NEW YORK STATE ROUTE 17

'New York State Route 17', also known as the 'Southern Tier Expressway' (between the Pennsylvania-New York border and Binghamton) and the 'Quickway' (between Binghamton and the New York State Thruway in Harriman), and 'Orange Turnpike' (between Harriman and Suffern), is a New York state highway that runs from Suffern, New York (where it connects to NJ 17) to the Pennsylvania border in Western New York. Between the PA-NY border and the town of Horseheads, NY 17 is concurrent with Interstate 86. Eventually, the entire east-west portion of NY 17 from the PA border to Harriman will become I-86 as projects to upgrade the route to Interstate Highway standards are completed.
At the Pennsylvania border, the highway becomes solely I-86 between the PA border and the city of Erie. Up until 1999, when I-86 was signed into law, this section of highway was known as Pennsylvania Route 17. I-86 then merges into Interstate 90 outside Erie.
NY 17 is gradually being re-signed as Interstate 86 as part of an upgrade to the route, replacing at-grade intersections and bringing the road up to Interstate standards. North and west of Harriman, at its intersection with Interstate 87 and US 6, NY 17 is informally known as the "Quickway," connecting the New York City metropolitan area with the Southern Tier and Pennsylvania. It is named the "Southern Tier Expressway" to Interstate 81, where it becomes the Quickway.
Route 17 is currently the longest New York State Highway. It stretches 397 miles (639 km) and serves eleven counties in the State of New York, including Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Chemung, Tioga, Broome, Delaware, Sullivan, Orange and Rockland. When it becomes fully transformed into Interstate 86 (a step tentatively set for 2012) the title of longest New York State Route will be passed down to Route 5.
A short portion of NY 17 (less than a mile) is actually ''in'' Pennsylvania. At Waverly, the highway dips south across the border into South Waverly, Pennsylvania, where it intersects with U.S. Route 220. The section in Pennsylvania is maintained by New York.^[2][3]

Contents

Route description

Elmira to Harriman

History

Liberty Highway

NY 17: rural road to expressway

The road's Interstate future

Major intersections

See also

Suffixed routes

Other former alignments

References

External links

Route description

Major cities
★ Jamestown ★ Salamanca ★ Olean ★ Corning ★ Elmira ★ Binghamton ★ Cuba ★ Bath ★ Riverside ★ Horseheads ★ Waverly ★ Endicott ★ Johnson City ★ Hancock ★ Liberty ★ Monticello ★ Monroe ★ Goshen ★ Harriman ★ Tuxedo Park ★ Sloatsburg ★ Suffern

Elmira to Harriman

From Elmira to Binghamton, NY 17, the Erie Railroad, and its old alignments generally stay close together. They follow the Chemung River to exit 60 (South Waverly, Pennsylvania) and the Susquehanna River from east of exit 61 (Waverly, New York) to Binghamton; on the latter section, both NY Route 17C and NY Route 434 are old NY 17. Between the two rivers, which intersect in Pennsylvania, the general corridor runs just north of the state line in New York. However, NY 17 itself crosses into Pennsylvania between a point east of exit 60 and a point west of exit 61; additionally, all the ramps at exit 60 and potions of the eastbound ramps at exits 59A and 61 are in Pennsylvania. Despite being in Pennsylvania, these roadways are maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation.
Near downtown Binghamton, NY 17 goes around the side of Prospect Mountain at what is locally known as "Kamikaze Curve". Heading eastbound, the freeway curves sharply left around the hillside, splits into ramps to Interstate 81 north and south, and curves right to merge into I-81 south as it passes over the Chenango River. From that point east and southeast about 4 miles (6 km), I-81 and NY 17 run concurrently. NY 17 splits from I-81, the Erie Railroad and the Susquehanna River to the east into Stilson Hollow; from this split (exit 75) to its end, most of I-86 does not follow the Erie Railroad, which crosses into Pennsylvania several times.
At the end of Stilson Hollow, NY 17 heads over a summit and into the valley formed by the Occanum Creek. The creek empties into the Susquehanna River at Windsor (exit 79), which NY 17 follows southeast to Damascus (exit 80) before turning northeast along Tuscarora Creek. It soon turns east and southeast over a summit, rejoining the Erie Railroad just north of Gulf Summit. The highway and railroad head east along Oquaga Creek to Deposit (exit 84), where they turn southeast along the West Branch Delaware River. A gap in the freeway stretches from here to just short of Hancock (exit 87), the place the West Branch joins with the East Branch Delaware River. The Erie Railroad continues southeast along the combined Delaware River, while I-86 turns east along the valley formed by the East Branch, closely following the abandoned New York, Ontario and Western Railway to Liberty.
At East Branch (exit 90), the East Branch Delaware River turns north, and NY 17 continues east with the Beaver Kill to Roscoe (exit 94), Willowemoc Creek to Livingston Manor (exit 96), and Little Beaver Kill to Parksville (the exit 98 at-grade intersection). The highway and parallel NYO&W pass south over a summit to Liberty (exits 99-100), and continue along the Middle Mongaup River to Ferndale (exit 101). The NYO&W turned east there, but NY 17 continues south over a summit and into the Spring Brook and East Mongaup River valleys past Harris (exit 102). NY 17 then cuts southeast cross-country to Monticello (exit 104; passing Monticello Raceway) and beyond, following the old Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike (old NY 17) to Bloomingburg (exit 116). The old Middletown and Wurtsboro Turnpike, also old NY 17, and partially NY Route 17M, runs south to Middletown, which NY 17 cuts cross-country to bypass to the east, rejoining NY 17M - and the main line of the Erie Railroad - at Goshen (exit 123). NY 17, old its former alignment(NY 17M) and the Erie run generally east-southeast, partly cross-country and partly through small stream valleys, to the end of the freeway, the directional change in NY 17, and the junction of the Erie with its branch to Newburgh.

