NEW YORK STATE ROUTE 13

'New York State Route 13' is a 155 mile (249 km) long New York State route that runs mainly north and south between New York State Route 17 (future Interstate 86) in Horseheads and New York State Route 3 west of Pulaski.

Contents

Route description

Communities along the route

Major intersections

History

Original southern terminus

Truncation

Sullivanville Dam

Routing through Ithaca

Potential future extension

References

External links

Route description

NY 13 intersects with Interstate 81 at Cortland and Interstate 90, the New York State Thruway, in Canastota. NY 13 takes a looping route between Cortland and Pulaski that may be avoided by using Interstate 81.
The most heavily traveled section of the route is the 50 mile (90 km) northeast/southwest section between Horseheads and Cortland, servicing Ithaca. At one point it was proposed to convert this part of NY 13 into an expressway, however this plan quickly fell out of favor with local residents. A small stretch of NY 13 follows an expressway alignment in the Ithaca area.
NY 13 is co-signed with New York State Route 34 and New York State Route 96 between Newfield and Ithaca; New York State Route 38 briefly in the village of Dryden; U.S. Route 11 and New York State Route 41 briefly within the city of Cortland; New York State Route 80 between Sheds and New Woodstock; New York State Route 5 between Chittenango and Canastota; New York State Route 49 for a few miles in Oneida County, and New York State Route 69 for one block in the Village of Camden.

Communities along the route

Principal communities along NY 13:

★ Horseheads

★ Newfield

★ Ithaca

★ Dryden

★ Cortland

★ Truxton

★ DeRuyter

★ Cazenovia

★ Chittenango

★ Canastota

★ Sylvan Beach

★ Pulaski

Major intersections

History

Original southern terminus

NY 13 once extended as far south as U.S. Route 15 in the Town of Lindley in Steuben County, according to road maps from the 1930s. Instead of continuing south at the intersection with New York State Route 223 northwest of Horseheads, NY 13 turned west onto Old Ithaca Road and followed the street to South Main Street in downtown Horseheads. NY 13 then ran south along South Main into Elmira, where the road becomes Lake Road and, eventually Lake Street. At Church Street, then bi-directional and now only westbound New York State Route 352, NY 13 turned west to West Elmira, where NY 13 turned west onto the right-of-way of present-day New York State Route 225.
NY 13 continued on NY 225 to Caton, where NY 13 continued west on what is now County Route 120, remaining on the road to US 15 in Lindley.

Truncation

By the 1950s, the route was truncated to the intersection of Lake Street and Church Street in downtown Elmira. Eventually, by the mid-1950s, NY 13 no longer entered Elmira, continuing south from NY 223 instead along a new road leading to a newly-constructed interchange with New York State Route 17.

Sullivanville Dam

In the mid-1980s, the Sullivanville Dam project forced a portion of the route to be rerouted northeast of Horseheads. Due to the elevated water level caused by the dam, the route had to be moved to higher ground west of the hamlet of Sullivanville in the Town of Veteran. A section of the old highway remains under the impounded water. Another section north of the dam exists as an extension of Sullivanville Road.

Routing through Ithaca

From its current alignment on Meadow Street, NY 13 was once co-signed with NY 79 through downtown Ithaca, then followed Mitchell Street and Dryden Road (now NY 366) through the Cornell Plantations, before continuing on to Dryden. In the early 1970s, a new expressway was built along the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, bypassing downtown Ithaca on the west and north. After this, Meadow Street carried NY 13 traffic in both directions along the western edge of Ithaca until the late 1990s, when southbound traffic was diverted from Meadow Street to Fulton Street for a ten block section.

Potential future extension

As part of the "Horseheads Bypass" project to upgrade NY 17 to Interstate standards, the southern terminus of NY 13 may be moved a short distance west to New York State Route 14 in Horseheads when the project is complete. At least one "NY 13 South" sign assembly is exposed along the westbound frontage road leading from exit 54 (NY 13). Several similarly shaped signs on similar sign assemblies are covered along the route.

References

1. New York Routes - New York State Route 13

External links

★ NY State Route 13 Ends (gribblenation.net)