New York State Thruway

[SectorZ]

I took a vacation in Cooperstown this past weekend. Was cool to see that the Thruway between I-88 and free-90 is still free. I remember way back in the ticket days it was and doubted it still was 30+ years later.

Also forgot what a nice drive the Thruway is east of Utica along the Mohawk.

[The Ghostbuster]

Did you visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum while in town?

[SectorZ]

Did you visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum while in town?

Of course I did! The place is a mecca for baseball fans. Third time for me. Wasn't the primary purpose of the trip as part of it was for a charity event my wife was a part of.

[NJRoadfan]

Its been a long time since I was on the Thruway in Rockland County. Who thought it was a good idea to install ramp meters on a freeway-freeway ramp? 

[SignBridge]

Its been a long time since I was on the Thruway in Rockland County. Who thought it was a good idea to install ramp meters on a freeway-freeway ramp? 

They do that in California too. And its purpose is the same as everywhere else: to meter the flow of traffic onto the highway. What location was this ?

[cockroachking]

Its been a long time since I was on the Thruway in Rockland County. Who thought it was a good idea to install ramp meters on a freeway-freeway ramp? 

They do that in California too. And its purpose is the same as everywhere else: to meter the flow of traffic onto the highway. What location was this ?

Both the Garden State and Palisades Interstate Parkway interchanges (Exits 14A and 13) have ramp meters. I really don't see how it would be any different than the ramp meters at, say, the NY-303 interchange (Exit 12) since the freeway-to-freeway interchanges in question don't have any high speed ramps in the first place.

[RobbieL2415]

Its been a long time since I was on the Thruway in Rockland County. Who thought it was a good idea to install ramp meters on a freeway-freeway ramp? 

Don't tell him about the ramp meters on the LIE.

[SignBridge]

Its been a long time since I was on the Thruway in Rockland County. Who thought it was a good idea to install ramp meters on a freeway-freeway ramp? 

Don't tell him about the ramp meters on the LIE.

I think the original poster meant having them on transition ramps from one freeway to another, not on your typical entrance ramps from local roads.

In California I have seen overhead ramp metering signals, one for each lane on two and even three lane wide transition ramps between freeways. Nothing like that on Long Island that I've seen.

[MASTERNC]

Noticed there's an R-Permit restriction on a bridge that was recently redone on I-87 near the exit for Catskill (Exit 21).  Strange that the restriction is there after construction.

[vdeane]

Noticed there's an R-Permit restriction on a bridge that was recently redone on I-87 near the exit for Catskill (Exit 21).  Strange that the restriction is there after construction.

I'm not sure what exactly they did there, but it didn't appear that they were working long enough for it to be a full rehab or reconstruction.

[MASTERNC]

Noticed there's an R-Permit restriction on a bridge that was recently redone on I-87 near the exit for Catskill (Exit 21).  Strange that the restriction is there after construction.

I'm not sure what exactly they did there, but it didn't appear that they were working long enough for it to be a full rehab or reconstruction.

They had half the bridge closed last year and all the traffic shifted.  At the very least there's a new driving surface.

[vdeane]

Noticed there's an R-Permit restriction on a bridge that was recently redone on I-87 near the exit for Catskill (Exit 21).  Strange that the restriction is there after construction.

I'm not sure what exactly they did there, but it didn't appear that they were working long enough for it to be a full rehab or reconstruction.

They had half the bridge closed last year and all the traffic shifted.  At the very least there's a new driving surface.

Having a lane shift doesn't say anything about the scope of work.  They might have just needed the space to set up a safe work area.  A typical Thruway deck replacement or bridge replacement takes 2-3 construction seasons to do.  That work took considerably less time (and included multiple bridges), which is why I think that project was much more limited in scope.

[vdeane]

Noticed there's an R-Permit restriction on a bridge that was recently redone on I-87 near the exit for Catskill (Exit 21).  Strange that the restriction is there after construction.

I'm not sure what exactly they did there, but it didn't appear that they were working long enough for it to be a full rehab or reconstruction.

They had half the bridge closed last year and all the traffic shifted.  At the very least there's a new driving surface.