History

Liberty Highway

The route of NY 17 was the main portion of an auto trail called the Liberty Highway, which connected New York City to Cleveland^[4] via Hackensack, Liberty, the Southern Tier, and Erie. The alignment of NY 17 was first designated as a state highway in the 1909 Highway Law of New York,^[5] with legislative designation "Route 4". Legislative Route 4 followed the Liberty Highway from the New Jersey state line to Westfield, terminating at Legislative Route 18 (current U.S. Route 20).
When New York first signed its state highways with route numbers in 1924, Legislative Route 4 was given the official designation of "Route 17". The original Route 17 was 434 miles long. It began in Westfield, then passed through Jamestown, Olean, Hornell, Elmira, Binghamton, Liberty, Middletown, and ended at the New Jersey state line in Suffern.''Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile Green Book'', 1929-30 edition, (Scarborough Motor Guide Co., Boston, 1929) The original route was more circuitous than the current one. Between Olean and Wellsville, it went via Cuba and Belmont (along modern Route 16, Route 446, and Allegany County Road 20). Between Andover and Jasper, it went via Hornell (along modern Route 21 and Route 36).
In the 1930 state highway renumbering, Route 17 basically remained intact. The only changes were the straightening out of the Olean-Wellsville segment (now via Ceres) and the Andover-Jasper segment (now via Greenwood).''Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile Green Book'', 1931-32 edition, (Scarborough Motor Guide Co., Boston, 1931)
Modern Route 17 is now an expressway along roughly the same alignment as the old route. The old Route 17 is now known by various designations (ignoring minor realignments):

★ NY 394 (Westfield-Mayville)

★ NY 430 (Mayville-Jamestown)

★ NY 394 (Jamestown-Steamburg)

★ NY 17 (Steamburg-Salamanca)

★ NY 417 (Salamanca-Erwin)

★ Addison-South Hamilton Road/US 15 (Erwin-Painted Post)

★ NY 415/Bridge Street (Painted Post-Corning)

★ NY 352 (Corning-Big Flats)

★ Chemung County Road 64 (Big Flats-Horseheads)

★ NY 14/NY 352 (Horseheads-Elmira)

★ NY 17 (Elmira-Lowman)

★ Chemung/Tioga County Road 60 (Lowman-Waverly)

★ NY 17C (Waverly-Owego)

★ NY 434/Broome County Road 44 (Owego-Binghamton)

★ US 11 (Binghamton-Kirkwood Center)

★ NY 17/Broome County Road 28 (Kirkwood Center-Deposit)

★ NY 17 (Deposit-Hancock)

★ "Old Route 17" (Delware CR 17/Sullivan CR 179A to 174) (Deposit-Monticello)

★ Sullivan CR 173 to 171 (Monticello-Bloomingburg)

★ Orange County Road 76/NY 17M (Bloomingburg-Harriman)

★ NY 17 (Harriman-New Jersey line).

