[CT_Native]

Nassau and Suffolk counties have closer to 2.85 million people. Add Queens and it's estimated at 5.15 million. Anyone going north and east (outside Long Island) would be using this bridge.

[mikelizard860]

Originally Posted by LINative

How long does it take to drive down to Jones Beach or Robert Moses without traffic? The trick is to leave early in the morning to avoid the beach traffic heading out to the Island every weekend. If you can leave early enough, you can avoid most of the traffic I think.

I have been able to get to from Babylon to Boston in about 4 hours or so (and we always stop somewhere). The key is TIMING. Do not leave in rush hour. So I am thinking you can get to Jones or Fire Island in a hour and half or so? Not sure.

Yeah I guess if you want to leave at 5am on a sunday and you'd still hit traffic heading home. And imagine if you want to get there on a weekday? Getting to Long island or the northern jersey shore is near impossible on a weekday.

[Raider111]

Dumb, how many people in CT work on LI everyday, or vice versa?
if you work in CT, move there, if you work on LI, move there

[FutureTown]

But travelling to JFK could potentially be easier(???) and I know many folks in CT have family in LI or vice versa. Either way, I think Connecticut should be well connected regardless if that road is going to be used as much as I-95 or not. It's still a strategically important connection. Could ultimately alleviate some traffic in Westchester County.

[Raider111]

JFK is at the western tip of LI, so driving from CT traffic would be just offset by LI traffic. Spending a gajillion dollars on a bridge so people can visit families is probably not feasible.

[FutureTown]

It's slightly before rush hour right now, but, BPT to JFK is nearly the same time as Port Jefferson to JFK. I guess you get the added benefit of no tolls? (Shrugs)

I like the idea of a bridge for the reasons Lalalally stated. I definitely agree it won't be feasible as some other transportation wishes I have for Connecticut such as Danbury to Hartford train.

I just want Connecticut to be well connected. I think it would be amazing if we could have a small state be explorable not only through cars, but also through public transportation. We're small enough to pull it off. I hope to see something done in my life time about it. :/

[grecostimpy]

Building a bridge would also make it viable to build a major metro area airport in CT (not that we would want it). It would also open up employee opportunities to many people. Industries thrive on accessibility to transportation. Wherever the bridge lands could be the next major East coast city due to being accessible by millions of potential employees.

[just_because]

Originally Posted by JayCT

This is getting off topic so I am not going to argue with you on this or try to explain further. Jay

I agree that discussing the national subsidy for the "military-industrial complex" and the like is far off topic and will take this down a rat hole. However, the potential ownership and operating model for various cross-sound options is very much relevant to a discussion of a huge investment like this. Why would you think that the balance between public and private concerns is any different for a ferry service than for a bridge/tunnel? I don't understand an argument for a bridge/tunnel based on an assumption that a bridge/tunnel can be a public concern while a ferry service must be private (or that there are too many impediments to providing a public ferry service). Anyway, public/private is not binary.

There are many components to building, owning, and operating these kinds of infrastructures both ferry and bridge/tunnel. I don't know if there is even an economic case for public involvement in an enhanced ferry service never mind a bridge or tunnel solution. I do know, however, that with all respect to the Cross Sound Ferry company, this is far from a modern, world class service and I think the reason is because most of the component parts of this service are private and the significant investments needed to provide a modern service are beyond the means of this company and other potential entrants to provide this service without public involvement of some kind. The largest ferry in the fleet participated in the D-Day landing - yes it's true!

Without dissecting all the gory economic details of this kind of project, on the surface, if we accept the assumption that there are significant economic benefits to faster travel between Long Island and CT (may be true or not) a modern ferry service would seem to be the most practical option for the following reasons:

1. multiple geographies served - a ferry service can serve multiple points rather than just one fixed point in CT and one on LI, therefore reducing traffic and minimizing bottleneck issues and the massive investments required in road upgrades to serve traffic to the two pinch points.
2. flexibility in capacity - services/boats can be added or deleted from the service as demand changes over the long term, meaning better matching of capacity with demand and more efficient use of required capital.
3. flexibility in geographies served - ports can be added or taken off line as geographic demand changes over time. Obviously there is significant infrastructure around a port and legal challenges but there is infinitely more flexibility than building a fixed bridge/tunnel.
4. Cost - massive capital investment differences with a world class ferry service costing infinitely less than a tunnel/bridge.

A bridge/tunnel across LI Sound will never be started in my lifetime because an economic case can't be made for such a huge investment. IF there are economic benefits in faster travel times between CT and LI, then the conversation needs to be around joint public and private investment in a modern ferry service rather than assuming that this is too hard simply because a small company already runs a relatively limited service today. I don't know the laws around this but I would hope that foreign companies would be allowed to compete for operating different aspects of such a service if it were to go forward as there is a lot of competence and scale in ferry operators overseas. Introducing foreign competition in a well constructed public/private operating plan will improve overall competence in the US and enable a faster journey to world class infrastructure from what is there today.

Frankly, since CT and other states have seriously under-invested in infrastructure for many decades, the idea of building a cross sound tunnel or bridge sounds bonkers to me. A huge amount of capital investment is needed to sort out problems with roads, bridges, commuter railways, and urban transport systems that have suffered from decades of neglect. I don't simply mean filling potholes but rather upgrading a transport system designed for 1960s style largely suburban scenario to one that will serve the needs going forward through the next 50 years. This means getting serious about public transportation in addition to upgrading the roads. Even the lowest hanging fruit of economic benefit - a world class commuter train service from FFC to NYC is woefully far off the mark. Nevermind opening up the region further with transport links or sorting out Hartford's infrastructure problems. Even spread out, car oriented cities like Dallas with fiercely independent and conservative people have realized that investment in public transportation is part of the key to long term sustainability as an economic center.

[AnonChick]

We need to fix the roads we have in Connecticut, before we even start thinking about building new roads that lead out of Connecticut. That's first of all.

Second, a bridge to LI - for convenience sake? I'm thinking no. Sometimes, you just have to accept a little inconvenience in life, so that you can better appreciate the bounties that come as a result of that inconvenience.

Such as the ecosystem of the Long Island sound. And the ships that move in and out of it, delivering freight and heating oil and so many other things we have come to rely on. A bridge would need to start out a few miles away from the shoreline, in order to ascend to be a ridiculous height over the sound from one end to the other. The alternative would be to build a tunnel beneath the Sound but that would involve ripping down some prized real estate, and I'm guessing the people on either end of the tunnel would not be too happy about moving to make way for a big noisy car-exhaust-fumed hole in the ground.

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by just_because

Without dissecting all the gory economic details of this kind of project, on the surface, if we accept the assumption that there are significant economic benefits to faster travel between Long Island and CT (may be true or not) a modern ferry service would seem to be the most practical option for the following reasons:

This is a good point. If we assume a bridge or tunnel will cost $10 billion dollars how long can the state operate a ferry service with that kind of money? I would guess at least 100 years. The ferry should be free or heavily subsidized.

What happens to the private ferry companies then ? Give them the subsidies too. I'm not sure there's enough demand for crossing CT to LI though to warrant this type of service. There would need to be some studies done.

Also, some time ago (maybe 10 years ago) Foxwoods operated a private ferry service for high rollers from eastern LI to New London. I don't know why they stopped or if they charged for the service.

In addition to ferries crossing Long Island sound, the state(s) NY + CT should look into operating some type of passenger ferries between Stamford, Greenwich, and NYC to help relieve some traffic on I-95.