NEW YORK STATE ROUTE 5

'New York State Route 5' is a 370.87 mile (596.86 km) long New York State Route that runs between the New York/Pennsylvania border at the Town of Ripley in Chautauqua County and downtown Albany in Albany County where it terminates at service roads for I-787. Prior to the construction of the New York State Thruway, it was one of two main east-west highways traversing upstate New York, the other being U.S. Route 20.
NY 5 overlaps with US 20 twice along its routing. The second, a 68 mile overlap through western and central New York, is one of the longest concurrencies in the state, stretching from central Livingston County east to the city of Auburn in Cayuga County. The concurrency is known locally as "Routes 5 and 20".^[1][2]
West of New York, NY 5 continues as Pennsylvania Route 5 to Erie.

Contents

Route description

Pennsylvania to Buffalo

Buffalo to Avon

Avon to Ontario County

Western Ontario County

Canandaigua area

Canandaigua to Auburn

Auburn to Syracuse

Syracuse to Utica

Utica to Albany

Major intersections

References

External links

Route description

Communities
Primary locations along NY 5: ★ Ripley ★ Dunkirk ★ Buffalo ★ Amherst ★ Batavia ★ Canandaigua ★ Geneva ★ Auburn ★ Syracuse ★ Utica ★ Amsterdam ★ Schenectady ★ Albany

Although it is no longer commonly used for long distance travel, NY 5 is still regionally important. NY 5 is named Main Street in Buffalo, Erie Boulevard and West Genesee Street in Syracuse, State Street in Schenectady, and Central Avenue in Albany, the state capital. It is a major local road in many other locations along its path.
NY 5 runs concurrent to US 20 twice between its endpoints: for three miles between Silver Creek and Irving and for 68 miles across western and central New York. At 67.6 miles in length, the eastern NY 5/US 20 overlap is the second-longest concurrency in New York State, behind only the concurrency of New York State Route 17 and Interstate 86 in the Southern Tier. When the length of east-west NY 17 is officially designated I-86 (scheduled for 2012), NY 17 will be truncated to a short north-south segment in downstate and the NY 5/US 20 concurrency will become the longest in the state. In addition, NY 5 will then overtake NY 17 as the longest New York state route.

Pennsylvania to Buffalo

At the New York-Pennsylvania border in Ripley, Pennsylvania Route 5 becomes NY 5 upon entering New York. It very closely follows the shore of Lake Erie through all of Chautauqua County. Once reaching the village of Silver Creek it briefly overlaps US 20 until entering Erie County at the Cattaraugus Reservation and Route 438 where the roads once again split. Once in Erie County it pulls slightly inward from the lake shore from Brant to the hamlet of Wanakah. Once past Wanakah, the road once again closely borders the lake shore and goes through steadily more heavily developed areas, particularly the Ford Stamping Plant and the Bethlehem Steel plant in the city of Lackawanna where the road is called the ''Hamburg Turnpike''. Near the northern edge of the city, NY 5 begins to ascend onto an elevated roadway as it interchanges with Ridge Road. Here, the route becomes the 'Skyway'. After a quarter-mile, NY 5 passes seamlessly into Buffalo.

