Heavy Equipment Transport on Long Island
Nassau and Suffolk Hauling, Routed Around the Parkways
Quick answer
How is heavy equipment transported on and off Long Island?
By truck on the Long Island Expressway (I-495) and NYSDOT-designated access highways, never the parkways: all 11 Long Island state parkways are closed to commercial vehicles. Land routes to New Jersey or upstate cross New York City, where 53 ft trailers have one designated corridor over the Throgs Neck Bridge and oversize loads need their own NYC DOT permit. HTS Logistics books the licensed carrier and coordinates the permits.
Updated October 2026 by the HTS Logistics broker team (FMCSA MC# 1178470).
Heavy Equipment Transport on Long Island Starts With the Route
HTS Logistics is an FMCSA-licensed property freight broker (MC# 1178470, USDOT 3535360) at 78 Daly Rd, East Northport, NY 11731. We arrange heavy equipment transport for shippers in Nassau and Suffolk counties by booking vetted, licensed carriers with the right trailer for the machine. The carrier hauls the load. We plan the move around it and coordinate permits and escorts through the carrier and its permit services.
A search for heavy equipment transport near me on Long Island turns up trucks. The harder part here is the route. The island's parkways are closed to trucks, every land route to the mainland runs through New York City, and the city, the MTA and the Port Authority each add rules on top of the state's. Even legal-size freight changes status at the city line: a load 8 ft 6 in wide is legal on most interstates, but the legal width on New York City streets is 8 ft.
This page covers what that means for a move that starts or ends on Long Island. For statewide permit rules, fees and escort triggers, see our New York oversize permit guide.
Why Can't Trucks Use Long Island Parkways?
NYSDOT prohibits commercial vehicles on all 11 Long Island state parkways, and the ban is posted at the entrances. The parkways were built for cars, and NYSDOT's own permit notice says some Long Island parkways were built with low arch bridges to physically keep trucks out. The joint NYSDOT and NYC DOT brochure says some parkway bridges are posted as low as 6 ft 11 in. The ban covers commercial vehicles of every size, not only oversize loads.
Long Island parkways closed to commercial vehicles
- Bethpage Parkway
- Heckscher Parkway
- Loop Parkway
- Meadowbrook Parkway
- Northern State Parkway
- Ocean Parkway
- Robert Moses Causeway
- Sagtikos Parkway
- Southern State Parkway
- Sunken Meadow Parkway
- Wantagh Parkway
Crossing into Queens does not open new options. The Cross Island, Grand Central, Belt and Jackie Robinson parkways are among the New York City parkways that are also closed to commercial vehicles. For bridge-by-bridge clearances on the roads trucks can use, including the lowest non-parkway bridges in Nassau and Suffolk, see our Long Island truck routes and bridge clearance guide, built from the 2025 National Bridge Inventory; New York City's network is in the NYC truck routes guide.
What a parkway mistake costs
- New York recorded 310 bridge strikes statewide in 2025, most of them on routes with low railroad bridges and on state parkways in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island (Governor's office, July 2026).
- Since February 2026, striking a bridge is an 8-point violation on the driver's license.
- The State and City parkway brochure lists fines and license points, towing bills above $10,000, and repayment of bridge repair costs.
- In a July 26 to 30, 2026 enforcement week, State Police Troop L on Long Island wrote 67 tickets, ran 48 commercial vehicle inspections and put 4 vehicles out of service.
- In 2015, NYSDOT said the Eagle Avenue bridge at Southern State Parkway Exit 18, with 7 ft 7 in of clearance, was hit about three times a year. That figure is dated; check the current posting.
Why a car GPS is not a truck route
The parkway brochure warns drivers not to rely on consumer GPS, and the state's 511NY Trucker Mode flags restricted routes.
Posted signs are not a full margin for an oversize load either. Under VTL 1621, the posted legal clearance is one foot less than the measured clearance, and no sign is required where the measured clearance is 14 ft or more. A bridge with no sign only measures at least 14 ft, which an over-height load can still exceed.
That is why the carrier plans from the permit and the truck's measured loaded height, not from a navigation app.
Which Long Island Roads Can Heavy Trucks Use?
