A developer wants to build a 16-mile tunnel under the Long Island Sound. The projected $10 billion project would be the longest highway tunnel in the world and would cost taxpayers nothing – that is unless they use the tunnel.
Developer Vincent Polimeni plans to fund the tunnel build with private money and recoup its costs by charging $25 to cross the bridge each way and with advertising (presumably inside the tunnel).
He told the Associated Press that the tunnel between Oyster Bay and Rye would allow travelers to avoid New York City’s dreadful traffic and free up congestion in the city. The tunnel would consist of three tubes; two carrying three lanes of traffic each direction and a third for maintenance purposes. The tunnel’s plan is being viewed by the State and if approved could be completed by 2025.
However, the plan is getting major resistance from the towns. Rye’s Mayor Steven Otis said, “We cannot in Westchester (County) absorb the additional traffic that this tunnel would bring to our roads. It simply would make our roads nonfunctional.”
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+ The Boston Globe: Developer proposes tunnel beneath Long Island Sound (via Autoblog)