I-81 comes in from the north and heads out to the east, NY 17 comes in from the west and goes eastward with I-81, NY 7 runs north-south on the east side of the map. US 11 is the major north-south street west of the Chenango River.
The freeways of Binghamton, NY are relatively old ones, engineered in the 1950s and 1960s. NY 17 crosses the length of the state of New York passing through some of the most scenic territory in the entire eastern USA while I-81 serves as a major north-south 'spine' in the middle north east, connecting eastern Ontario to the mid Atlantic regions via Syracuse, NY and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA area. NY 7 is a curious local semi-freeway that once carried traffic between the New York 'Southern Tier' and the Albany, NY and Boston, MA/New England areas.
In more recent years, a crossover (including a new bridge over the Chenango River) was built about 1.5 km north of the interchange at the top of the map to feed NY 7 traffic directly into I-81, allowing for the designation of (eastern) I-88 on the NY 7 routing. NY 7 from this crossover for about 3-4 km into the rural hinterlands to the northeast deserves a feature of its own, the upgrades amazingly 'shoehorn' a newly engineered interstate highway **TIGHTLY** between the two frontage roads of what would otherwise be a typical 'surface' street.
Projected to the south, the NY 7 'semi-freeway' continues into the downtown Binghamton area as NY 363, then crossing the Susquehanna River (after a VERY INTERESTING interchange connection) as NY 434, turning westward and eventually paralleling the NY 17 right-of-way in the Endicott/Vestal area, about 10 km to the west.
'Kamikazi Curve' is the 1 km or so of NY 17 west of the I-81 interchange. Posted speed limit is in the 50-60 km/h range. I know of no immediate plans to 'unkink' it. (Besides, how much money does NYSDOT wish to spend on tunneling to do it, anyway?)
NY 17 will be redesignated as 'I-86' when the necessary upgrades to the non-freeway parts of the route are completed, likely to happen within about 10-15 years of this writing.
The highways in the 'Southern Tier' of New York are a neat drive regardless, a roadtrip that I highly recommend.
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Just follow this sign to make your OWN great signs!!!! |
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This page © Michael G. Koerner |
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