Prior to and during the expansion of the Long Island Expressway's bridges at Lakeville Road and Community Drive, representatives from the Village of Lake Success, the Great Neck School District and North Shore Hospital met with traffic engineers, contractors and designers from the New York State Department of Traffic (DOT) on a bi-weekly basis to minimize the impact of the construction to the community. Police Chief William Roberts of Lake Success is quick to give credit to the DOT for cooperating during that phase. "Considering the complexity of the project and the proximity of the schools and hospitals nearby, the DOT did a good job in working with us to keep the traffic moving," he said as he took the Record on a tour of the interchange, "but the new lane configuration has caused major confusion. So far there have been two accidents reported, several unreported and many near misses."

Here is the deal. At the intersection of Lakeville and the LIE, under the bridge, there are three southbound lanes. The left lane and the center lane are dedicated 'left turn only' lanes feeding into the eastbound South service road. Only the right lane is permitted to go straight. Before the construction, the center lane could go left or straight. Now that is not allowed.

A driver heading westbound on the North service road who ultimately wants to go south on Lakeville Road must, after making the turn, maneuver across the center lane to the far right lane. Local drivers who slog through this intersection regularly are at least prepared to negotiate this lane shift but the uninitiated make this discovery after they have made the turn as the signage on the North service road does not warn them that they will have to zigzag into the correct position. The lane jostling concerns Chief Roberts along with the stacking tie-ups of cars going south causing the well-known bottleneck between Northern Blvd. and the LIE to be more jammed. He adds, "In the beginning, we had a grace period and issued warnings to drivers who went straight in the left turn only lane. But we have to enforce this traffic restriction, even if we don't agree with it."

According to Eileen Peters, a public relations spokesperson for the DOT, the traffic lights at the intersection were under the jurisdiction of Nassau County before the construction. Now, the new traffic lights fall under the control of the DOT, which must comply with federal guidelines for traffic safety. The high percentage of accidents that occur during left turns against oncoming traffic have caused 'permissive' left turns to fall into disfavor by the feds. Ms. Peters says that DOT traffic counts indicate that more traffic turns left at that intersection than goes south, a statistic disputed by locals.

Those who daily deal with the intersection are unimpressed with the statistics and federal guidelines. The outcome of the new lane configuration has many local leaders and residents disapproving on a scale of disappointed to disgusted. Mayor Robert Bernstein of Lake Success at a recent Village Officials Association meeting alerted the other mayors of the impasse with DOT on the lane situation and has been a vocal critic. He also warns that the traffic demands on the area will increase with the pending applications for the construction of three new facilities on the North service road, namely a Korean church, a Hebrew high school and a mosque.

Although at the beginning of the school year, it was reported that the school buses were experiencing delays, the bus drivers have adapted to the new pattern and now make the left turn at Lakeville and enter the South complex from the service road entrance. However, United Parent- Teacher Council's Traffic and Safety Chairperson, George Rodriguez stated that he had received many complaints from parents regarding the new configuration.

Richard Early, assistant director of the campus support service at North Shore Hospital, stated unequivocally, "It was a bad intersection to begin with and now it's worse." He went on to say that now that North Shore serves a regional service area, many drivers are unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of the twists and turns of lanes. Things are not too peachy down at the Community Drive intersection either. "The traffic light timing at Community Drive is off too and now the back-up of traffic on Community is dramatically increased," Mr. Early adds. Drivers who exit from the LIE westbound who want to make the right on Community Drive must shoot across three lanes to do so.

Nassau County Legislator Lisanne Altmann who drives the section daily said, "It's an accident just waiting to happen there." She and Mayor Bernstein are pressing DOT's regional director Craig Siracusa to set up a special meeting to revisit the issue. Ms. Peters confirmed that the topic has become a "hot" one in the regional office and efforts are under way to find an agreeable date in March.

Community residents may report their pleasure or displeasure with the new arrangement to Mr. Siracusa at the Department of Transportation, State Office Building, 250 Veterans Memorial Highway, Hauppauge, NY 11788. Although the phone number is not listed on the DOT letterhead stationery, it is 631-952-6632. The web page address is (www.dot.state.ny.us/reg/r10)

One local said, "The new lane pattern works just fine. If you want to go in circles. What was that song about getting stuck in the Boston subways?"