South Elmhurst, thus reducing land acquisition costs by $769,000 (equivalent to $ in ). The city government awarded the first construction contracts for the highway in July 1953. The first section of the highway to open was the section between Laurel Hill Boulevard and Maurice Avenue, which opened on February 24, 1955. The six-lane highway ran through Calvary Cemetery. Afterward, the old Midtown Highway became known as the "Queens–Midtown Expressway". The entire highway from Laurel Hill Boulevard (by this point upgraded into the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway) to the junction of Queens Boulevard (NY 24 and NY 25) and Horace Harding Boulevard (NY 25D) opened on November 5, 1955. This section of the LIE had cost $29.5 million (equivalent to $ in ) and was funded by the TBTA, of which Moses was chair. NY 24 initially remained routed on Laurel Hill and Queens boulevards. Horace Harding Expressway The LIE was built over much of Horace Harding Boulevard within eastern Queens and Power House Road within western Nassau County. Prior to the LIE's construction, the route was designated as NY 25D. As part of his March 1951 proposal for the Queens–Midtown Expressway, Moses proposed widening an stretch of Horace Harding Boulevard between Queens Boulevard and the Queens–Nassau border from . That May, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the widening of Horace Harding Boulevard and Power House Road and constructing an expressway in the road's median at a cost of $25 million (equivalent to $ in ). The project's cost had increased to $34 million (equivalent to $ in ) by October 1952. The same year, the New York State Department of Public Works later modified the highway's route in the vicinity of Little Neck Parkway, near the Queens–Nassau border, because of complaints from residents. At Little Neck Parkway, Horace Harding Boulevard continued northeast and then eastward, whereas the LIE was to take a more southerly path. Work began on the Horace Harding Expressway in 1955. However, it soon encountered delays because of weather conditions, construction worker strikes, and difficulties in building across existing roads and swampy land. Business owners along Horace Harding Boulevard complained that the project was reducing their income and isolating their businesses from surrounding neighborhoods. A section of the LIE near Alley Pond Park in eastern Queens, between Cloverdale Boulevard in Bayside and Little Neck Parkway, officially opened on September 25, 1957. The highway segment reduced