| Issue 284 | September 5, 2000 |
What is NYSDOT Hiding?
377 days have passed since the Tri-State Campaign first requested projected traffic volume data for NY State DOT's projects to widen NY Routes 347, 112 and 25 in northern Brookhaven. DOT's first responses ignored the data requests and offered vague defenses of the highway expansion projects. More recent requests have been met with lame talk about the traffic numbers as "preliminary" and in "need of refinement." That's a mountain of bureaucratic baloney. DOT has developed detailed plans for widening 347 over the past two years, and clearly has an idea of the traffic volumes it hopes to accommodate. Anticipated traffic on the road is as much an aspect of the picture of Route 347's future as DOT's plans to rebuild intersections. Interested parties deserve to know what the highway planners know about the road. DOT's Long Island office should reform its Soviet-style attitude about access to information.