A short distance past the city line, NY 5 passes over the Union Ship Canal on a span of the elevated road known as the ''Father Baker Bridge''. North of the waterway, the Skyway gains a pair of frontage roads, both named Fuhrmann Boulevard. Both the service roads and the Skyway run parallel to Lake Erie until the northern end of the Buffalo Outer Harbor. Here, the frontage roads end while NY 5 turns to the northeast, crossing the Buffalo River and entering downtown. On the north bank, the Skyway returns to a northerly routing as it passes HSBC Arena, located directly to the east, and Buffalo and Erie Naval Park, situated to the west, and interchanges with Interstate 190 at exit 7. Past the interchange, the Skyway ends and the route descends in elevation, becoming an at-grade roadway once more at Church Street in the shadow of Buffalo City Hall. New York State Route 384 begins here, following Delaware Avenue north into the heart of downtown, while NY 5 turns east onto Church.
At Main Street, Church Street splits into a pair of one-way streets and becomes North and South Division Street. The route follows South Division eastward for two blocks to an intersection with Ellicott Street located one block north of Dunn Tire Park. At the junction, which includes the northern terminus of New York State Route 16, NY 5 turns northward, rejoining NY 5 westbound one block later at North Division. The route continues on Ellicott for nine blocks to the unidirectional East Tupper Street, where NY 5 westbound separates from the route once more. NY 5 eastbound, however, continues north on Ellicott for an additional block to the one-way Goodell Street. NY 5 heads west on Goodell for two blocks before turning north onto Main Street, rejoining NY 5 westbound at the intersection.
The route continues along Main Street throughout the remainder of its length in Buffalo, cutting through the city diagonally from southwest to northeast until it enters the town of Amherst at the intersection of Bailey Avenue (US 62) at the Main campus of the University at Buffalo.

Buffalo to Avon

Once leaving the city of Buffalo, NY 5 heads east through the densely populated suburban town of Amherst, including the hamlets of Snyder and Eggertsville and the village of Williamsville and is heavily developed through the entire length of the town, particularly at the intersection of Transit Road. In the town of Clarence, the road dips into a significant depression known as ''Clarence Hollow.'' Once leaving Clarence, NY 5 goes through predominantly rural areas until reaching the city of Batavia in Genesee County, closely paralleling the New York State Thruway through much of the county. The road travels eastward until reaching Livingston County and the village of Caledonia.
NY 5 heads southeast from the village of Caledonia, paralleling the former right-of-way of an Erie-Lackawanna Railroad branch line that connected the villages of Caledonia and Avon as it heads through spacious fields containing little more than farmland. At a rural intersection controlled by single-head flashing traffic signals west of Avon, NY 5 meets U.S. Route 20 for the second time. The routes embark on a second concurrency, merging onto the right-of-way of NY 5 as they cross the Genesee River and enter both the town and village of Avon.

Avon to Ontario County

NY 5 and US 20 become West Main Street upon entering the village, underscoring the road's status as the primary east-west highway through the town. The route continues southeast from the Genesee, passing through the forested but sparsely populated western area of the village. As the route approaches the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad (LAL) grade crossing, the number of homes increases rapidly, only to be replaced by businesses in the area surrounding the LAL mainline. Located on the western edge of this transition is New York State Route 39, which terminates at the NY 5/US 20 concurrency. Past the tracks, West Main intersects Rochester Street, a locally important north-south two-lane arterial that continues north of the village to the Rochester suburb of Brighton as East River Road. Shortly after this intersection, the homes return, following NY 5 and US 20 as West Main enters the heart of the village.
In the center of Avon, West Main feeds into Park Place, a large traffic circle providing access to two local streets from NY 5 and US 20. The routes follow the circle counter-clockwise, departing the roundabout on East Main Street. The street proceeds east, passing through four blocks of densely populated neighborhoods before exiting the village and abruptly entering vast, barren fields to the east. NY 5 and US 20, now named Avon-Lima Road, intersects New York State Route 15 two miles to the east in East Avon, a community based around the intersection and the streets comprising it, and interchanges with Interstate 390 exit 10 a half-mile from NY 15. Continuing on, the road intersects a number of county routes over the next four miles before becoming West Main Street once more, this time for the village of Lima. At an intersection with New York State Route 15A in the village center, NY 5 and US 20 become East Main Street, retaining the name to the Ontario County line at Honeoye Creek.