The Long Island Expressway (I-495) is the island's truck spine. NYSDOT designates it a Qualifying Highway from the Queens-Nassau line to Exit 72 in Riverhead. Qualifying and Access Highways are where New York allows 53 ft semitrailers and 8 ft 6 in (102 in) widths without a permit. Elsewhere the semitrailer limit is 48 ft, and 8 ft 6 in width is allowed only where travel lanes are at least 10 ft wide, and never on New York City streets.
Access highways connect the LIE to yards, job sites and town centers. The NYSDOT Truck Book lists these Long Island segments:
| Route | Designated segment (NYSDOT Truck Book, October 2020) |
|---|---|
| I-495 Long Island Expressway | Qualifying Highway from the Queens-Nassau line to Exit 72 (Riverhead). In Queens, I-495 from I-295 to the county line, with trucks kept out of the left lane. |
| NY 27 Sunrise Highway | Nassau-Queens line to Saxon Ave (Islip), plus Sunrise Highway Extension segments to CR 97 Nichols Rd and from Exit 58 (William Floyd Pkwy) east to the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Tpk. |
| NY 25 Jericho Tpk / Middle Country Rd | Several segments, including CR 66 Deer Park Rd east to NY 454 (Huntington and Smithtown) and CR 83 to NY 112 (Brookhaven). |
| NY 110 | Semon Rd (Huntington) to NY 109. |
| NY 112 | NY 25 to CR 80 Montauk Hwy. |
| NY 347 | NY 111 to Port Jefferson. |
| NY 454 Veterans Memorial Hwy | NY 25 to Harned Rd, and I-495 Exit 57 to NY 27. |
| NY 135 Seaford-Oyster Bay Expwy | NY 25 to Merrick Rd. |
| NY 231 Deer Park Ave | Northern State Parkway Exit 42 to Weeks Rd. |
| NY 24 Hempstead Tpk; NY 106 and NY 107 | Short designated segments. |
Designations are set segment by segment, and this is the 2020 edition of the Truck Book. The carrier checks the current NYSDOT Qualifying and Access Highway listing before routing. The last mile off these highways runs on town, village or county roads, each under its own owner's rules.
Routes Off Long Island for Oversize Loads
Every land route from Long Island to New Jersey, upstate New York or New England crosses New York City, so nearly every off-island move uses an MTA bridge and many also use a Port Authority crossing. For New England, the ferries from Port Jefferson and Orient Point to Connecticut are the alternative.
The 53 ft corridor: LIE, Throgs Neck, Cross Bronx
New York City bars 53 ft trailers from most of its streets. To keep Long Island served, one corridor was approved: I-495 to the Queens line, I-295 over the Throgs Neck Bridge, I-695, and I-95 to the Bronx-Westchester line. Since March 5, 2015 the city also allows I-95 from New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge upper level to I-695, and I-678 from I-95 to JFK. Between Long Island and New Jersey, that makes the LIE, Throgs Neck, Cross Bronx and GWB upper level the designated 53 ft route. The Verrazzano route through Brooklyn and Staten Island is shorter to some New Jersey terminals, but it is not a designated 53 ft corridor.
Bridge and tunnel limits between Long Island and the mainland
| Crossing | Operator | Posted height | Width limit | Notes for heavy haul |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Throgs Neck Bridge | MTA | 15 ft 2 in Bronx-bound; 14 ft 11 in Queens-bound | 9 ft 6 in | On the designated 53 ft corridor. Trucks up to 80,000 lb use the center lane at 30 mph or less. |
| Bronx-Whitestone Bridge | MTA | 15 ft Bronx-bound; 15 ft 1 in Queens-bound | 9 ft 6 in | Wider or taller loads need an MTA night crossing permit. |
| Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge | MTA | Upper level 14 ft 6 in westbound, 14 ft 5 in eastbound; lower level 13 ft 7 in westbound, 13 ft 6 in eastbound | 9 ft 6 in | Not a designated 53 ft trailer route. |
| Queens Midtown and Hugh L. Carey tunnels | MTA | 12 ft 1 in | 8 ft 6 in | No hazardous materials. |
| Henry Hudson Bridge | MTA | 12 ft | Not applicable | Trucks are not permitted at any time. |
| George Washington Bridge | Port Authority | 13 ft 6 in | 10 ft body width | All trucks use the upper level. Since Dec 9, 2024 the 179th St westbound ramp is limited to 10 ft wide and 110 ft long. |
| Goethals Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing | Port Authority | 13 ft 6 in | 8 ft 6 in body width | All over-dimensional trucks allowed only with the facility manager's permission. |
| Bayonne Bridge | Port Authority | 13 ft 6 in | 8 ft 6 in body width | Oversize allowed only with the facility manager's permission. |
| Holland and Lincoln tunnels | Port Authority | Holland 12 ft 6 in; Lincoln 13 ft | Holland 8 ft; Lincoln 8 ft 6 in | Holland takes no tractor-trailers; the Lincoln center tube takes no trucks. |
MTA and Port Authority figures as published in October 2026. On MTA crossings, vehicles wider than the limits above or over the posted height or weight need a night crossing permit.
