New York State Thruway

[RobbieL2415]

The EB Thruway is currently closed between Exits 44 and 43 due to a major crash involving several trucks: https://13wham.com/news/local/crash-involving-several-trucks-shuts-down-thruway

According to live traffic and Thruway VMS's, all traffic was briefly being diverted at Exit 45 (I-490), but that appears to have been a temporary measure, perhaps to manage traffic in Manchester - which is a nightmare with a 4-mile, 1 hour 35 min backup on NY 96 (per Google) due to the double left to get back on the Thruway - but traffic finding ways to approach from NY 21 instead is only making it worse.

Traffic on NY 31 doesn't look too bad. Why not send people that way?

[webny99]

The EB Thruway is currently closed between Exits 44 and 43 due to a major crash involving several trucks: https://13wham.com/news/local/crash-involving-several-trucks-shuts-down-thruway

According to live traffic and Thruway VMS's, all traffic was briefly being diverted at Exit 45 (I-490), but that appears to have been a temporary measure, perhaps to manage traffic in Manchester - which is a nightmare with a 4-mile, 1 hour 35 min backup on NY 96 (per Google) due to the double left to get back on the Thruway - but traffic finding ways to approach from NY 21 instead is only making it worse.

Traffic on NY 31 doesn't look too bad. Why not send people that way?

NY 31 is a major slog at the best of times. From Rochester to Palymra, it's only a couple minutes longer to take I-490 to the Thruway and back up NY 21. From Rochester to Newark/Port Gibson, the Thruway is faster. NY 31 could work as an alternate for Rochester area (I-490) traffic to get to the Thruway EB, but it's never going to be a good bypass option for traffic already on the Thruway. Just getting to NY 31 from the Thruway requires a zigzag via I-490 or miles of slow local roads through Victor and Macedon.

Fortunately, the Thruway has now reopened, but delays should be expected as the right lane remains closed in the vicinity of the crash.

[vdeane]

The new toll gantry over I-890 off exit 25; I wonder how long until it get activated.



Those overhead signs in each direction used to be on the same gantry.  And yep, the Thruway Authority did have them replaced even though they were only a few years old.

[webny99]

I got worked up about Exit 45 today (again) and submitted the following to NYSTA through the thruwaysafety.org portal.

The Thruway Exit 45 on-ramp configuration on I-490 eastbound (EB) is an active and ongoing safety hazard that must be addressed due to unacceptable safety and traffic flow issues. April 2025 traffic volume data shows that nearly 90% (88%) of traffic entering the Thruway at Exit 45 is heading EB and only 12% is heading westbound (WB). This disparity creates enormous and unsustainable pressure on the left lane, causing significant backups during peak travel periods and unexpected slow moving traffic to accommodate heavy merging at all times of day. The sightlines in this location limit visibility beyond the Exit 29 on-ramp, which leads to sudden and sometimes severe chain reaction braking with limited warning. The configuration also encourages drivers to secure their place in the left lane miles in advance (often starting as far back as Exit 27), which frustrates faster traffic and actively encourages problematic behaviors, including road rage, passing on the right, and attempting to merge at the last second. Late merging from an Exit Only lane actively worsens the backups, creates further potential for aggressive driving, and blocks or slows down traffic rightfully using that lane to access the Thruway WB. In addition, traffic entering I-490 at Exit 29 must merge left *twice* in a short span of time to reach the single lane to the Thruway EB, and must often slow to a crawl or complete stop to force their way in to left lane (since traffic on I-490 has already filled existing gaps) which exacerbates the above safety and merging concerns.

An immediate short-term measure must be taken to convert the on-ramp from Exit 29 into an Exit Only lane for the Thruway WB to eliminate the dangerous double-merge from Exit 29 and maintain two through lanes for traffic heading to Thruway EB. The two through (EB) lanes would then merge into one via a standard lane merge where drivers could "zipper" (alternate during backups), instead of blocking traffic behind them while searching for a gap. This merge would ideally occur on the approach to the bridge over the Thruway just beyond the where the Thruway WB ramp departs, which would require widening of approximately 1500 ft of roadway to add a third lane within existing ROW. However, the merge could also occur in the same location as it does currently by re-striping the existing pavement. Either option would result in the left through lane on I-490 merging with the center lane to continue to the Thruway EB and the Exit 29 on-ramp lane continuing to the Thruway WB, which would reduce backups, keep faster traffic on the left, make merging more consistent, and significantly improve the safety and operations of the interchange. This lane realignment should be considered as a minimum temporary improvement until funding permits the replacement and widening of the bridge over the Thruway to provide two EB lanes.

