Edgewood Avenue roadwork in St. James to finish by mid-November, Smithtown officials say

Smithtown officials say they expect to finish by mid-November a $1.1 million project to rebuild Edgewood Avenue, a major thoroughfare that runs through St. James.

The reconstruction project will stretch along Edgewood Avenue from Jericho Turnpike to North Country Road, or Route 25. The work should wrap up by the second week of November, Supervisor Ed Wehrheim said in an interview.

“It was in pretty sad shape, so [the upgrades] will be a huge improvement because that’s a main artery in the town going from east to west,” Wehrheim said.

The roadwork project is being funded through a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which New York State distributed to the town earlier this year.

The town’s highway department broke ground in August on what officials said was a full-scale reconstruction project for a road that sorely needed it. So far, the concrete work has been completed around Nesaquake Middle School, Wehrheim said. Highway crews are working on the south side of Edgewood Avenue to install new sidewalks and curbs, and in two weeks, will be working on the north side.

Highway crews will install new concrete curbs, as well as sidewalks and aprons to create safer conditions for pedestrians. The work also aims to improve drainage along the heavily-traveled Edgewood corridor. After the concrete work is complete, the road will be fully repaved and striped. Wehrheim said the repairs will give Edgewood Avenue a brand new look while enhancing traffic safety for drivers and residents.

The project on Edgewood’s corridor has been in the works for years. Wehrheim said town highway crews worked during the last four to five years on patch work to repair some of the road's worst spots. But officials said a more long-term fix was inevitable given the volume of cars on that road.

Since the middle school is on Edgewood Avenue, town officials sought to prioritize construction there first so children could walk there safely.

“It was based primarily on the safety of the school children, the ones taking buses and in walking distance, so we wanted to make sure we got the construction out of the way to make it safer for them,” Wehrheim said.