LIE - Definition and Overview

The Long Island Expressway (LIE) is one of the interstate highways with the designation of Interstate 495. It runs 66.38 miles (106.8 km) from New York City, New York the length of Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk counties, ending just before the "fish-tail" (where the island splits into northern and southern forks) at Riverhead, New York.

Smaller highways continue on from the end of the LIE to Greenport on the North Fork and past the Hamptons to Montauk on the South Fork. Cynics have suggested that the acronym is appropriate, in that the term "expressway" is a lie.

In 1999, an HOV lane was added in each direction from Deer Park to (near) Hicksville. Construction to extend the lane to the border of Queens and Nassau Counties is underway and to be finished by May 2005.

Length

66.38 miles

• New York: 66.38 miles
• TOTAL: 66.38 miles

Major cities along the route

• New York City, New York

Intersections with other interstates

• Interstate 278 in Queens, New York
• I-295 in Queens, New York

Parent route

• Interstate 95

Notes

Originally, I-495 was to stretch from the Queens Midtown Tunnel and I-278 to I-295, the Clearview Expressway. Plans later included creating the Mid-Manhattan Expressway across Manhattan to the Lincoln Tunnel, to connect to I-95 in New Jersey. These plans were eventually cancelled, and the NJ stretch of I-495 was downgraded to a NJ state highway. However, Long Island lobbied to extend I-495 east, upgrading NY 24 to NY 495 and then I-495, to Riverhead where it terminates at NY 25. Since I-495 extends from a city outward, it is technically a spur, which should have an odd first digit. Even first digits are usually assigned to bypasses and beltways. A proposed Long Island Crossing bridge could connect I-495 with the mainland in Connecticut or Rhode Island, where it could link to I-95, making it a bypass instead of a spur.

External links

• nycroads.com LIE info (http://www.nycroads.com/roads/long-island/). (7/04)