Route 347 Update: Decorative Median Barriers Get Installed

Hauppauge drives will see work on the Route 347 Safety, Mobility and Environmental Improvement project is beginning to migrate south as we head into the winter months.

Eileen Peters, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Transportation, said construction workers are finishing up the utility and drainage work in the center median that has been the focus of the project over the past two to three months.

Motorists paying close attention while driving westbound on Route 347 can see decorative median barriers starting to be installed by contractors. The medians are designed to look like a stone wall. These pieces are the first visible signs of a raised, green, planted center that will separate the eastbound and westbound lanes of Route 347.

“Route 347 will be the first roadway in New York State with this median design. We hope it will be a model to the future and a much more aesthetically pleasing to local residents,” Peters said.

The Precast Concrete Association of New York reported in its December 2011 newsletter that each piece of the barrier is 20-feet long by 51-inches high and weighs approximately 15,000 pounds. The barrier is made of 4,000 pounds-per-square-inch concrete mix with 15 percent ash and a color additive.

Peters said after crews install the decorative median barriers, contractors will lay down the topsoil to prepare for future planting. Then contractors will shift their focus to Route 347’s eastbound lanes, installing necessary improvements to traffic signals, drainage and utilities.

“The plan is to continue work through the winter, of course, weather permitting,” Peters said.

The ongoing construction is to transform 15 miles of Route 347 into an environmentally conscious, motor and pedestrian-friendly highway stretching from Hauppauge to Port Jefferson. The one-mile stretch in Hauppauge from the Route 347/454 split to the Route 111 intersection is scheduled to be completed by 2012.