and there were frequent accidents. In 1981, officials proposed several improvements for that highway segment, including adding a two-lane grade-separated service road between the two highways, realigning service roads at 69th and 108th streets, and improving entrance and exit ramps. Lighting and the HOV lanes Initially, I-495 lacked street lights in Nassau and Suffolk counties. As early as 1969, the county executive for Nassau County had advocated for the installation of street lights along a stretch of the LIE within that county. Despite constant requests from Nassau County officials, no immediate plans were made until 1980, when the first streetlights were installed in eastern Nassau County. The state government planned to add about 1,425 lamps between the Queens–Nassau border and NY 112 (exit 64) since that segment of I-495 was heavily used. East of NY 112, vehicle usage dropped sharply, so no lights were planned. The final streetlights were installed in 2002. As early as October 1968, state officials had wanted to widen the highway between I-295 and NY 135 from 6 to 10 lanes. In late 1988, the New York state government proposed adding a fourth lane in each direction to I-495 between Jericho and Medford. Following the passage of a $3-billion (equivalent to $ in ) bond issue that year, the state proposed marking the additional lanes as HOV lanes. The state approved the construction of these lanes east of the Cross Island Parkway in 1991. The lanes were built in sections. The first section to open, a section in western Suffolk County, was opened in May 1994; two additional sections opened in 1998 and 1999. The lanes soon became well known due to a combination of advertising and free publicity in news articles, and they were heavily patronized even outside of peak hours. The lanes were completed on June 30, 2005, at which point they ran from exit 32 in eastern Queens to exit 64 at Medford in Suffolk County. The lanes had cost $880 million (equivalent to $ in ) in total. NYSDOT officials estimated that, during rush hours, it would take 45 minutes to travel between exits 32 and 64 using the HOV lanes, as opposed to 90 to 120 minutes using the general-purpose lanes. Construction of the HOV lanes within Queens was delayed due to opposition from local officials and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The HOV segment in Queens