NORTHERN STATE PARKWAY

The 'Northern State Parkway' is a long limited-access parkway on Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. The western terminus is at the Queens-Nassau County line, where the parkway continues westward into New York City as the Grand Central Parkway. The eastern terminus is at New York State Route 347 and New York State Route 454 in Hauppauge. The parkway is designated 'New York State Reference Route 908G', an unsigned reference route. As its name implies, the parkway services communities along the northern half of the island.
In western Nassau County the parkway sports six lanes, three eastbound and three westbound, narrowing to four lanes total in central Nassau at the Wantagh Parkway (Exit 33) and through its twelve miles or so in western Suffolk County, where it ends. It was constructed in stages throughout the 1930s and again post-World War II in the late 1940s/early 1950s until it reached its current terminus in Hauppauge in 1965. The Northern State Parkway is an eastern extension of the Grand Central Parkway. It was part of master planner Robert Moses' aggressive road-building campaign and was built as a sister road to the Southern State Parkway. In recent years its design has quickly become dated due to an increase in commuter traffic using the roadway, and numerous improvements have been made (including the widening from four to six lanes in Central Nassau west to the Nassau-Queens line where it becomes the Grand Central) or are still on paper.
Like its siblings in the State Parkway system on Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and in New York City, commercial truck traffic is banned from the parkway due to low overpasses. The Long Island Expressway (designated Interstate 495, abbreviated LIE) was built later on by Moses to handle truck traffic traveling between New York City and Long Island's famed East End. The LIE runs directly alongside the Northern State in some parts of Nassau County.

Contents

Route description

Nassau County

Suffolk County

History

Future

Exit list

References

External links

Route description

Nassau County

The Northern State Parkway begins at the eastern terminus of the Grand Central Parkway at the Nassau-Queens border near Lake Success. 1/2 mile into Nassau County, the parkway interchanges with Lakeville Road then New Hyde Park Road, the parkway then curves north then back east and runs directly alongside the Long Island Expressway and interchanges with Shelter Rock Road (at this point, the LIE curves north away from the parkway). The parkway continues east and interchanges with Willis Avenue then Roslyn Road. After the Long Island Expressway interchange in Old Westbury, the parkway takes a sharp curve south and widens to eight lanes. Next, the parkway interchages with I.U. Willets Road then Glen Cove Road. After that, the parkway rises to a high grade and enters a directional-T interchange with the Meadowbrook Parkway, at which the parkway narrows to six lanes. The parkway returns to its east-west alignment and transitions to an modern expressway, complete with interstate standard shoulders and new overpasses. The parkway then interchanges with Post Avenue and then goes for 1 mile before entering a trumpet interchange with the Wantagh Parkway, at this point the parkway narrows to four lanes.
Immediately after the Wantagh Parkway interchange, the parkway interchanges with Brush Hollow Road. The parkway winds through Hicksville then curves north to run alongside the Long Island Expressway before interchanging with Routes 106/107. Immediately after the interchange, the ramps from the Long Island Expressway merge with the parkway. The parkway continues to wind through Jericho for .75 miles before interchanging with South Oyster Bay Road then straightens out en route to Route 135/Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway. This tight cloverleaf interchange does not allow movements from the westbound mainline (traffic bound for that exit should use the LIE via exit 37A). The parkway takes a slight curve north and interchanges with Manneto Hill Road then immediately interchanges with the Long Island Expressway in Woodbury. 0.25 miles later, the parkway interchanges with Sunnyside Boulevard.

Suffolk County

As the parkway enters Suffolk County it takes on a more hilly terrain and thus curves more frequently; in addition, the exit points become more sparse as the parkway winds through the more rural sections of northern Suffolk. The parkway interchanges with Round Swamp Road. The parkway continues with sparse exits, frequent curves, and takes on hilly terrains while interchanging with NY 110, Wolf Hill Road, NY 231, and Commack Road. The parkway then continues into a cloverleaf interchange with the Sagtikos Parkway and Sunken Meadow Parkway (which is the same mainline). The parkway then provides one last interchange with New Highway before finally terminating at NY 454 and becomes NY 347 in Hauppauge.

