New York State Route 7

NYS Route 7
Length:	180.47 mi[1] (290.44 km)
Formed:	1927[2] (1924 as NY 9)[3]
West end:	PA 29 at Conklin
Major junctions:	I-81/NY 17 in Binghamton NY 8 in Sidney NY 28 in Oneonta US 20 in Duanesburg NY 5 in Schenectady I-87 in Latham I-787 in Green Island
East end:	VT 9 at Hoosick
Counties:	Broome, Chenango, Otsego, Schoharie, Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer
Numbered highways in New York < NY 6N NY 8 > Interstate – U.S. – N.Y. (former) – Reference

New York State Route 7 is a 180-mile (290 km) long New York State Highway that runs from the New York/Pennsylvania border south of Binghamton, New York to the New York/Vermont border east of Hoosick. Most of the road runs along the Susquehanna Valley, closely paralleling Interstate 88 throughout that road's length. Portions of the highway route near the cities of Binghamton, Schenectady, and Troy date back to the early 19th century.

Route description

Binghamton area

NY 7 begins at Pennsylvania state line south of Corbettsville, where the road continues into Pennsylvania as Pennsylvania Route 29. Like PA 29 to the south, NY 7 follows Snake Creek north to Corbettsville, where it meets NY 7A on the banks of the Susquehanna River. From Corbettsville northward, NY 7 becomes the riverside highway, following the river (as well as U.S. Route 11 and Interstate 81 on the opposite bank) through Conklin to eastern Binghamton, where it indirectly connects to US 11 via a bridge over the Susquehanna.

The exit for NY 7 from I-81/NY 17 in Binghamton.

The route continues west into downtown along Conklin Avenue, then heads north on Tompkins Avenue to traverse the Susquehanna River. On the opposite bank, NY 7 intersects US 11 and becomes Brandywine Avenue. After three blocks, NY 7 merges with the limited-access NY 363. While NY 363 terminates at the merge, NY 7 follows the right-of-way of NY 363 northward, connecting to the concurrent routes of I-81 and NY 17 by way of an interchange before leaving the city limits.

Immediately north of Binghamton in Port Dickinson, NY 7 merges with Interstate 88 across the Chenango River from the western terminus of I-88 at I-81. NY 7 and I-88 continue to the northeast along the Chenango River through Chenango Bridge (where the routes meet NY 12A) and Port Crane (where NY 7 and I-88 meet NY 369 and leave the path of the Chenango River) before separating in Sanitaria Springs.

Binghamton to Schenectady

NY 7 overlaps NY 30A in the town of Schoharie

From Sanitaria Springs eastward, NY 7 and I-88 follow parallel routings through Colesville to Harpursville, where NY 7 overlaps NY 79 for a short distance and intersects NY 235 outside of the community. East of NY 235, NY 7 rejoins the Susquehanna River, following the river (as well as I-88 on the opposite bank) through several riverside villages (including Unadilla) to Oneonta. West of the city, NY 7 meets NY 23 and joins the route into the heart of Oneonta. Near the eastern edge of the city, NY 23 breaks from NY 7 while NY 7 continues onward in the shadow of I-88 and the Susquehanna River. To the northeast in Colliersville, the Susquehanna separates from NY 7 and is joined by NY 28 while NY 7 continues along the path of Schenevus Creek.

Both NY 7 and I-88 head northeast along the creek through numerous communities to Richmondville, where NY 7 meets NY 10 at an interchange with I-88 near Cobleskill Creek. NY 10 turns east onto NY 7, forming an overlap along the creek to Cobleskill before separating from NY 7 in the center of the village at an intersection with NY 145. NY 145 then overlaps NY 7 east out of the village before separating midway between Cobleskill and Schoharie near Howe Caverns. North of Schoharie, NY 7 briefly overlaps NY 30A across Schoharie Creek before intersecting NY 30 west of the Schoharie-Schenectady County line.

Capital District

In Duanesburg, southwest of Schenectady, NY 7 intersects U.S. Route 20 and meets I-88 once more at exit 24. Both routes continue northeast along Normans Kill into western Schenectady, where I-88 meets NY 7 one final time by way of another interchange before terminating at an interchange with the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90). NY 7, however, passes over the Thruway with no connection and heads east into Rotterdam as Duanesburg Road. In the center of the community, NY 7 turns east onto Curry Road, remaining on the roadway to an interchange with Interstate 890 adjacent to the Schenectady-Albany County line. NY 7 merges with I-890 northward for two exits (creating a wrong-way concurrency) before exiting onto the Crosstown Arterial.

