 Owing to meager highway construction budgets during the 1970s and 1980s and the lack of strong political support for widening NY 347, NYSDOT budgeted and spent its funds elsewhere.The combination of Brookhaven's policies and NYSDOT's budget woes lead to the construction of many buildings that would had to have been razed in order to improve the highway.These new "facts on the ground" sowed the seeds of political opposition to making major improvements in later decades.