to use $60 million (equivalent to $ in ) intended for eliminating grade crossings for the construction of highways instead. The $30 million earmarked for parkway construction was part of the $60 million in question. On November 4, 1941, the amendment was approved in a statewide referendum on the issue, allowing for the money to be transferred. Construction and extensions On August 17, 1944, Moses announced a expansion of the existing system of parkways in New York that was intended to accommodate an increase in vehicular traffic that came about following World War II. One of the highways to be built as part of the expansion was the Lake Ontario State Parkway. The first section of the parkway to be built was the piece from Hamlin Beach State Park to NY 261 at Manitou Beach. Construction on the segment began in the late 1940s and was completed in the early 1950s. At some point between 1952 and 1954, work began on an extension eastward to Dewey Avenue in Greece. By 1956, the parkway was open to East Manitou Road and under construction to Lake Avenue in Charlotte. The portion of the highway from East Manitou Road to Long Pond Road was opened by 1958, and the section from Long Pond Road to Dewey Avenue was opened to traffic on October 14, 1958, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Governor W. Averell Harriman and State Council of Parks chairman Robert Moses. The segment between Dewey and Lake avenues opened to traffic . Long-term plans for the parkway called for it to extend westward along the entirety of the Lake Ontario shoreline to Niagara Falls, and from there as far southward as Buffalo. By 1960, the proposed routing was adjusted to meet the northern end of the Robert Moses State Parkway in Porter, near Fort Niagara. When the city of Niagara Falls released its Regional Highway Plan for the Buffalo–Niagara Falls area in 1971, the proposed routing of the Lake Ontario State Parkway was unchanged. Despite the widespread intentions of extending the parkway westward to Niagara County, the highway never extended any farther westward than Lakeside Beach State Park. The lone portion of the extension that was built—between Hamlin Beach and Lakeside Beach state parks—was constructed between 1969 and December 1972 and officially opened on February 16, 1973. Seasonal closure The section of the parkway between Lakeside Beach State Park and Lake