At the end of the arterial in eastern Schenectady, NY 7 becomes the at-grade Troy-Schenectady Road as it heads along the south bank of the Mohawk River into Albany County. Shortly after entering the county and the Town of Colonie, NY 7 leaves the river and progresses southeast toward the hamlet of Latham. Soon after passing the Albany International Airport and prior to entering the center of Latham, NY 7 meets Interstate 87 (the Adirondack Northway) at exit 6. Here, NY 7 joins the Adirondack Northway northward while Troy-Schenectady Road continues east as NY 2. At exit 7, NY 7 separates from the Adirondack Northway and continues east on a freeway known locally, but erroneously, as "Alternate Route 7". The route connects to U.S. Route 9 and Interstate 787/NY 787 by way of interchanges prior to crossing over the Hudson River and into Troy over the Collar City Bridge. The route remains a limited-access highway to 8th Street, where it becomes the at-grade Hoosick Street.

NY 7 continues east through Troy, intersecting NY 40 before exiting the city. Past Troy, the land surrounding NY 7 is largely rural as it heads through Pittstown to Hoosick, where it meets and is briefly concurrent to NY 22. Farther east, NY 7 intersects the western end of the Bennington Bypass, a limited-access highway leading to Bennington, Vermont, before crossing into Vermont and becoming Vermont Route 9.

History

Origins and assignment

The history of parts of Route 7 date back to shortly after the settlement of Hoosick in 1688. Hoosick was a part of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck and a public manor road was laid from Rensselaer to the site later of Troy at a ferry crossing, and then to the northeast as far as Hoosick. The section of Route 7 from Troy to Hoosick is that old manor road.^[4] The 19th century toll road known as the Troy and Schenectady Turnpike (now the Troy-Schenectady Road) chartered in 1802, connecting the cities of Troy and Schenectady.^[5] Another turnpike road, the Troy Turnpike, was established in 1831 and went east from Troy to Bennington, Vermont.^[6] The road between Binghamton (at the location known as Chenango Point) through the village of Unadilla to the town of Otego was also an old turnpike road (Unadilla Turnpike) that was chartered in 1806.^[7]

The state took over maintenance of certain trunk line highways at the beginning of the 20th century. Most of modern NY 7 was first defined in the 1909 Highway Law (amended in 1911)^[8] as State Route 7, which was designated from the Pennsylvania line at Binghamton town to Harpursville, then along the Susquehanna Valley through Oneonta to the town of Schoharie. From there, the legislative route 7 went east via Berne and New Scotland to Albany. The portion of modern NY 7 continuing northeast to Schenectady was part of State Route 7A. The road between Troy and Schenectady was defined as part of State Route 42, while that between Troy and Hoosick was part of State Route 22.

In 1924, when state highways were first publicly signed, most of what is now NY 7 between Binghamton and the Vermont state line was designated as New York State Route 9,^[3] continuing the numbering of New England Route 9 in Vermont. Within Albany, NY 9 followed the modern routing of NY 2 through Latham to Troy, where the connection to the modern alignment of NY 7 was made via current U.S. Route 4.^[9] In 1927, NY 9 was redesignated as NY 7 to avoid conflict with US 9.^[2] The route north of Binghamton remained unchanged in the 1930 renumbering;^[10] however, south of Binghamton, NY 7 was extended to the Pennsylvania state line, where it became PA 29.^[11][12]

Realignments

Over the years, NY 7 has been realigned to follow different routings in and around the cities it serves. Prior to 1930, NY 7 began at Court Street in Binghamton and followed Chenango Street north into Fenton, where it turned east and continued through Port Crane to the Colesville hamlet of Sanitaria Springs.^[13][14] In the 1930 renumbering, NY 7 was extended south to Pennsylvania by way of Court Street, Tompkins Street, and Conklin Avenue.^[15][16] NY 7 was realigned slightly by 1947 to follow Robinson Street and Brandywine Avenue between Chenango and Tompkins Streets.^[16] Ca. 1961, the Brandywine Highway, a four-lane arterial through Binghamton and Port Dickinson, opened to traffic as a realignment of NY 7.^[17][18] The portion of NY 7 between Port Dickinson and Sanitaria Springs was relocated onto a new limited-access highway between 1968 and 1973.^[19][20] The segment of Chenango Street between the Binghamton city line and current NY 7 in Port Dickinson (a distance of 1.07 miles (1.72 km)) is now NY 990H, an unsigned reference route.^[21][22]

