County Route E64 (Nassau County, New York)

County Route E64
Map
CR E64, highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by NCDPW
Length4.51 mi[1] (7.26 km)
Major junctions
South endOld Country Road (CR 25) in Mineola
Major intersections NY 25 in Mineola
NY 25B in Williston Park
I.U. Willets Road in Albertson
Northern State Parkway in Roslyn Heights
I-495 in Roslyn Heights
North end NY 25A and Center Drive in Flower Hill
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNew York
CountyNassau
Highway system

County Route E64 is a major, 4.51-mile (7.26 km) county road between the Incorporated Villages of Mineola and Flower Hill, in Nassau County, on Long Island, New York. It is owned by Nassau County and maintained by the Nassau County Department of Public Works.

The portion of the CR E64 south of the Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) is known as Willis Avenue, while the portion from the Long Island Expressway north to Northern Boulevard (NY 25A) is known as Mineola Avenue.[2][3] The portion of the road in Roslyn Heights is honorably named Langone Brothers Avenue, after two local firefighters killed on September 11, 2001.

A small, bypassed section of Willis Avenue exists in Albertson as a local street; this original alignment is now known as Old Willis Avenue.

Mineola Avenue at Old Northern Boulevard (CR D71), Looking north in 2021.

Route description

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CR E64 begins as Willis Avenue at Old Country Road (CR 25) in Mineola.[2][3] It travels north-northwest underneath the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Oyster Bay Branch, then intersecting Second Street (CR E23) shortly thereafter. It then continues and intersects First Street (CR C78) one block to the north-northwest. It then continues straight, eventually intersecting Jericho Turnpike (NY 25). It then continues straight, towards the north-northwest, soon entering the Incorporated Village of Williston Park and intersecting Hillside Avenue (NY 25B). From there, CR E64 continues north through Williston Park, passing and crossing the former route of the Long Island Motor Parkway before entering Albertson. Still continuing north, CR E64 soon intersects I.U. Willets Road in Albertson. It then continues north and north-northeast through Albertson, eventually reaching and crossing underneath the Northern State Parkway; Willis Avenue enters Roslyn Heights at this location. It continues north-northeast, soon reaching and crossing underneath the Long Island Expressway (I-495), and intersecting with its service roads (Powerhouse Road) at-grade, interchanging with the Long Island Expressway via Exit 37.

At Powerhouse Road and the Long Island Expressway, the name of the road changes to Mineola Avenue and turns northwest through Roslyn Heights, eventually reaching Garden Street, and then reaching Warner Avenue one block north, before reaching Hillside Avenue one block later. From there, CR E64 continues northwest, forming the municipal border between the Incorporated Village of Roslyn and the Incorporated Village of Roslyn Estates, gently meandering its way to Old Northern Boulevard (CR D71) at the Flower Hill–Roslyn–Roslyn Estates tripoint. The road then enters the Incorporated Village of Flower Hill, continuing north to Northern Boulevard (NY 25A), where the county route designation terminates. North of this intersection, the road becomes Center Drive – a residential street owned and maintained by the Village of Flower Hill.[2][3]

Old Willis Avenue

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Old Willis Avenue is a short, 0.18-mile (0.29 km) roadway in Albertson, from just north of Nassau Drive to Yale Street; it is a former alignment of Willis Avenue.[4][5][6] Both ends of Old Willis Avenue merge back into the current, newer alignment of Willis Avenue.[4][5][6]

History

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In 1906, portions of Willis Avenue were used as part of the course for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup.[7]

In the 1960s, there was a proposal to link Willis Avenue in Mineola with Hempstead Avenue (CR D09) in West Hempstead, by way of an abandoned Long Island Rail Road right-of-way through the Incorporated Villages of Garden City and Hempstead. The 2.9-mile (4.7 km) highway extension, which was to be known as County Boulevard, was estimated at the time to cost $9.5 million (1963 USD). Two options were to either have the whole route constructed at-grade – or for the road to be built as a surface road through Garden City, and as a depressed expressway through Hempstead; the latter option was cited in 1968 as having an estimated cost of $23 million.[8][9][10] Nassau County, in announcing the proposal, stated that the construction of County Boulevard would ease cross-county travel by providing a direct link between Merrick Road (CR 27) to the south and Northern Boulevard (NY 25A) to the north.[8] The proposal was eventually called off due to strong local opposition and pushback from residents and officials in both villages.[11][10]

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a portion of Mineola Avenue in Roslyn Heights was honorably named Langone Brothers Avenue, in honor of local residents Peter and Thomas Langone.[12] The two brothers, who were volunteer firefighters for the Roslyn Rescue Fire Department, responded to the fire at the World Trade Center following that attacks; both brothers were killed when the Twin Towers collapsed.[12] The honorary name was approved and dedicated by the Nassau County Legislature in September 2003.[13]