[vdeane]

I've been wondering for years why the Northway has been worse than ever before since the pandemic telecommuting ended, even though telecommuting is still more than it was before the pandemic and the exit 4 project finished around the same time, and I think I finally figured it out.  But first, let's talk about Memorial Day.

The Friday before Memorial Day, traffic was mysteriously good on the Northway (as good as in winter, in fact), even though it should have been horrible.  I mentioned it to someone in the office, and they asked what happened on the Thruway to make that happen.  As it turned out, there was indeed a massive incident just south of exit 24 that day, bottling everything up and severely metering the amount of traffic that could spill onto the Albany area highways.

So I think the Thruway is the reason why.  Because the other thing that happened around that time is the Thruway going AET.  Without the toll barrier at exit 24 to meter the traffic somewhat, it seems like that just makes congestion on the Northway worse.  Combine that with the exit 4 project allowing more traffic to hit the exit 5 merge, and it seems like I have my answer.  I had hoped it would be because of the Belmont Stakes temporarily being at the Saratoga Racetrack, since that would mean that next year would be back to normal, but I guess not.  This is here to stay.  So I guess exit 45 isn't the only one that altered congestion patterns on the local highways when the Thruway went AET.

[SignBridge]

Ironic that we're discovering belatedly that toll barriers were a great way to meter traffic at choke points. Same thing happened at the Throggs Neck Bridge in NY City. Queens-bound traffic merges from six lanes down to three across the bridge and now have traffic jams where the toll barrier used to do the job, but nobody ever realized it. I guess what's needed now is to have metering traffic signals across all six lanes there and something similar at Thruway Exit 24.

[Rothman]

Ironic that we're discovering belatedly that toll barriers were a great way to meter traffic at choke points. Same thing happened at the Throggs Neck Bridge in NY City. Queens-bound traffic merges from six lanes down to three across the bridge and now have traffic jams where the toll barrier used to do the job, but nobody ever realized it. I guess what's needed now is to have metering traffic signals across all six lanes there and something similar at Thruway Exit 24.

See also MassPike's old barrier tolls.

I'd still take traffic flows now than dealing with the old Sturbridge and I-95 barrier plazas,though.

[Plutonic Panda]

Anything except adding lanes.

[kalvado]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

[webny99]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

Not sure what you're referring to here but if it's NB approaching Exit 7 (so that the Exit 7 on-ramp would add a through lane), that would help the Exit 7 merge but the Northway backups approaching the two lane section would make it worse on balance.

[kalvado]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

Not sure what you're referring to here but if it's NB approaching Exit 7 (so that the Exit 7 on-ramp would add a through lane), that would help the Exit 7 merge but the Northway backups approaching the two lane section would make it worse on balance.

Probably not if done as exit only lane. Local traffic already knows to keep left, it's out of area folks and hardcore keep-right no-matter-what crowd are creating a lot of extra lane changes.

[vdeane]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

Not sure what you're referring to here but if it's NB approaching Exit 7 (so that the Exit 7 on-ramp would add a through lane), that would help the Exit 7 merge but the Northway backups approaching the two lane section would make it worse on balance.

Probably not if done as exit only lane. Local traffic already knows to keep left, it's out of area folks and hardcore keep-right no-matter-what crowd are creating a lot of extra lane changes.

So how would that affect the two lanes merging in at exit 6?  That's a pretty heavy merge too, though it gets overshadowed by the big merge just north of it.  I wonder if such an idea might redistribute traffic at all, though.  I think right now I-87 gets some traffic that would otherwise use I-787 and NY 7 but diverts to avoid the congestion on that route.  I know traffic on I-87 gets noticeably worse every time there's a major incident blocking either.

Ironic that we're discovering belatedly that toll barriers were a great way to meter traffic at choke points. Same thing happened at the Throggs Neck Bridge in NY City. Queens-bound traffic merges from six lanes down to three across the bridge and now have traffic jams where the toll barrier used to do the job, but nobody ever realized it. I guess what's needed now is to have metering traffic signals across all six lanes there and something similar at Thruway Exit 24.

See also MassPike's old barrier tolls.

