely would benefit. The eastern end of the stretch — maybe still not necessary," Shenoda said.
State data shows that at Exit 58, traffic counts are around the same as what they were two decades ago. Farther west at Exit 53, traffic increased almost 50% between 2000 and 2019, then fell slightly between 2019 and 2025.
Besides the NYU Langone expansion, a planned development could bring thousands of residents to around 550 new housing units planned for Mastic Beach — south of Exit 58 — in the coming years. The Mastic Beach-Mastic-Shirley peninsula, where over 50,000 people live, experiences traffic bottlenecks crossing the Long Island Rail Road tracks, because there are only three roads that connect the tri-hamlet peninsula to the rest of Long Island.
"You can make more lanes and bring more people, but how are they getting across the railroad tracks?" Maura Spery, a former mayor of the since-disbanded Village of Mastic Beach, told Newsday by phone.
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico said he wants the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to expand railroad crossings too, but he sees it as a separate issue from the Sunrise Highway lane expansion.
Political leaders at the conference said the state has for years underfunded Long Island’s infrastructure while prioritizing other parts of the state, like New York City.
"The investment or lack thereof in Long Island and in Suffolk County is shocking," Romaine said. "We send a ton of money up to Albany and we do not even see a portion of that money coming back to legitimate transportation needs."
Canzoneri did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that assertion.
Murray said he did not have a cost estimate for the road expansion, though he said adding a third lane wouldn’t require land acquisition or cutting down trees, since there is a wide right of way.
Shenoda, the traffic engineer, said the cost could be in the tens of millions of dollars and would depend on whether work would need to be done on bridges and overpasses.
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