Planning and construction In 1954, the
New York State Department of Public Works (NYSDPW) unveiled plans for a six-lane expressway that would go from the
Wantagh State Parkway in
Wantagh to
NY 106 in
Oyster Bay. Unlike the
Western Nassau Expressway, a highway proposed two years earlier that would go through densely populated areas in western
Nassau County, this roadway would go through lightly populated areas, meaning that acquiring the necessary right-of-way would be easier. Under
Robert Moses' original plans for the highway, the northern terminus of the expressway would be placed near brand new local ferry terminals in Oyster Bay. From there, commuters could connect to the city of
Stamford, Connecticut, to the north by way of ferries across
Long Island Sound. One of the major problems with the proposed alignment of the expressway was that it divided each community that it passed through. This was met by protests from all of the communities. To remedy the concerns, Lewis Waters, the Oyster Bay Town Supervisor, proposed a new alignment for the expressway. Under his plan, it would now begin at the
Ocean Parkway in
Tobay Beach, cross
Great South Bay and enter
West Amityville at Clocks Boulevard. From West Amityville, the expressway was to turn to the northeast near the current-day
Sunrise Mall, and progress its way through
Massapequa and
Farmingdale into
Bethpage State Park. The highway was to cross through Bethpage State Park using the old right-of-way for the
Bethpage State Parkway through the communities of Old Bethpage and
Plainview. From there, it would veer to the northwest, approaching and intersecting with the
Jericho Turnpike (
NY 25) about from its current northern terminus. At the
Long Island Rail Road's Port Jefferson Branch, it would follow the originally planned alignment, but would end at
NY 25A instead of
NY 106. This plan, supported by the residents of Oyster Bay, would require the acquisition of 185 residential homes. In comparison, the alignment planned by Moses would result in the elimination of 450 homes. However, Moses' plan won out, to much of their dismay. The CR 191 designation was eventually eliminated. Construction commenced on the expressway a year later, with the section from Old Country Road (exit 10) to Jericho Turnpike (exits 14E and 14W) opening in June 1962. Construction continued rapidly, with the section from Old Country Road down to the Southern State Parkway (exit 4) being completed only a year later. The incomplete expressway was designated as NY 135 by 1964. From there, the construction slowed, with the final piece from Merrick Road (CR 27) to the Southern State Parkway opening to traffic in late 1969. The resulting highway extended for from Seaford to
Syosset—but not to Oyster Bay as its name implied.
Extension proposals Bridge to Rye In 1957, a plan for a bridge to Westchester County
across Long Island Sound was first proposed by Charles H. Sells, a former commissioner for the New York State Department of Public Works. His proposal for the
Oyster Bay–Rye Bridge, along with the eastern
Orient Point–Watch Hill Bridge were two proposed bridge routes off Long Island. Sells, however, suggested that the bridges not be constructed until Long Island's traffic and commuting began to increase. Moses revealed the results of the study to the Nassau and Suffolk Regional Planning Board in February 1966. The
Oyster Bay–Rye Bridge (originally the
Bayville–Rye Bridge) was proposed to complete the
Interstate 287 (I-287) beltway around the New York Metropolitan Area. This was to be done by constructing a
cable-stayed suspension bridge from the
Cross-Westchester Expressway (I-287) in
Rye to the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway (NY 135) in Nassau County. The proposed bridge was to cost $150 million (1966 USD) and had the support of Governor
Nelson Rockefeller and many officials on Long Island. However, Moses ran into a problem once the proposal was brought to the
Federal Highway Administration. At this point, opposition to the bridge began to form on both sides of Long Island Sound. In addition, plans to turn the Oyster Bay area into a bird sanctuary and a protected park made working on the highway harder as building on such protected places is forbidden by law. Faced with growing opposition, Governor Rockefeller cancelled the plans for the bridge on June 20, 1973, nine years after the first proposal by Moses. Nine ideas were discussed in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, but all were cancelled. Some were reconsidered during the 1990s, but the
New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) backed away from the idea in belief that it would not relieve congestion.