I drove by this today.  The project replaced part of the bridge rail; they might have done an asphalt resurfacing, but it definitely wasn't a full deck replacement or structural rehab.  Looks like the R permit signage is permanent, too.

[MASTERNC]

Noticed there's an R-Permit restriction on a bridge that was recently redone on I-87 near the exit for Catskill (Exit 21).  Strange that the restriction is there after construction.

I'm not sure what exactly they did there, but it didn't appear that they were working long enough for it to be a full rehab or reconstruction.

They had half the bridge closed last year and all the traffic shifted.  At the very least there's a new driving surface.

I drove by this today.  The project replaced part of the bridge rail; they might have done an asphalt resurfacing, but it definitely wasn't a full deck replacement or structural rehab.  Looks like the R permit signage is permanent, too.

Feels strange to have a restricted bridge on a major highway.  Would hope whatever structural deficiencies are there might be addressed in a future project.

[froggie]

https://www.thruway.ny.gov/news/pressrel/2024/04/2024-04-18-preserve-greene-co-bridges.html

Here's the Thruway's press release from last year regarding the bridge project in question.

[webny99]

3. [Exit 45] I-490 to [Exit 44] NY 332
At less than four miles in length, this should be an easy segment to detour around, right? Not so fast. That overlooks a multitude of complicating factors, starting with the fact that this is the busiest segment on the list, and the only one with six lanes. Then factor in the village of Victor located just south of the Thruway and the lack of alternates north of the Thruway, and things start to go downhill fast. The Thruway's transition to AET in 2020 has been marvelous overall, but one large problem left unresolved is the bottleneck at the end of EB I-490 created by the toll booth removal. It's almost never possible to navigate at speed, and regularly backs up beyond Exit 29 on summer Fridays. Adding to this problem, the only alternate is Exit 29, which lacks access to NY 96 NB and instead dumps more traffic onto the already overburdened NY 96 SB heading into the village of Victor, which regularly backs up to NY 251 without any additional traffic. ... so you're pretty much stuck dealing with one or more major chokepoints. To make things worse, anything north of the Thruway is hard to access (either backtracking on NY 96 to High St or using the one-lane Willowbrook Rd) and is prone to becoming overwhelmed quickly due to the exurban nature of the area and lack of traffic control (i.e. signals) at intersections. On the NY 332 end of things, NY 96 is a total slog east of Victor, and Farmington has become a full-blown suburb itself in recent years, so getting to/from the Thruway interchange at NY 332 is not fun to deal with either.

Well, we saw this play out in real time yesterday, and I was certainly confirmed in ranking 44-45 as poorly as I did in my "worst Thruway segment to detour around" exercise.

An eastbound truck broke down around 3PM in the right lane just west of Exit 44, near the Brownsville Rd overpass. This section is typically three lanes each way but currently down to two for construction, so a lane-blocking incident is pretty much a nightmare scenario, especially on a summer Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, the Kreag/Canal construction bottleneck on I-490 prevented the I-490 on-ramp from backing up beyond Exit 29, but the backup on the mainline Thruway eastbound was completely unhinged, extending all the way past NY 64 at one point, for a total backup length of around 8 miles, plus the added complication of merging with I-490 traffic which is tenuous at the best of times due to the construction lane closure.

For traffic that opted to take Exit 45, aside from the obvious bottleneck in Victor village (NY 96 SB was backed up solid from I-490 Exit 29 to NY 444), what really complicated things is the lack of thru E/W alternates. Traffic bypassing Victor via local roads still had to make their way back down to NY 96 to reach Plastermill Rd, or get north of the Thruway and go all the way up to Gillis Rd. To make matters worse, Victor-Egypt Rd is closed as part of the Thruway construction, leaving High St and the one-lane Willowbrook Rd as the only options for traffic looking to avoid NY 96.

In short, any EB Thruway traffic that passed Exit 46 between 4 and 6 PM was facing a minimum of 1 hour to get past the incident, and probably closer to 2 hours at its worst. Yet as bad as the Thruway was, it probably wasn't worth taking Exit 45 for anyone who had made it that far. Exiting at 45 and reentering at 44 takes a minimum of 15 minutes in clear conditions, and that could easily be 30 minutes plus with the added traffic, especially for anyone that stuck to NY 96.