Southern State Parkway

Southern State Parkway
Route information
Length:	25.53 mi (41.09 km)
Existed:	1927 – present
Major junctions
West end:	Belt Parkway / Cross Island Parkway in Elmont
East end:	Heckscher Parkway / Sagtikos Parkway in West Islip
Location
Counties:	Nassau, Suffolk
Highway system
Numbered highways in New York Interstate • U.S. • N.Y. (former) • Reference • County

The Southern State Parkway (also known as Southern State or Southern Parkway) is a 25.53-mile (41.09 km) limited-access highway on Long Island, New York, in the United States. The parkway begins at an interchange with the Belt and Cross Island parkways in Elmont, in Nassau County, and travels east to an interchange with the Sagtikos State Parkway in West Islip, Suffolk County, where the Southern State Parkway becomes the Heckscher State Parkway. The Southern State Parkway comprises the western portion of unsigned New York State Route 908M (NY 908M), with the Heckscher Parkway occupying the eastern section.

Construction of the highway, designed by Robert Moses, began in 1925. The first section of the parkway opened in 1927. It reached its original eastern terminus (Bay Shore Road) in 1949, and was extended to its current eastern terminus in 1962.

Route description

Overheads at the western end of the parkway.

The Southern State Parkway begins adjacent to the border of Queens at an interchange with the Belt and Cross Island parkways in Elmont, a hamlet in the Nassau County town of Hempstead. It heads eastward, serving communities along the southern half of Long Island before ending at an interchange with the Sagtikos State Parkway at West Islip, Suffolk County. At this point, the highway becomes the Heckscher State Parkway, which continues for another 8 miles (13 km) to Heckscher State Park. The Southern State Parkway is inventoried by the New York State Department of Transportation as part of NY 908M, an unsigned reference route that also applies to the Heckscher Parkway.

Southern State Parkway is noted for its sharp curves. The section of the parkway between exit 17 (Hempstead Avenue) and exit 32 (NY 110) is particularly treacherous, as the lack of adequate acceleration and deceleration lanes and numerous bends in the road have caused a number of fatal accidents, making it one of the more dangerous stretches of highway on Long Island. Roadway improvements in the 1980s, including a continuous median guardrail and enhanced super-elevation of curves have helped to improve safety.

The westbound direction of the parkway is split into a local/express lane setup, consisting of two lanes each, from the western terminus to between exits 40 and 41. East of that point, the highway has three lanes for all traffic.

History

Construction began in 1925 under the direction of Robert Moses, for the purpose of improving access to Jones Beach. The land used had originally been a conduit path for water, owned by Brooklyn.^{[citation needed]} The first section of the parkway, eastward from the Queens–Nassau county line, opened in 1927. By 1932, the four-lane, undivided road extended to Suffolk County. Further extensions used more modern road construction principles. It reached its originally planned eastern terminus (Bay Shore Road) in 1949, and its current eastern terminus (Heckscher State Parkway) in 1962. Following the post-war housing boom on Long Island, the parkway was widened and straightened in numerous places to serve commuters traveling at speeds unanticipated when the road was first constructed.

Southern Parkway's first exit at Elmont is numbered 13. Cross Island Parkway once began the exit numbering scheme at the Whitestone Bridge as exit 1 and continued east on Southern State Parkway, before the construction of the Belt Parkway. The Cross Island Parkway's exit numbering scheme was changed to match the Belt Parkway's easterly number progression from the Belt's start at the Gowanus Expressway to the current Cross Island's terminus, now exit 36 at the Whitestone Bridge.

Originally constructed as a four-lane parkway, similar to Northern State Parkway, Southern Parkway was widened in the early 1950s to eight lanes from the city line to Hempstead Lake, and six lanes east of there. Since Southern Parkway was originally conceived as a "linear park" to connect Jones Beach and other state parks with the city, it was built in a meandering style appropriate for the low speeds and traffic density of the day. Stone and concrete arched overpasses were purposely constructed with low clearances for both aesthetic reasons and to ensure that commercial traffic wouldn't be able to use the parkway system.

Of interest is the original route of the Southern State at Hempstead Lake. Before the current fill that carries the present day parkway across the lake was built, traveling east before Eagle Avenue, the parkway veered sharply to the right, continued on what now is the park road in Hempstead Lake Park, crossed the dam at the southern end of Hempstead Lake, and turned sharply left on Peninsula Blvd. The divided section of Peninsula Blvd. next to Hempstead Lake Park is actually the old Southern State Parkway, which was abandoned for a number of years until Nassau County bought the roadway in the late 1940s. Between the Little East Neck Road underpass and the Belmont Avenue interchange (exit 37), the median of the parkway is lined with pine trees, before approaching Belmont Lake State Park.