In 2021, Willis Avenue's grade crossings with the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Oyster Bay Branch were eliminated, as part of the Long Island Rail Road's Third Track Project.[14][15][16] As part of the reconstruction project, Willis Avenue was lowered in the area to run underneath the tracks, thus eliminating the two grade crossings, which frequently caused congestion and safety hazards along that portion of the road.[14] The elimination of Willis Avenue's two grade crossings – along with others in Mineola – had been proposed by New York State for decades, but had been pushed back and stalled due to community opposition and cost overruns.[8][17][18][19]

CR E64 was formerly designated CR 71, prior to the route numbers in Nassau County being altered.[4][5] It, along with all of the other county routes in Nassau County, became unsigned in the 1970s, when Nassau County officials opted to remove the signs as opposed to allocating the funds for replacing them with new ones that met the latest federal design standards and requirements, as per the federal government's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.[20][21]

Major intersections

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Locationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
Mineola0.000.00Old Country Road (CR 25)
0.210.34Second Street (CR E23)
0.671.08Washington Avenue
0.721.16 NY 25 (Jericho Turnpike) – New York, Orient PointAt-grade intersection
Williston Park1.252.01 NY 25B (Hillside Avenue) – New York, WestburyAt-grade intersection
Albertson2.273.65I.U. Willets Road
2.984.80Princeton Street
Albertson–Roslyn Heights line3.125.02 Northern State Parkway – New York, HauppaugeExit 28 on Northern State Parkway; no commercial vehicles allowed
Roslyn Heights3.245.21 I-495 – New York, RiverheadAccess via North and South Service Roads; Exit 37 on I-495; Willis Avenue becomes Mineola Avenue at this location
3.756.04Warner Avenue
Roslyn–Roslyn Estates–
Roslyn Heights tripoint		3.826.15Hillside Avenue
Flower Hill–Roslyn–
Roslyn Estates tripoint		4.457.16Old Northern Boulevard (CR D71)
Flower Hill4.517.26 NY 25A (Northern Boulevard) – New York, CalvertonRoute designation ends; continues north as Center Drive
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
  •       Route transition

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "CR E64" (PDF). NYSDOT Local Highway Inventory. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c New York State Department of Transportation (2021). "County Roads Listing: Nassau County" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "My Roads". Nassau County, NY. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c "Lynbrook quadrangle, New York - Map Collections". Brooklyn Public Library. Retrieved 2023-01-12.
  5. ^ a b c "Sea Cliff quadrangle, New York - Map Collections". Brooklyn Public Library. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  6. ^ a b "New York State Roadway Inventory System Viewer". gis.dot.ny.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  7. ^ "VANDERBILT CUP RACE.; Application Filed to Hold Big Auto Event in Nassau County". The New York Times. 1906-08-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  8. ^ a b c Silver, Roy R. (1963-06-06). "NASSAU PROPOSES MID-COUNTY ROAD; Hempstead-Mineola Link Would Use Rail Route Cost Put at $9,500,000". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  9. ^ "Planned Road Seen as Ruinous By Merchants of Hempstead". Newsday. June 27, 1963. p. 27 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ a b "Road to the Poorhouse". Newsday. December 27, 1968. pp. 1B – via ProQuest.
  11. ^ Schirmer, Gregory (December 21, 1968). "Garden City Highway Plan Faces tie-up: Closeup". Newsday. p. 9 – via ProQuest.
  12. ^ a b Scotchie, Joe (2017-11-27). "The Langone Brothers: Heroism Across The Generations". The Roslyn News. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  13. ^ "Nassau County Legislature - District 16 Press Releases: County road renamed after two Nassau County heroes". archive.nassaucountyny.gov. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  14. ^ a b Castillo, Alfonso A. (2021-09-03). "Railroad completes work on Willis Avenue grade crossing in Mineola". Newsday. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  15. ^ Pelaez, Robert (2021-09-11). "Willis Avenue reopens as LIRR grade crossings continue to be removed". The Island Now. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  16. ^ "LIRR reopens Willis Ave in Mineola, completing all LIRR expansion project's eight railroad crossing eliminations". Mass Transit. 2021-09-07. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  17. ^ Horvath, Adam (September 11, 1991). "Trying to Bridge a Safety Gap: State reoffers plan for Mineola RR crossings". Newsday. pp. 22, 25.
  18. ^ McQuiston, John T. (1985-06-16). "GRADE CROSSING PLANS READIED FOR MINEOLA". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  19. ^ Saslow, Linda (1991-09-29). "At Mineola's Crossings, It's Stop, Look and Wait". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  20. ^ "Nassau-Suffolk County Road History". 2009-01-03. Archived from the original on 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  21. ^ Anderson, Steve. "County Roads on Long Island". NYCRoads. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2008.[self-published source]
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