NY 17: rural road to expressway

The explosive growth of the tourism industry in the Catskill Mountains region, which began in the 1930s and intensified after World War II, stretched the rural road to its limits. Scores of hotels, resorts and bungalow colonies attracted hundreds of thousands of vacationing New Yorkers, whose cars left NY 17 hopelessly jammed in summer. Many towns, especially the fairly large city of Middletown, were paralyzed on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons in the summertime. In addition, the tight turns and steep inclines along the route led to numerous fatal crashes.
In response, New York State officials planned a four-lane replacement, the first free long-distance expressway in the state and one of the earliest in the United States. It would replace intersections with well-spaced access ramps, separate grades with flyovers, and allow safe travel at up to 65 miles per hour.
Construction of the NY 17 freeway began in 1949 near the Hudson Valley town of Goshen. The initial section ran from what is now Exit 123, and ended at the present day Exit 118 in Fair Oaks. The original designation of this section was the Middletown By-Pass, and was opened in 1950. The road was extended in stages over the next two decades. It first was extended east, reaching the New York State Thruway in 1960. A section of the highway through Sullivan and Delaware counties was built over the defunct Ontario & Western Railway access. By 1969, with the assistance of federal funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission procured by New York's U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the 130-mile route provided nonstop access between Harriman and Binghamton, from the New York State Thruway (Interstate 87) to Interstate 81. Despite flaws in the highway's design — it included a grade-level railroad crossing near Fair Oaks (since removed) and two stretches with intersections and driveway access — the so-called "Quickway" succeeded in easing travel through southern New York, cutting the driving time in half and the accident rate by 70%.
During the 1970s, New York State extended the NY 17 freeway westward along a new alignment, which took the route into western Pennsylvania to intersect with Interstate 90 outside the city of Erie. The extension, formally known as the Southern Tier Expressway, was completed in 1988. Like its eastern counterpart, it was not originally a fully limited-access route; it included at-grade segments in Horseheads and Corning, while the westernmost leg was a divided two-lane freeway. This narrow segment was widened to four lanes in 1998.
When completed, the revamped NY 17 provided a valuable "inside route" for truckers and vacationers alike. It now serves as a time-saving, non-toll shortcut past the Thruway for motorists going from the New York City area to Ohio and points west. In fact, the Thruway's governing authority initially opposed the highway's construction, fearing the loss of toll revenue on its own route from motorists shunpiking via the free alternate route. For what is usually a slightly shorter trip, some drivers going from New York City to central and western New York cut through New Jersey and Pennsylvania on I-80, I-380, and I-81 and join NY 17 in Binghamton.

The road's Interstate future

In 1998, the U.S. federal government designated the NY 17 expressway a "high-priority corridor," enabling it to receive Interstate designation and structural upgrades. New York politicians and businessmen backed the move in the hope that an efficient, high-speed roadway would inspire companies to do business in the state's economically depressed southern counties.
In December 1999, the westernmost 185 miles of NY 17 (including the short stretch in Pennsylvania, signed PA 17) were re-signed Interstate 86. This section, which extends east to Corning, was the first to receive Interstate status because it had been designed to higher standards than the older sections in the east.
As of 2005, the interstate designation has been extended east to Route 14 in Horseheads and a project to raise the highway, removing at-grade intersections in that village is well under way. Horseheads Bypass project
The remainder of NY 17 west of I-87 is slated to be signed I-86 in about 2012, after the remaining at-grade sections are converted to limited access. (Temporary signs mark the route as "Future Interstate 86.") In addition to the Horseheads project, recent improvements have included the removal of intersections near Elmira and east of Binghamton, as well as the widening and straightening of sections in the Hudson Valley towns of Goshen and Chester.
Cost estimates for the I-86 renovation range from $550 million to $900 million.

Major intersections

''This section covers the portion of NY 17 that runs north-south between the New York-New Jersey border and Harriman. For a list of intersections for the stretch that runs east-west between Interstate 90 in Erie and Harriman, see Interstate 86.''

See also

★ Interstate 86 for an exit list

★ List of State Routes in New York

Suffixed routes

★ New York State Route 17A

★ New York State Route 17B

★ New York State Route 17C

★ New York State Route 17D (former)

★ New York State Route 17E (former)

★ New York State Route 17F (former)

★ New York State Route 17G (former)

★ New York State Route 17H (former)

★ New York State Route 17J (former)

★ New York State Route 17K

★ New York State Route 17M

Other former alignments

★ New York State Route 352

★ New York State Route 394

★ New York State Route 417

★ New York State Route 430

★ New York State Route 434

★ New York State Route 951T

References

1. New York Routes - New York State Route 17
2. Gribblenation.NET "Highway Feature of the Week"
3. [ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/BPR_pdf_files/Maps/GHS/Roadnames/bradford_GHSN.PDF Pennsylvania Department of Transportation map showing NY 17 in Pennsylvania]
4. North American Auto Trails
5. The Highway Law: Laws of 1909, Chapter 30

External links

★ The Roads of Metro New York (Steve Anderson)