Port Authority crossings
An oversize load crosses the GWB, Goethals, Outerbridge or Bayonne only behind a Port Authority Police escort, after the facility manager approves it through the 24/7 Communications Desk. The toll doubles and a $40 escort fee is added. With Holland taking no tractor-trailers and the Lincoln center tube taking no trucks, the tunnels are effectively closed to heavy haul.
New York City legs
NYC DOT requires its own Daily Over Dimensional permit on city streets for non-divisible loads over 8 ft wide, 13 ft 6 in high, 55 ft as a combination or 80,000 lb. It issues one permit for each leg of a trip (one in, one out) at $35 each, with 48 hours of lead time. MTA crossings need no separate MTA oversize permit, but loads past the MTA limits must apply for a night crossing permit.
Ferries to New England
Port Jefferson to Bridgeport
The Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamboat Company prices trucks by length, up to a Class VII fare for vehicles over 60 ft ($321 off-peak, $342 peak, one way, as posted in October 2026). The crossing takes about 1 hr 15 min, and the terminal is about 18 road miles from East Northport. The company publishes no height, width or weight limits for oversize equipment.
Orient Point to New London
Cross Sound Ferry treats vehicles over 23 ft as commercial and charges by overall length. Lowboy and wide-load tractor-trailers need extra information and must book by phone. Vehicles over 20 ft check in 30 minutes early, the crossing takes about 1 hr 20 min, and Orient Point is about 66 road miles from East Northport.
Neither ferry operator publishes oversize limits, so a ferry crossing is confirmed with the operator for the specific load before a carrier is booked that way.
How far is Long Island from the New Jersey ports?
East Northport is about 70 road miles from Port Newark on the designated route (LIE, Throgs Neck, Cross Bronx, GWB upper level, New Jersey Turnpike) and about 72 miles by the Verrazzano and Goethals bridges. The Throgs Neck Bridge itself is about 37.5 miles from East Northport. These are estimates from a public routing engine held to the LIE, not truck-specific routing. Container and port moves are covered on our drayage page.
What Permits Does a Long Island Oversize Move Need?
A permitted move on Long Island can need approvals from several road owners, and some must be issued in a set order. These are the ones that come up most on the island:
| Permit or approval | When it is needed | Issued by |
|---|---|---|
| NYSDOT Special Hauling permit | Any non-divisible load over legal size or weight on state highways, including the LIE and the access highways. | NYSDOT Central Permit Office, through HOOCS. Single trip permit: $40. |
| Parkway routing approval | Only when an oversize load must use a parkway: work on the parkway itself, or a parkway that is the only access to the pickup or delivery point. It must be in hand before the NYSDOT application or that application is disapproved. | NYSDOT Region 10 Permit Office, (631) 952-6020. |
| Suffolk County trip permit | Vehicles over 80 ft long or 12 ft wide on Suffolk County roads. The NYSDOT permit comes first; superloads also need a county pre-approval letter, and county bridges are reviewed separately. | Suffolk County permit office, (631) 852-4100. |
| Town, village and city road permits | Local streets between the highway and the site. | The local road owner. |
| NYC DOT Daily Over Dimensional permits | Any leg through the five boroughs over city limits: one permit in, one permit out. | NYC DOT. $35 per permit, 48 hours lead time. |
| Port Authority approval and police escort | Oversize loads on the George Washington, Goethals, Outerbridge or Bayonne crossings. | The facility's Communications Desk and Port Authority Police. |
Nassau County, town and village road requirements are confirmed with each road owner on the move.