In Schenectady, it was originally routed along Broadway, State Street, Nott Terrace, and Union Street.^[2] It was shifted at some point between 1938 and 1947 to avoid downtown along Curry Road, Altamont Avenue and Brandywine Avenue.^[16][23] Meanwhile, the portion of Curry Road between Altamont Avenue and NY 146 was designated as NY 146C in the 1930s.^[24][25] NY 7 was rerouted ca. 1962 to follow Curry Road east from Altamont Avenue to the new Interstate 890, where NY 7 turned north and followed I-890 to modern exit 7. Here, the route split from I-890 and continued to the junction of Union Street and Rosendale Road east of the city by way of a new arterial. The NY 146C designation was removed from Curry Road as part of the change.^[18][26] NY 7's former routing along Altamont Avenue from Curry Road to the Schenectady city line (a length of 0.96 miles (1.54 km)) is now the unsigned NY 911H.^[21][22] Prior to the creation of the modern reference route system, Altamont Avenue was designated as NY 951. Reference markers along the route still bear this number.^[27]

In 1981, the Collar City Bridge was built, connecting Green Island with Troy in the Capital District.^[28] By 1985, construction had begun on the NY 7 freeway, then marked as NY 7 Alternate, between Interstate 87 and Interstate 787 west of Green Island.^[29] In 1986, NY 7 "Alternate" opened, becoming part of a realigned NY 7.^[28] The old surface alignment was designated as an extension of NY 2.^[30]

Future

NYSDOT has announced plans to construct a Single-Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) at exit 6 for the Northway to replace the current diamond interchange in place.^[31]

Suffixed routes

NY 7 currently has two spurs, both located in the Southern Tier. A third formerly existed in the Capital District near Schenectady.

• NY 7A (1.74 miles (2.80 km)^[1]) is a spur assigned in the 1930 renumbering from NY 7 to the Pennsylvania state line in the Broome County town of Conklin.^[11][12] While NY 7 follows a creek valley to the Pennsylvania border, NY 7A continues NY 7's course along the Susquehanna River valley, parallelling US 11 and I-81. It connects to the unsigned SR 1033 (once part of PA 602 and later PA 70) at the state line.^[12][32][33]
• The NY 7B designation has been assigned to two distinct routes.
  • The original NY 7B was an alternate route of NY 7 from Unadilla to Oneonta that was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering. It overlapped NY 28 from North Franklin to Oneonta.^[24][34] On January 1, 1970, the Unadilla – North Franklin portion of NY 7B was renumbered to NY 357.^[35]
  • The current NY 7B is a 3.71-mile (5.97 km)^[1] long spur in the Broome County towns of Fenton and Colesville. It follows the former, pre-expressway routing of NY 7 between NY 369 in the hamlet of Port Crane and NY 7 in the hamlet of Sanitaria Springs.^[36] Prior to becoming NY 7B, it was designated NY 990K, an unsigned reference route.^[37]
• NY 7C was a loop off of NY 7 east of Schenectady in the Capital District. The majority of the route was located in Schenectady County; however, the easternmost 40 yards (37 m) of the route was located in Albany County. It began at NY 7 in Niskayuna and proceeded east along Rosendale Road into Colonie, where it ended at NY 7. The route was assigned ca. 1961^[18][38] and removed in the late 1960s.^[19][39] Ownership and maintenance of NY 7C's former routing in Schenectady County was transferred from the state of New York to the county on April 1, 1980, as part of a highway maintenance swap between the two levels of government.^[40] This portion of the route is now designated as County Route 158.^[41]