History

Between Exits 38 and 39, the northern terminus of Bethpage State Parkway and southern terminus of Caumsett State Parkway were proposed to have an unconventional interchange at Exits 38A and 38B respectively.
Three service areas used to exist in widened areas of the median along the Parkway. The first was east of Meadowbrook State Parkway; the second was west of 'Suffolk CR 4 (Commack Road)'; the third was at the former terminus of the Northern State Parkway and existing terminus of the Sagtikos State Parkway.
The only evidence of the formerly shared termini of the Northern and Sagtikos State Parkways can be found in what is now the east-to-south ramp of Exit 44, which is wider than the other ramps, as well as those for Exit 45 to the Sunken Meadow State Parkway.
Beyond NY 454, there were plans to extend the Northern State Parkway further east through Caleb Smith State Park Preserve, then along the Nissequogue River. After crossing New York State Route 111, it would have turned south across Long Island until entering Connetquot River State Park Preserve, where it would include additional park entrances, then turn west finally terminating at Heckscher State Parkway between Suffolk CR 17(Carleton Avenue) and New York State Route 27.

Future

The interchange with New Highway in Commack will become a full diamond when the NY 347 reconstruction project is complete.

Exit list

County	Location	Mile1	#	Destinations	Notes
Queens-Nassau County line. Northern State Parkway westbound becomes the Grand Central Parkway.
Nassau	Lake Success	0.54	25S-N	Lakeville Road (CR 11) – New Hyde Park, Great Neck	Single exit 25 eastbound.
		1.35	26	New Hyde Park Road (CR 5) – New Hyde Park, North Hills
	Searingtown	2.53	27S-N	Shelter Rock Road (CR 8) – Searingtown, Manhasset	Single exit 27 westbound.
	Albertson	3.85	28S-N	Willis Avenue (CR 71) – East Williston, Mineola	Single exit 28 westbound.
		4.40	29	Roslyn Road (CR 7) – East Hills, East Williston
	Old Westbury	5.13	29A		Westbound exit only.
		5.60	30	I.U. Willets Road (CR 31) – Albertson, Old Westbury	Eastbound only
	Carle Place	6.99	31	Glen Cove Road (CR 1) – Glen Cove, Hempstead	To NY 25 (eastbound).
			31A	Meadowbrook State Parkway south – Jones Beach	To NY 25 (westbound).
	Westbury	8.65	32	Post Avenue (CR 4) – Old Westbury, Westbury	Former cloverleaf interchange, converted into a diamond interchange.
		9.77	33	Wantagh State Parkway south – Jones Beach
			34	Brush Hollow Road (CR 63) – Westbury
	Jericho	11.91	35
	Plainview	13.65	36	South Oyster Bay Road (CR 9) – Bethpage, Syosset
	Woodbury	14.53	36A-B		Eastbound exit and entrance.
		14.92	37	Manetto Hill Road (CR 28) – Woodbury, Plainview
			37A	, Riverhead	Same direction connections only.
		15.60	38	Sunnyside Boulevard (CR 190) – Plainview
			38A-B	Bethpage State Parkway south/Caumsett State Parkway north – Bethpage State Park, Cold Spring Harbor	Unbuilt interchange.
Suffolk	Melville		39	Round Swamp Road – West Hills, Farmingdale	To Bethpage State Park.
		18.38	40		To Republic Airport and Melville.
	Dix Hills	21.04	41	Wolf Hill Road – Dix Hills, South Huntington
		23.52	42S	– Babylon
			42N	– Northport, Huntington	Westbound signage does not list CR 35.
			42A-B	, Babylon	Unbuilt interchange for the unbuilt Babylon-Northport Expressway.
	Brentwood	26.38	43	CR 4 (Commack Road) – Commack
		26.56	44-45	Sagtikos State Parkway south/Sunken Meadow State Parkway north – South Shore, Sunken Meadow State Park	Single interchange.
	Commack	26.68	46	New Highway	Eastbound exit, westbound entrance.
		28.88	Northern State Parkway eastbound merges with NY 347/NY 454 eastbound.

References

1. Traffic Data Report - NY 908F to NY 953B

External links

★ nycroads.com Northern State Parkway Overview at nycroads.com