Western Ontario County

In the town of West Bloomfield, Routes 5 and 20 go unnamed as they proceed eastward. Roughly one mile from the county line in the hamlet of West Bloomfield, Routes 5 and 20 meet the southern terminus of New York State Route 65. Exiting the hamlet, NY 5 and US 20 head through another area dominated by open land, intersecting County Route 38 before passing seamlessly into East Bloomfield. A mile and a half from the town line, Routes 5 and 20 intersect New York State Route 64, a road running northwest-southeast from the Monroe County line south to NY 5 and US 20. NY 64, whose right-of-way ends at Routes 5 and 20 at the foot of a small hill, joins the two routes eastward on a triple overlap, entering the village of Bloomfield and intersecting the southern terminus of New York State Route 444 south of the portion of Bloomfield once known as Holcomb. Near the junction with NY 444, Routes 5, 20 and 64 take on a due east alignment, absorbing the routing used by Gauss Road west of this point.
A mile to the east at Whalen Road, NY 64 separates from NY 5 and US 20, following the road, and U.S. Route 20A, which has its eastern terminus at this intersection, south toward Bristol. Routes 5 and 20 continue on through rural Ontario County before splitting from its easterly alignment at an intersection four miles west of NY 64 and US 20A in the town of Canandaigua. West Avenue, the former routing of NY 5 and US 20 into downtown Canandaigua, continues east from the junction while NY 5 and US 20 turn south onto a bypass around Canandaigua.

Canandaigua area

A half-mile from the start of the bypass and a short distance before the arterial makes a turn eastward to traverse Canandaigua Lake to the southeast, NY 5 and US 20 meet New York State Route 21 at a four-way intersection. Like Routes 5 and 20, NY 21 once continued directly into downtown, in this instance via Bristol Street to the east of the junction, but now follows Routes 5 and 20 along the east-west leg of the bypass. Past Bristol Street, the bypass widens from two to four lanes and, after meeting two local streets, enters the city of Canandaigua as the limited-access Western Boulevard, albeit with no exits. The route loses this distinction prior to intersecting South Main Street, where Routes 5 and 20 meet the southern terminus of New York State Route 332. NY 21 departs the bypass, following NY 332 into downtown, while NY 5 and US 20 continue onto the four-laned, median separated Eastern Boulevard, the original section of the Routes 5 and 20 bypass of Canandaigua. The roadway acts a center of commerce for the city, sporting restaurants, hotels, and supermarkets along its length within the city limits.
Upon exiting the city, the establishments become a pair of shopping plazas centered around the intersection with the northern terminus of New York State Route 364. Across the town line in Hopewell a quarter-mile to the east, a third plaza, anchored by a Wal-Mart, dominates the northeast corner of County Road 10 and Eastern Boulevard. On the adjacent parcel, another plaza has begun to take shape. At the entrance to the second plaza, Routes 5 and 20 intersect Lakeshore Drive, the former routing of NY 5 and US 20 to the south of the bypass. Past the junction, the divided highway comes to an end and, after another half-mile, narrows to two lanes.

Canandaigua to Auburn

Deeper into Hopewell, the area surrounding Routes 5 and 20 become rural once more. Roughly 1.5 miles from the end of the bypass, NY 5 and US 20 meet New York State Route 247. After 10.3 miles of eastward progression through open land, the routes meet the northern terminus of both New York State Route 14A and New York State Route 245, concurrent at this location, in the town of Geneva. A half-mile past NY 14A and NY 245, Routes 5 and 20 enter the city of Geneva and widens into a four lane road. In the city, NY 5 and US 20 intersect New York State Route 14 by way of a pseudo-interchange on the bank of Seneca Lake. Routes 5 and 20 turn into a divided highway again at this point. At the interchange, New York State Route 14 Truck joins 5 and 20, bypassing a sharp turn on NY 14 downtown. After a half mile, Truck NY 14 turns onto Lake Street, rejoining NY 14 another quarter mile later.^[3] NY 5 and US 20 continues as a divided highway around the northern tip of Seneca Lake, crossing the Preemption Line and entering Seneca County at its midpoint. A mile to the east in East Geneva, just east of a railroad underpass, Routes 5 and 20 meet the northern terminus of New York State Route 96A at a former trumpet interchange that has been converted to an intersection with a traffic signal.