NYSDOT permits allow travel Monday to Friday from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. Night moves happen only when the permit authorizes them; the state escort manual says night travel may be allowed on request in Nassau and Suffolk, along with five Hudson Valley counties. We did not find a published Long Island rush-hour curfew for permitted loads, so the conditions printed on each permit control. The two 2026 holiday blackouts still ahead are Thanksgiving (from 12 noon Wed Nov 25) and Christmas (from 12 noon Thu Dec 24).
New York rules in full
Legal limits, NYSDOT permit types and fees, escort and height-pole triggers, superload thresholds, the full 2026 holiday table and the Thruway's separate permit are in our New York oversize permits guide. If the load continues past New York, see oversize permits by state.
Who Ships Heavy Equipment on Long Island?
Equipment moves on the island typically come from a handful of shipper types. The machine and the trailer change from job to job; the parkway and crossing rules above apply to all of them.
Contractors
Site work, excavation, paving and utility contractors moving excavators, dozers, loaders and rollers between yards and job sites in both counties.
Equipment dealers
Dealers delivering new and used machines to buyers on the island, and bringing inventory and trade-ins in from the mainland.
Rental fleets
Rental yards repositioning units between branches and customer job sites, often with short lead times.
Municipalities and public agencies
Towns, villages and other public agencies moving public works equipment between depots, projects and repair shops.
Auction buyers
Buyers who win a machine at auction and need it picked up from the sale yard and delivered, on or off Long Island.
Machine-specific guides: excavator transport, bulldozer transport and crane transport. For heavy haul on Long Island where the size and weight of the load matter more than the machine type, see heavy haul transport.
Long Island Towns We Arrange Equipment Transport For
We arrange equipment hauling for pickups and deliveries in every town and city in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Our office is in East Northport, in the Town of Huntington.
Nassau County
- Town of Hempstead Freeport, Garden City, Valley Stream, Uniondale, Elmont
- Town of North Hempstead Port Washington, Manhasset, Great Neck, Westbury, Roslyn
- Town of Oyster Bay Hicksville, Syosset, Bethpage, Massapequa, Plainview
- City of Glen Cove Glen Cove
- City of Long Beach Long Beach
Suffolk County
- Town of Babylon Lindenhurst, Deer Park, West Babylon, Amityville, Copiague
- Town of Huntington East Northport, Huntington Station, Melville, Northport, Greenlawn
- Town of Islip Bay Shore, Brentwood, Central Islip, Islip, Sayville
- Town of Smithtown Smithtown, Kings Park, St. James, Nesconset
- Town of Brookhaven Yaphank, Medford, Patchogue, Port Jefferson, Shirley
- Town of Riverhead Riverhead, Calverton, Jamesport
- Town of Southold Southold, Mattituck, Cutchogue, Greenport, Orient
- Town of Southampton Southampton, Hampton Bays, Westhampton
- Town of East Hampton East Hampton, Amagansett, Montauk
- Town of Shelter Island Shelter Island
What Do We Need for a Long Island Equipment Quote?
The more exact the dimensions, the more exact the route and permit plan. Send what you have:
- Make, model and year of the machine, and any attachments that stay on (buckets, blades, counterweights)
- Operating weight, plus length, width and height as the machine will ride
- Pickup and delivery addresses, with any gate, street or site access limits you know about
- Whether the machine runs and drives onto a trailer, or has to be loaded another way
- Ready date and any delivery deadline
- Whether the load leaves Long Island: New York City crossings and other states change the permit plan
Price depends on the trailer, the miles, the permits and any escorts. Our heavy equipment transport cost guide explains each part, or contact us with the details above.
Long Island Equipment Transport FAQ
No. All 11 Long Island state parkways, including the Northern State and Southern State, are closed to commercial vehicles, and some parkway bridges are posted as low as 6 ft 11 in. An oversize load can use a parkway only in narrow cases, such as work on the parkway itself or a parkway that is the only access to the site, and only with written NYSDOT Region 10 approval obtained before the permit application.
The designated corridor is the Long Island Expressway (I-495) to I-295 over the Throgs Neck Bridge, then I-695 and I-95 (the Cross Bronx Expressway) to the upper level of the George Washington Bridge. New York City bars 53 ft trailers from its other routes, and the Verrazzano route through Brooklyn and Staten Island is not a designated 53 ft corridor.
From East Northport it is about 70 road miles to Port Newark on the designated route over the Throgs Neck and George Washington bridges, and about 72 miles by the Verrazzano and Goethals bridges. Those are route estimates. Traffic, crossing rules and the permit's travel window decide the actual transit time.
