Gnarled Hollow Road Conditions Upset Residents; Councilman Says Should Be Fixed Soon

Residents of Gnarled Hollow Rd. in Setauket can expect the Town of Brookhaven to complete re-paving as soon as next week, according to town councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld.

The councilman said the recent inclement weather along with an administrative issue has held up the process. The road has been scored to prepare it for re-paving, but residents say a few weeks have gone by since that took place, and they are tired of waiting.

"The road is filled with pot holes, divots, and is extremely rough to ride over," one resident, who did not want her name published, wrote in an email to Patch. "... Why start a project and not complete it in a timely fashion? Why leave the residents of this area with a barely driveable main road?"

But Fiore-Rosenfeld reinforced that the town hasn't forgotten about Gnarled Hollow Rd.

"Given the weather, they couldn’t do the final layer," he said in an interview Thursday. "You usually need three days in a row of dry weather. You can’t pave when it’s still puddles."

According to a 10-day forecast on weather.com, several sunny or partly sunny days are predicted for next week.

Fiore-Rosenfeld said the other hold-up may have involved an issue with a contractor the town hired to do the work. Town highway superintendent John Rouse could not be reached for comment on that issue.

But some residents say the rough road is only part of the problem: a lack of proper drainage systems on the road causes water damage – particularly in the winter when water seeps into cracks in the road and then freezes repeatedly. And some say the pitch of the road is too high, higher than their own driveways, causing flooding on their properties.

"This road has been a problem since 1979," said another resident, who also declined to give her name. "I used to call the town, but I gave up."