The construction crew responsible for overhauling a large stretch of Route 25, Jericho Turnpike, in Woodbury for the past year has completed the complex project's major grunt work, thereby reducing the chances of any future traffic delays or detours, according to the New York State Department of Transportation's Long Island Regional Office.

Patricia Audinot, assistant to State DOT Regional Director Craig Siracusa, in an interview with the Tribune, said that the remainder of the project will result in minor individual lane closures that would last "maybe one day, maybe a few hours."

The repaving of the road was the last major step in a highly involved undertaking that spanned the distance between South Woods Road/Piquets Lane and Manetto Hill Road. When it began in late summer 1998, the project drew the ire of local merchants along Route 25. Their plight attracted publicity in May when the shopkeepers complained to the media and to local officials that heavy construction was suppressing their businesses by driving local consumers away.

The shopkeepers demanded that the final leg of the project - the repaving - be done after business hours, and the DOT complied. Although ecstatic merchants have noticed a major improvement, some still are anxious for the day the streets are no longer outlined in orange cones.

Nassau County Legislator and Woodbury resident Judy Jacobs, who has been at the forefront of this issue, said that several Woodbury businessmen recently complained to her that construction workers appeared to be loafing around, and that parts of Route 25 were cordoned off with cones when no work in that area was taking place.

Audinot explained that construction workers are tending to short segments of Jericho Turnpike at a time, and will remove cones from those areas once they are finished with them. If a segment is not completed, the cones will remain, even if no work is currently taking place on that section. Audinot claimed this is proper procedure, but she also thinks that some merchants are seeing their part of Route 25 lined with cones while no work is taking place around it, leading them to mistakenly believe that nothing is getting accomplished. "They're putting cones up for a long stretch and so it looks like no work is being done," she said.

Audinot said that the current construction crew should finish everything by summer's end. Additional workers are then expected to arrive in the fall to improve some aesthetics, which also may cause brief lane closures.

"In the fall, the landscaping people will come, and we will put in shrubs and trees...That may necessitate lane closure," said Audinot. Workers will also improve curbing and sidewalks.