Yes, if the move uses Suffolk County roads and the vehicle is over 80 ft long or 12 ft wide. Suffolk issues its own trip permit after the NYSDOT permit is in hand, superloads need a county pre-approval letter, and county bridges are reviewed separately. Town and village roads follow their own owners' rules.
Only if the permit authorizes it. NYSDOT permits default to weekday daylight travel, but the state escort manual says night travel may be allowed on request in Nassau and Suffolk counties. We found no published Long Island rush-hour curfew for permitted loads, so each move follows the conditions printed on its permit.
Possibly, but only after the operator approves the specific load. The Port Jefferson to Bridgeport ferry prices trucks by length up to over 60 ft, and Cross Sound Ferry at Orient Point requires lowboy and wide-load tractor-trailers to book by phone. Neither publishes height, width or weight limits for oversize equipment.
Since February 2026, striking a bridge is an 8-point license violation in New York. The State and City parkway brochure also lists fines, towing bills above $10,000 and repayment of bridge repair costs. New York recorded 310 bridge strikes in 2025, concentrated in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island.
No. HTS Logistics is an FMCSA-licensed property freight broker (MC# 1178470, USDOT 3535360) in East Northport. We book vetted carriers with the right trailer, authority and insurance, coordinate permits and escorts through those carriers and their permit services, and stay on the load from pickup to delivery.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked in October 2026 against the sources below. Rules and rates change; we confirm current requirements on every move.
- NYSDOT: Long Island parkways closed to commercial vehicles (brochure text) (undated)
- NYSDOT and NYC DOT: Stay off of State Parkways (updated December 2017)
- NYSDOT Special Hauling Notice 14-01: use of parkways (January 2014)
- NYSDOT Special Hauling Notice 12-01: use of parkways for routing
- NY Governor's office: bridge strike awareness and enforcement campaign (July 27, 2026)
- NYS Police Troop L: bridge-hit mitigation enforcement (August 5, 2026)
- LI Herald: Eagle Avenue bridge over-height detection (news, February 25, 2015)
- NY Vehicle and Traffic Law 1621: posted clearances
- NY Vehicle and Traffic Law 385: dimensions and weights
- NYSDOT Truck Book: Designated Qualifying and Access Highways (October 2020 edition)
- NYSDOT PERM 30: Information Concerning Special Hauling Permits (rev. 09/26)
- NYSDOT 2026 Oversize Travel Holiday Restrictions
- NYS Certified Escort Manual 2025
- Suffolk County: Hauling and Oversized Vehicle Permit
- NYC DOT: Permits for Over Dimensional Vehicles
- NYC DOT: Over Dimensional Vehicle Permit application
- MTA Bridges and Tunnels: truck and commercial vehicle information
- Port Authority of NY and NJ: Trucker Resources
- Port Authority of NY and NJ: Truckers' Guide (April 2026)
- Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamboat Co.: schedule and fares
- Cross Sound Ferry: vehicle types
- Cross Sound Ferry: FAQ
- OSRM route estimate: East Northport to Port Newark via Throgs Neck and GWB (computed October 2026, approximate)
- OSRM route estimate: East Northport to Port Newark via Verrazzano and Goethals (computed October 2026, approximate)
Get a Long Island Equipment Transport Quote
Tell us what is moving and where. A broker on our team will confirm trailer type, permits and a rate.
- FMCSA-licensed property broker, MC# 1178470
- Permits, escorts and route surveys arranged for each move
- Carriers checked for authority, insurance and safety record
- Commercial shippers, dealers, contractors and auction buyers
Prefer to talk? Call (631) 683-8275.
Request a Commercial Quote
Keep reading
- Long Island Truck RoutesParkway bans, the lowest bridges on Long Island and the roads trucks can use, from federal bridge data.
- New York Oversize PermitsNYSDOT, Thruway, NYC DOT, MTA and Port Authority rules for oversize loads in New York.
- Heavy Equipment TransportTrailer choice, width-by-width permit and escort triggers and shipping ranges for 47 machines, plus six checks before you book a hauler.
- Heavy Haul in New YorkLong Island, NYC and upstate moves, carrier counts by county, and machinery entering at Buffalo, Champlain, Albany and Port Newark.
- NYC Truck RoutesNew York City's truck route network, banned parkways and where bridge strikes happen.