I'd still take traffic flows now than dealing with the old Sturbridge and I-95 barrier plazas,though.

Now I'm curious if the Sturbridge-Worcester stretch was better before the MassPike went AET.  Are the epic mainline backups of today a result of the old toll barriers at former exits 9 and 10 going away?

[kalvado]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

Not sure what you're referring to here but if it's NB approaching Exit 7 (so that the Exit 7 on-ramp would add a through lane), that would help the Exit 7 merge but the Northway backups approaching the two lane section would make it worse on balance.

Probably not if done as exit only lane. Local traffic already knows to keep left, it's out of area folks and hardcore keep-right no-matter-what crowd are creating a lot of extra lane changes.

So how would that affect the two lanes merging in at exit 6?  That's a pretty heavy merge too, though it gets overshadowed by the big merge just north of it.  I wonder if such an idea might redistribute traffic at all, though.  I think right now I-87 gets some traffic that would otherwise use I-787 and NY 7 but diverts to avoid the congestion on that route.  I know traffic on I-87 gets noticeably worse every time there's a major incident blocking either.

Absolutely good point. But it may also be a part of an answer.
Is there a justification for 3 out of 4 ramps there being two-lane (exit 6 on and off, exit 7 off) - but the most busy one being single lane?
To make things worse, 2 lanes leaving towards NY 7 become exit only lanes there.

I am too lazy to look up the numbers, and I avoid that area during rush hour - but my impression some things are overbuilt, especially given a problem just downstream.

[Rothman]

Ironic that we're discovering belatedly that toll barriers were a great way to meter traffic at choke points. Same thing happened at the Throggs Neck Bridge in NY City. Queens-bound traffic merges from six lanes down to three across the bridge and now have traffic jams where the toll barrier used to do the job, but nobody ever realized it. I guess what's needed now is to have metering traffic signals across all six lanes there and something similar at Thruway Exit 24.

See also MassPike's old barrier tolls.

I'd still take traffic flows now than dealing with the old Sturbridge and I-95 barrier plazas,though.

Now I'm curious if the Sturbridge-Worcester stretch was better before the MassPike went AET.  Are the epic mainline backups of today a result of the old toll barriers at former exits 9 and 10 going away?

Probably not.  The backups in Sturbridge were of epic proportions.  I think the current situation out there would have happened either way over the same amount of time.

Would also help if drivers maintained speed on the upgrades rather than letting their speed drop off...like roadgeeks on here have said they do intentionally.

[SignBridge]

Could be that today's heavy traffic on that stretch is a product of both factors. The elimination of the toll barriers that provided some metering effect combined with the increased traffic in the post Covid era.

[vdeane]

Is there a justification for 3 out of 4 ramps there being two-lane (exit 6 on and off, exit 7 off) - but the most busy one being single lane?

Exit 6 on is probably that way so that traffic queuing up for the left turns can have two left turn lanes.  Exit 7 off NB is probably to match it, but I'm not sure what the deal is SB or why the off ramps to US 9 from both directions are also two lanes.

[webny99]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

Not sure what you're referring to here but if it's NB approaching Exit 7 (so that the Exit 7 on-ramp would add a through lane), that would help the Exit 7 merge but the Northway backups approaching the two lane section would make it worse on balance.

Probably not if done as exit only lane. Local traffic already knows to keep left, it's out of area folks and hardcore keep-right no-matter-what crowd are creating a lot of extra lane changes.

But there's already two exit only lanes there, so unless you went to *three* (a non-starter IMO) you'd have to reduce the Exit 6 on-ramp to one lane which would create a double-weave from Exit 6 to I-87 NB. Combined with thru traffic merging right, that would cause major backups. As vdeane mentions, that could redistribute more traffic to 787/7, but the single lane ramp remains a bottleneck.

TL; DR: The backups are pretty much inevitable aside from widening the Twin Bridges themselves.

[kalvado]

Anything except adding lanes.

Ironically, closing about half a mile of a lane on Northway may help traffic big time.

Not sure what you're referring to here but if it's NB approaching Exit 7 (so that the Exit 7 on-ramp would add a through lane), that would help the Exit 7 merge but the Northway backups approaching the two lane section would make it worse on balance.

Probably not if done as exit only lane. Local traffic already knows to keep left, it's out of area folks and hardcore keep-right no-matter-what crowd are creating a lot of extra lane changes.

