LIRR at work rehabilitating grade crossings in Riverhead this month

Persistence pays off. 

Riverhead Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski has been asking the LIRR to repair several crumbling railroad crossings across town since at least 2021. 

He generally got the same response: No funding. LIRR crews would come out and fill the potholes with “cold patch,” but that’s only a temporary fix and the gaping holes would soon reopen — sometimes within a couple of weeks.

But he didn’t give up, sending contacts at the railroad regular emails and photos showing the  busted-up grade crossings that have been causing him and other Riverhead residents headaches.

A pothole in the Ostrander Avenue crossing grew so large that it sports a bright orange traffic cone to warn motorists of its existence.

“We receive complaints all the time, and I always have to explain to people that I have no authority to repair anything within the railroad right-of-way,” Zaleski said. “We can’t touch it.” Actually, he tried that once and caught a scolding from an MTA representative. 

“So, I’ve been on them since… even from when I was deputy,” he said.  Zaleski has a file more than an inch thick filled with printouts of email correspondence and pictures he’s taken to send to officials at the LIRR and MTA  — and their replies.

“…the full crossing rehabilitation program is not funded at this time. We will apply cold patches instead to do what we can to mitigate the issues,” one official said in one of the emails to the highway superintendent, in January 2022.

“If we had funding for this we could do it, but unfortunately we have to go with cold patches for the time being,” the same official wrote in an email a few months later.

“We’re having some transitions here, but I will follow up on it,” said another email, also from 2022.

“We unfortunately don’t have any money in our grade crossing rehabilitation budget to do anything more than cold patches at this time. Hopefully next year we will have more we can spend on projects like this.”

Undaunted, Zaleski kept up his barrage of emails.

“Finally!” he said today. He got word from the railroad a week or so ago that the crews would be repairing grade crossings at Sweezy, Marcy, Osborn and Griffing avenues and at East Main Street and Riverside Drive. Crews had previously repaired crossings at Edgar Avenue in Aquebogue and River Road in Calverton he said.

Today, heavy equipment is at work on the Osborn Avenue crossing. The road is closed until 10 p.m. Work is scheduled to continue there on April 4.  Crews will be working on Osborn and the other crossings in the coming weeks.

“It’s our town. We travel over these roads every day,” Zaleski said. 

He said he’s also been asking the State Department of Transportation to repair Middle Country Road in Calverton, where the pavement is riddled with potholes.

“I’ll keep at it,” Zaleski said. “I’m not one to give up.”