Just east of exit 32, a service area used to operate beneath the underpass of County Route 47 (CR 47, named Great Neck Road) until 1985. Exit 32, which is for NY 110, also once included CR 47. Another service area was once located between exits 17 and 18. Lastly, there were once toll booths located on the parkway between exits 13 and 14 near its western terminus at the Cross Island Parkway until 1978, although many road maps covered the toll booths until the early-to-mid-1980s.

Exit list

County	Location	Mile	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Nassau	North Valley Stream	0.00		Belt Parkway west	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		0.00		Cross Island Parkway north	Southern terminus of Cross Island Parkway
		0.58	13	Central Avenue / Linden Boulevard – Valley Stream, Elmont	Signed as 13S (south) and 13N (north) eastbound
		1.55	14	North Fletcher Avenue – Valley Stream	No westbound exit; serves Valley Stream State Park
			15A	Valley Stream State Park	Eastbound exit only
		2.23	15	Corona Avenue	Signed as 15S (south) and 15N (north) westbound; serves Franklin Avenue eastbound
	Franklin Square		16	Franklin Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	Malverne Park Oaks	3.56	17	Hempstead Avenue – West Hempstead, Malverne	Signed as 17S (south) and 17N (north)
	Lakeview	4.72	18	Eagle Avenue	Serves Hempstead Lake State Park
	South Hempstead	5.38	19	Peninsula Boulevard – Hempstead, Rockville Centre	Signed as 19S (south) and 19N (north)
		6.37	20	Baldwin Road / Grand Avenue	Signed as 20S (south) and 20N (north)
	Roosevelt	7.55	21	Nassau Road – Hempstead, Freeport
	North Merrick	8.55	22	Meadowbrook Parkway – Jones Beach, Mineola	Signed as 22S (south) and 22N (north)
		9.06	23	Meadowbrook Road
		9.31	24	Merrick Avenue – Westbury, Merrick	Signed as 24S (south) and 24N (north)
	North Bellmore	10.60	25	NY 106 – East Meadow, Bellmore	Signed as 25S (south) and 25N (north); serves Nassau University Medical Center
			26	Bellmore Road	Eastbound exit and entrance
	North Wantagh	11.77	27	Wantagh Parkway – Westbury, Jones Beach	Signed as 27S (south) and 27N (north)
		12.50	28	Wantagh Avenue – Levittown, Wantagh	Signed as 28S (south) and 28N (north)
	Wantagh	13.35	28A	NY 135 – Seaford, Syosset	Signed as 28A S (south) and 28A N (north)
	North Massapequa	13.79	29	NY 107 (Hicksville Road) – Hicksville, Massapequa	Signed as 29S (south) and 29N (north) westbound
		14.94	30	Broadway – Massapequa, Farmingdale	Signed as 30S (south) and 30N (north)
		15.38	31	Bethpage Parkway north / Linden Street – Massapequa Park, Bethpage State Park	Exit B1 (Bethpage Parkway); southern terminus of Bethpage Parkway; no access to Linden Street westbound
Suffolk	North Amityville	16.88	32	NY 110 – Huntington, Amityville	Signed as 32S (south) and 32N (north); CR 1 (County Line Road) accessible via exit 32S eastbound.
	North Lindenhurst	18.30	33	NY 109 – Farmingdale, West Babylon	Same-direction connections only
			34	CR 28 (New Highway)	Exit only westbound, use NY 109 for re-entry; parclo interchange eastbound
		19.03	35	CR 3 (Wellwood Avenue) – Lindenhurst
	West Babylon	20.12	36	CR 2 (Straight Path) – Lindenhurst, Wyandanch	Signed as 36S (south) and 36N (north)
		21.73	37	CR 107 (Belmont Avenue) – West Babylon	Signed as 37S (south) and 37N (north)
	North Babylon	22.12	38	Belmont Lake State Park	Parclo interchange with eastbound loop ramps
		23.06	39	NY 231 (Deer Park Avenue) – Deer Park, Babylon	Signed as 39S (south) and 39N (north)
	West Islip	24.87	40	Robert Moses Causeway south – Ocean Beaches
			41	CR 57 (Bay Shore Road) – Bay Shore, Deer Park	Signed as 41S (south) and 41N (north)
		25.53	41A	Sagtikos Parkway north – Sunken Meadow State Park, Kings Park
		25.53		Heckscher Parkway	Continuation beyond Sagtikos Parkway
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

• New York Roads portal

External links

• Interchange of the Week; Monday, March 19, 2001 (Empire State Roads)
• Southern Parkway (Greater New York Roads)