From NY 96A east to the village of Waterloo, a distance of roughly four miles, Routes 5 and 20 becomes a two lane road and runs parallel to the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. In Waterloo, the concurrency meets New York State Route 96 in the village center. East of the village, the distance between the canal and the roadway decreases, making NY 5 and US 20 the closest road to the water for the next one and a half miles to New York State Route 414 in the town of Seneca Falls. NY 414 joins NY 5 and US 20, overlapping the road for 4.3 miles into the village of Seneca Falls. At Cayuga Street, NY 414 turns south, crossing the water body that is the canal and the Seneca River and becoming Ovid Street while NY 5 and US 20 turns north onto Cayuga, following the street around the small Van Cleef Lake, through the Finger Lakes Railroad grade crossing, and exiting the village. Three miles from NY 414, just west of Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, NY 5 and US 20 meets New York State Route 318 and New York State Route 89 at intersections close enough to be considered a single junction. The intersection with Route 89 has a traffic signal.
About three miles later, after entering Cayuga County over the Seneca River/Cayuga and Seneca Canal, just north of Cayuga Lake, the two routes meet New York State Route 90 in the town of Aurelius, at a traffic signal. A few miles east of that intersection, the highway meets the Finger Lakes Railroad again, but crosses it via an overpass. The routes continue eastward through Aurelius to the city of Auburn where it turns into a divided four lane highway again. On the western edge of the city, just after passing Finger Lakes Mall, NY 5 and US 20 meet the eastern terminus of New York State Route 326, which is also a four lane divided highway for a short stretch. In downtown Auburn, NY 5 and US 20's east and west lanes split apart from each other for a short distance as an arterial over the alignments of Clark Street, Franklin Street, and Grant Avenue. The arterial runs concurrent with New York State Route 38 for 0.2 miles. NY 38 then splits from the concurrency and joins New York State Route 34. A quarter-mile to the east, US 20 separates from NY 5 at the northern terminus of New York State Route 38A. Route 5 continues on after the split as four lane Grant Avenue passing by a high number shopping areas.

Auburn to Syracuse

From New York State Route 174 in Camillus to Fairmount, NY 5 is a 5 mile (8 km) long limited-access highway traversing the western suburbs of Syracuse. At one time, the highway was to be extended to West Street in Syracuse, via the current Grand Avenue.^[4] The freeway has partial access to New York State Route 173 from westbound NY 5. East of NY 173, the freeway interchanges New York State Route 695 and passes over New York State Route 297 without access. East of Fairmount, NY 5 alters to the south before turning east onto Genessee Street and converting to grade-level intersections.^[5]
In Syracuse, NY 5 is parallel to Interstate 690 for much of its routing but never encounters the highway, thus making the north-south streets that intersect NY 5 entry points to and from I-690. In downtown Syracuse, Genessee Street becomes James Street. At the southern tip of the I-690/I-81 interchange, NY 5 transfers onto Erie Boulevard and intersects State Street (U.S. Route 11), but passes under Interstate 81 without access. From the downtown area to DeWitt, NY 5 is divided.^[6] At the Syracuse-DeWittt boundary, NY 5 intersects New York State Route 635 and eastward, it curves to a southeast course. Near Shoppingtown Mall, NY 5 turns east onto Genesse Street to begin an overlap with New York State Route 92. Less than a mile east of the mall, NY 5 and NY 92 intersect Interstate 481, at a cloverleaf interchange.^[6]

Syracuse to Utica

The eastern split of the NY 5/NY 92 overlap is the busiest area of NY 5 in the Syracuse area and in all of Onondaga County.^[8]

Utica to Albany

Major intersections

References

1. Routes 5 and 20 New York
2. NYSDOT Traffic Data Report - Routes 15 to 23
3. New York Multiplexes - US 20/NY 5/NY 14 Truck concurrency
4. Syracuse Highways: A Brief Historical Overview
5.
6.
7.
8. NYSDOT Traffic Counts - Onondaga County

External links

★ NY State Route 5 Ends (gribblenation.net)

★ New York Routes - New York State Route 5

★ WNY Heritage Press Skyway Page