But there's already two exit only lanes there, so unless you went to *three* (a non-starter IMO) you'd have to reduce the Exit 6 on-ramp to one lane which would create a double-weave from Exit 6 to I-87 NB. Combined with thru traffic merging right, that would cause major backups. As vdeane mentions, that could redistribute more traffic to 787/7, but the single lane ramp remains a bottleneck.

TL; DR: The backups are pretty much inevitable aside from widening the Twin Bridges themselves.

There is plenty of weaving in existing design anyway. Question is who gets the short stick - so far it's the most busy one for whatever reason

Of course a lot of widening - or better a second north-south highway are better options, but not too realistic ones.

[vdeane]

Bringing this back to the Thruway...

Oh, probably, but I still don't have hope that they'll show up with a new sign.

Oh ye of little faith:


Anyone else think it's interesting that the Thruway Authority remembered to offset the exit tab around the same time that NYSDOT stopped doing that?

[cl94]

Meanwhile, the Exit 20 NB 1 mile advance has been missing a tab for almost 15 years now...

[cu2010]

Anyone else think it's interesting that the Thruway Authority remembered to offset the exit tab around the same time that NYSDOT stopped doing that?

Offset tabs are very much still being used on NYSDOT-maintained roads.

[Rothman]

Bringing this back to the Thruway...

Oh, probably, but I still don't have hope that they'll show up with a new sign.

Oh ye of little faith:


Anyone else think it's interesting that the Thruway Authority remembered to offset the exit tab around the same time that NYSDOT stopped doing that?

Photo must be AI generated. ;D

[vdeane]

Oh joy, looks like the next three years of driving on I-90 west of Syracuse are going to be real fun.  It feels like they're working here more often than not.  It was just reconstructed 15 years ago, got a significant amount of work done just a decade after that, and now they're at it again.

The project includes full-depth asphalt reconstruction along certain sections of I-90 eastbound and westbound, where crews remove the existing concrete pavement to its full depth and replace it with warm-mix asphalt. On other segments of I-90 eastbound, full-depth repairs will be performed on the existing concrete pavement. These repairs to the existing concrete pavement include removing and replacing the most deteriorated portions of roadway down to its subbase, which will improve the existing roadway's structural integrity and enhance long-term durability.

Additional repairs in the concrete paving section include crack filling and diamond grinding to smooth out the concrete surface and provide a smooth riding surface.

Other work includes guiderail improvements, new reflective line striping, installation of milled-in audible roadway delineators, also known as rumble strips, on the shoulders.

Slate Hill Constructors, Inc., of Warners, NY, is the project contractor following a competitive bidding process. The project is expected to be completed in Fall 2028.

Motorists may encounter lane closures on the Thruway in this area during construction.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-start-98-million-infrastructure-improvement-project-thruway-onondaga

[Rothman]

Oh joy, looks like the next three years of driving on I-90 west of Syracuse are going to be real fun.  It feels like they're working here more often than not.  It was just reconstructed 15 years ago, got a significant amount of work done just a decade after that, and now they're at it again.

The project includes full-depth asphalt reconstruction along certain sections of I-90 eastbound and westbound, where crews remove the existing concrete pavement to its full depth and replace it with warm-mix asphalt. On other segments of I-90 eastbound, full-depth repairs will be performed on the existing concrete pavement. These repairs to the existing concrete pavement include removing and replacing the most deteriorated portions of roadway down to its subbase, which will improve the existing roadway's structural integrity and enhance long-term durability.

Additional repairs in the concrete paving section include crack filling and diamond grinding to smooth out the concrete surface and provide a smooth riding surface.

Other work includes guiderail improvements, new reflective line striping, installation of milled-in audible roadway delineators, also known as rumble strips, on the shoulders.

Slate Hill Constructors, Inc., of Warners, NY, is the project contractor following a competitive bidding process. The project is expected to be completed in Fall 2028.

Motorists may encounter lane closures on the Thruway in this area during construction.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-start-98-million-infrastructure-improvement-project-thruway-onondaga

*notes removal of concrete for asphalt*

The pavement is in terrible shape eastbound before I-690, so I'm not surprised.

[webny99]

As of last week, the work zone was already in place EB. WB traffic will be shifting to the EB side but that had not yet occurred. Fortunately, four lanes will be maintained, but it is a very long work zone, so it's still going to be a slog.