Long Island environmentalists and community activists have already declared the plan in its present form dead on arrival. DOT may be sticking to its guns, but considering the bad public reaction to its recent Long Island road expansion plans, like along Route 347, have received lately, it seems that DOT's Long Island office is operating on auto-pilot rather than taking serious political stock of where its proposals stand. Opposition along Rte 347 in Brookhaven is likely a dim shadow of what the DOT would face if it seriously proposed widening a highway like the Southern State Parkway through densely settled portions of Nassau County.

Our view is that a plan as radical and contradiction-laced as LITP will probably remain under the radar screen for some time. Its official adoption and release would create a noisy controversy that Governor Pataki doesn't need as his administration prepares for next year's re-election race.