Highway extensions Since the demise of the proposed bridge across Long Island Sound, several proposed northward extensions of NY 135 have arisen, none of which have been acted on. In 1973, the Tri-State Transportation Commission proposed restudying the idea of extending the expressway northward back to its originally-planned northern terminus, the hamlet of Oyster Bay, even though the bridge project was shelved. The commission stated, "With the abandonment of the Oyster Bay–Rye Bridge proposal, the need to extend the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway northward to NY 25A or NY 106 should be restudied." They added that the study would be probable, even with the abandonment of working on the NY 135 corridor. In 1990, the Long Island Regional Planning Board came up with a proposed multibillion-dollar plan to expand the capacities of state and county highways and to improve all major roads to "satisfactory" levels by 2010. The proposal also revisited the idea of extending the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway to
NY 25A in Oyster Bay via the right-of-way bought in the 1960s. NYSDOT reconsidered the idea a decade later in 2000, saying it would relieve congestion in the area. They indicated that the extension may be built as either a "full-build" expressway or a four-lane arterial boulevard to NY 25A. However, there are no plans to do either at this time. When the first proposals for a southern extension of NY 135 came out in 1967, around 25 families were relocated to clear a right-of-way for the highway.
Recent history and proposals There are a number of projects either in progress or in development for NY 135. In the 2000s, NYSDOT repaired segments of NY 135, along with many other highways in Nassau and nearby
Suffolk counties, where the concrete was beginning to wear out. The project was projected to end in mid-2008, but the department has not updated their project site with the construction. In late 2006, development began on a project to construct a 100-parking space
Park & Ride at the interchange of NY 135 and NY 25. Work on the project was expected to begin in mid-2015 and end in the middle of 2016. Funds would come from the federal government and the state of New York. Another planned NYSDOT project was the replacement of the steel barrier for the median of NY 135 from Merrick Road to NY 24. At 9:30 a.m. on May 24, 1988, a tanker truck loaded with as much as of propane fuel overturned and exploded into flames along the expressway. This caused major traffic delays and congestion as police had to shut down three of the major transportation routes in the area. Nassau County police ordered the evacuation of 1,000 residents in the immediate area, along with nearby commuter routes, the
Sunrise Highway and
Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch. With the possibility of an explosion, emergency personnel could not approach the tanker. Since the fire was close to the LIRR station in Seaford, a spokesman said that they had shut all service down from Wantagh to Massapequa. The Long Island Rail Road attempted using buses, but with the congestion becoming worse, they routed the buses to
Hicksville, where the passengers would take a diesel train to Bethpage and nearby
Babylon to continue progress eastward. The Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway was shut down from Merrick Road to the Southern State Parkway. Police reported that the tanker broke a rear axle, and skidded, causing it to overturn. The tank ruptured, starting the blaze. The driver, a middle-aged man from Westbury, escaped with few injuries. When the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway was first built, the highway was known as the Wantagh–Oyster Bay Expressway. The route was changed to its current name in 1967. The change was made both to avoid confusion with the Wantagh Parkway and to accommodate a request from the community of Seaford to popularize their town. There have also been attempts to rename the expressway with dedications to various Presidents of the United States such as
Theodore Roosevelt and
Ronald Reagan. At the time, the designation was a tribute to Marino; however, he died just two weeks later. Between the Powell Avenue and Broadway / Plainview Road interchanges along the expressway, the highway is divided with a large median. The lane alignment was set up so that the proposed extension of the
Bethpage State Parkway would have run within the median of NY 135. The parkway would have followed the highway for a short distance before turning to the southeast and away from NY 135. By making this possible, the Bethpage Parkway would likely have to have been upgraded from its current
super-two configuration into a four-lane highway. ==Exit list==