Major intersections

Pennsylvania to Colonie

County	Location	Mile[1]	Roads intersected	Notes
Broome	Conklin	0.00	PA 29	Continuation into Pennsylvania
		1.26	NY 7A	Northern terminus of NY 7A
	City of Binghamton	11.11	US 11
		11.57	NY 363	Northern terminus of NY 363
		11.97	I-81 / NY 17	Exit 4 (I-81/NY 17)
		14.14	I-88 west	Exit 1 (I-88/NY 7); western terminus of overlap
	Fenton	15.90	NY 12A	Exit 2 (I-88/NY 7); eastern terminus of NY 12A
	Port Crane	18.16	NY 369	Exit 3 (I-88/NY 7)
	Colesville	21.36	I-88 east	Exit 4 (I-88/NY 7); eastern terminus of overlap
	Fenton	21.59	NY 7B	Northern terminus of NY 7B
	Colesville	28.56	NY 79 west	Western terminus of overlap
	Nineveh	29.81	NY 79 east	Eastern terminus of overlap
		30.97	NY 235	Southern terminus of NY 235
Chenango	Village of Afton	37.27	NY 41
	Village of Bainbridge	43.01	NY 206
Otsego	Town of Sidney	47.32	NY 8
	Town of Unadilla	53.49	NY 357	Western terminus of NY 357
	Village of Otego	67.72	NY 205
	Town of Oneonta	68.69	NY 23 west	Western terminus of overlap
		70.95	NY 23 east	Eastern terminus of overlap
	Town of Milford	76.00	NY 28
Schoharie	Village of Richmondville	103.20	NY 10 south	Western terminus of overlap
	Town of Richmondville	105.73	I-88	Exit 20 (I-88)
	Village of Cobleskill	107.70	NY 10 north / NY 145 north	Eastern terminus of NY 7/NY 10 overlap; western terminus of NY 7/NY 145 overlap
		111.07	NY 145 south	Eastern terminus of overlap
	Town of Schoharie	115.87	NY 30A north	Western terminus of overlap
		117.01	NY 30A south	Eastern terminus of overlap
		119.06	NY 30
Schenectady	Delanson	123.89	NY 395
	Duanesburg	127.24	US 20
	Princetown	128.23	I-88	Exit 24 (I-88)
	Town of Rotterdam	133.15	I-88	Exit 25 (I-88); to I-90/Thruway
		134.07	NY 337	Southern terminus of NY 337
		135.62	NY 159	Eastern terminus of NY 159
		136.16	NY 158	Northern terminus of NY 158
		138.44	NY 146	To I-890 east
Albany	Guilderland	139.14	I-890	Exit 9 (I-890); southern terminus of overlap
Schenectady	Schenectady	140.71	I-890 west	Exit 7 (I-890); northern terminus of overlap
		141.55	NY 5
	Niskayuna	142.70	Rosendale Road	Former western terminus of NY 7C
Albany	Town of Colonie	146.39	Rosendale Road / Vly Road	Former eastern terminus of NY 7C
		149.92	I-87 south / NY 2	Exit 6 (I-87); southern terminus of I-87/NY 7 overlap; western terminus of NY 2
		150.53	I-87 north	Exit 7 (I-87); northern terminus of overlap

"Alternate" Route 7

All exits are unnumbered.

County	Location	Mile[1]	Destinations	Notes
Albany	Town of Colonie	151.00	US 9 / NY 9R – Latham, Cohoes
		154.41	I-787 / NY 787 – Albany, Watervliet, Cohoes	Exits 9E-W (I-787); northern terminus of I-787; southern terminus of NY 787
Rensselaer	Troy		Downtown Troy	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		155.02	8th Street	At-grade intersection

Troy to Vermont

County	Location	Mile[1]	Roads intersected	Notes
Rensselaer	Troy	155.12	NY 40	Southern terminus of NY 40
	Brunswick	158.75	NY 142	Eastern terminus of NY 142
		159.78	NY 278	Northern terminus of NY 278
	Hoosick	176.02	NY 22 south	Western terminus of overlap
		176.35	NY 22 north	Eastern terminus of overlap
		179.57	To VT 279	Access via NY 915G
		180.47	VT 9	Continuation into Vermont

References

New York portal

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: New York State Route 7

• New York State Ends: NY-7
• Capital Highways - New York 7
• Capital Highways - New York 7 - Freeway Guide
• New York Routes - New York State Route 7