County Route 46 (Suffolk County, New York)

County Route 46
William Floyd Parkway
Route information
Maintained by SCDPW
Length:	17.33 mi[1] (27.89 km)
Existed:	1931 (1961) – present
Major junctions
South end:	CR 75 in Smith Pt. County Park
	CR 80 in Shirley NY 27 in Shirley I-495 near Shirley NY 25 in Ridge
North end:	NY 25A in East Shoreham
Highway system
Numbered highways in New York Interstate • U.S. • N.Y. (former) • Reference • County (Suffolk) ← CR 45 CR 47 →

Suffolk County Road 46 is a major county road in eastern Suffolk County, New York. It runs north and south from County Route 75 in Smith Point County Park (part of the Fire Island National Seashore) to New York State Route 25A near the border of Shoreham and Wading River. The road is known as the William Floyd Parkway along its entire length, and is named after William Floyd, a Long Island native and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.

History

Original ambitions

William Floyd Parkway originally was going to include segments of two different formerly proposed state parkways: the Smith Point Spur and the Wildwood Spur.

• The Smith Point Spur was to begin at the traffic circle in Smith Point County Park, and run as far north as what was then the never-built Southern State Parkway extension^[2], but instead became Sunrise Highway. The traffic circle was originally intended for an extension of Ocean Parkway, but instead remains for County Road 75 to this day.
• The Wildwood Spur was intended to begin at the never-built North Fork extension of the Northern State Parkway,^[3] cross over New York State Route 25A, then curve eastbound, winding through the hills of Shoreham and Wading River, until finally reaching Wildwood State Park.

The road as built

The section that was originally supposed to be a Smith Point Parkway Spur was a two lane highway with flanking frontage roads until the mid-1970s when this section was widened. Near the vicinity of the Montauk Line of the Long Island Rail Road, a series of intersections known as "The Circles" were built on the south side of the tracks. Some sections of these roads were turned over to developers. Today, the only segment that's two lanes wide is the Smith Point Bridge.

Camp Upton Road was originally part of Suffolk CR 46, until New York State Route 27 (Sunrise Highway) was extended through the area in 1957, and an interchange was built for a realigned section. North of Sunrise Highway, the road runs alongside Brookhaven Airport.

Suffolk County Road 46A was the original designation for the alignment along the west side of Brookhaven National Laboratory between Yaphank-Moriches Road and south of the unnumbered interchange with New York State Route 25. It was eventually integrated as part of Suffolk County Road 46 while the old Suffolk CR 46 (Upton Road) was abandoned to both the lab and private developers. The interchange with the Long Island Expressway was built at the geographic center of Long Island. Few people know for certain which part of it is the center, but some believe it's located on the northeast quadrant of the interchange. The cloverleaf intersection features collector-distributor roads on the Long Island Expressway, an upgrade from the typical cloverleaf interchange that was originally designed for the site.^[4] Far off the northwest corner of this interchange is the site of the former Suffolk Meadows horse racing track, which today stands as the site of some housing developments.

The median widens at the intersection of Longwood Road (former Suffolk CR 24) and the entrance to Brookhaven Labs. This occurs to allow space for what was planned to be a diamond interchange. Other formerly proposed interchanges in the area include an extension of Suffolk County Road 101, and the unbuilt Suffolk County Road 102.

North of the unnumbered interchange with NY 25 in Ridge, there was to be another interchange with Suffolk County Road 111. From there, the median widened once again, as William Floyd Parkway intersects with the eastern terminus of Whiskey Road and the west side of Brookhaven State Park, which was formerly part of Brookhaven Labs until the mid-1970s. North of the Whiskey Road intersection, there are no other roads or interchanges until the terminus at New York State Route 25A. This northernmost section of highway is quite wide, with U-turn ramps available for turnarounds. The intersection at State Route 25A, which was originally proposed to be an interchange, now features channelized turns and two separate traffic light controls due to the extremely wide median of Suffolk CR 46.

Bridge to Connecticut

Besides the proposed spur to Wildwood State Park, there was intended to be an extension to a new bridge across Long Island Sound to either New Haven or East Haven, Connecticut between the 1950s and 1970s. Upon completion of the bridge, CR 46 would be transferred to the New York State Department of Transportation in exchange for New York State Route 25A. The NYSDOT would then upgrade the roadway to Interstate Highway standards, allowing Interstate 91 to continue southward from New Haven, its current southern terminus, to usurp CR 46.

After plans for this bridge failed in the 1970s, the option of a connection to a proposed ferry port between Wading River and the New Haven area was suggested, but this proposal also collapsed.^[5]

Major intersections

The entire route is in Brookhaven, Suffolk County.

Mile	Destinations	Notes
	CR 75 (Fire Island Beach Road)	Traffic circle, southern terminus
	CR 80 (Montauk Highway)
	NY 27 (Sunrise Highway) – New York, Montauk	NY 27 exit 58
	I-495 (Long Island Expressway) – New York, Riverhead	I-495 exit 68
	NY 25 (Middle Country Road) – New York, Riverhead	Interchange
	NY 25A – Port Jefferson, Wading River	Northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

1. ^ "County Road System – County of Suffolk, New York" (PDF). Suffolk County Department of Public Works. December 29, 2005. http://www.greaternyroads.info/pdfs/suffcr.pdf. Retrieved April 2, 2010. 
2. ^ Anderson, Steve. "Southern State Parkway". NYCRoads. http://www.nycroads.com/roads/southern/. Retrieved March 18, 2010. 
3. ^ Anderson, Steve. "Northern State Parkway". NYCRoads. http://www.nycroads.com/roads/northern/. Retrieved March 18, 2010. 
4. ^ Suffolk County Department of Planning. Proposed Park and Ride Center at Yaphank (Map). 
5. ^ Anderson, Steve. "William Floyd Parkway". NYCRoads. http://www.nycroads.com/roads/CR-46/. Retrieved March 18, 2010. 

External links

• Smith Point Bridge @ NYCROADS.com
• Smith Point Bridge History (Ken Spooner)