County Route 19 (Suffolk County, New York)

Infobox NY County Route
county=Suffolk
route=19
road_name=West Avenue, Lake Street, Waverly Avenue, Patchogue-Holbrook Road
length_mi=6.8
length_round=1
length_ref=
established=1930(1965) [ [http://www.greaternyroads.info/pdfs/suffcr.pdf Suffolk County Department of Public Works] ]
direction_a=South
starting_terminus=
junction=Montauk Highway in Patchogue
direction_b=North
ending_terminus=

Suffolk County Route 19 is a mostly four-lane, north-south highway in central Suffolk County that connects several bedroom communities with major highways such as the Long Island Expressway and NY 27.

Route description

Patchogue

The highway's southern terminus is at CR 65 (Division Street). It serves as a widened, upgraded version of local West Street, which continues south of Division Street toward the Great South Bay. The starting point of the highway is immediately to the west of the Long Island Railroad's Patchogue station.

The road heads north and crosses Montauk Highway just west of downtown Patchogue. The road then curves west as it forms the southern bank of Great Patchogue Lake. Curving north again after passing the lake, the road assumes the name of Waverly Avenue, a pre-existing road that extends south of CR 19 toward Montauk Highway.

Still with four lanes, the road passes near Saint Joseph's College's Patchogue branch campus before crossing NY 27 (Sunrise Highway). The diamond interchange here was built between 1988 and 1991 when NY 27 was converted from an urban boulevard to a limited-access freeway, although it was originally planned as a cloverleaf interchange.

Across Holtsville & Holbrook

Leaving the Patchogue area, the road curves slightly left, as Waverly Avenue leaves CR 19 and continues its north-south route. Just to the north, CR 19 (now "Patchogue-Holbrook Road") intersects two more highways, CR 99 and CR 97, both of which are partially limited-access. CR 99, which leads to the IRS center at Holtsville, has its terminus at CR 19 with a traffic signal. Less than a quarter mile to the north, CR 97 passes overhead and has a diamond interchange with CR 19.

Now entering Holbrook, the road divides various large bedroom communities. As it nears downtown Holbrook, the road moves onto a new alignment that was built between 1971 and 1973 to bypass the town. After this bypass was built, the old section was renamed Main Street, eliminated between the new section and CR 18(Broadway Avenue) and designated Suffolk County Road 19A.

The new alignment carries four lanes up and over the Long Island Railroad's Main Line, and was intended to have an interchange with Union Avenue. Reassuming its former alignment, CR 19 then crosses the Long Island Expressway (I-495) with another diamond interchange. This interchage was the terminus of the Long Island Expressway until 1971.

The End at Ronkonkoma

After the Long Island Expressway interchange, the highway narrows to just two lanes with center turn lane. The road again takes an S-curve to the west before heading north to the terminus at CR 16. The character of this northernmost portion of the road is quite different from the rest, as the road has a much lower speed limit and even passes through a school zone just before CR 16.

References

External links

* [http://www.nycroads.com/roads/suffolk_001-025/ NYCRoads.com - Suffolk CRs 1-25]