A group of New York State Department of Transportation employees met with the Coram Civic Association Monday night to address concerns over the project, which they said will not be done until spring 2011.
"There's no such thing as immaculate construction," said DOT outreach coordinator Margaret Conklin in attempting to calm the residents' concerns.
The chief complaints of community members Monday were over perceived safety hazards the construction has caused and the way it has slowed traffic on the busy corridor, which serves as a gateway to the east and west and also is a primary path to the expressway for local commuters.
There are two projects under way on Route 112 in Coram, with the easternmost one stretching from just west of Middle Country Road to Diamond in the Pines Park. The other project continues west to Route 347.
Both are designed to widen the road, make it safer and to add "life" to the road, Ms. Conklin said.
While the driving lanes and shoulders will be widened in each direction, Ms. Conklin said Route 112 will remain a two-lane highway when construction is finished. New lanes will not be added, with the exception of several additional turning lanes. Medians will also be added to the road in places where there is an existing adjacent parcel, the DOT said.
Several Coram Civic Association members questioned why the work was being done if no new lanes were being added. Ms. Conklin said she believed adding new lanes in either direction would create a new set of problems.
Commuters who often travel north to Route 112 from County Road 83 will have a second left-turn lane to work with at the south corner of the intersection. New traffic signals will also be added along Route 112 at the corners of East Gate and Wedgewood Drive.
So far, workers said they have begun to widen the existing shoulders and they have also erected new telephone poles, which will be set further back from the roadway than the existing ones.
Civic member Rich Cloonan said he was concerned that construction vehicles and traffic drums set up along Route 112 have made it difficult for drivers looking to turn onto the road.
"I pull a boat out of there," he said. "One of these days I'm gonna get clobbered."
But DOT representatives said the existing construction setup will change dramatically in the next week. Ms. Conklin said that shortly after Thanksgiving, traffic on the western portion of Route 112 will be diverted off the roadway and onto the widened shoulder for a period of time.
Ms. Conklin told civic members that the DOT does have plans to work on the portion of Route 112 that extends south of Middle Country Road to Granny Road, but the bidding on that project likely won't go out until 2014.
"It's a money thing," she said. "We just don't have the money to do anything sooner."
A portion of the current Route 112 project is being paid for through economic stimulus funds. It's one of only two existing road projects in Suffolk County to use stimulus money.
gparpan@northshoresun.com