Talk:New York State Route 201

U.S. Roads: State highways / New York Mid‑importance

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Topics	U.S. state highways
Locations	New York
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History notes[edit]

Riverside Drive was part of legislative Route 4 ([1], 1920 report)
- Route 4 entered city on SHs 127, 5390 and 5339 (US 11) and exited on SH 444, 5377 (Riverside Drive) and 125 (NY 17C)
- In between was a city-maintained segment between Alice and Oak Streets - distance given as 1.84 miles
  - A routing of Court-Susquehanna-Washington Streets-Riverside Drive would be roughly 1.84 miles (based on [2])

NY 17H designated by 1947 over pre-1924 Route 4 (1947 GD)
- definitely began at NY 17C in Johnson City and followed Riverside Drive southeast into downtown, but in downtown the routing is unclear. Potential routings:
  - north on Front Street to meet 17C/US 11 at Main Street
  - east on Riverside Drive across the Chenango River and north on Washington Street to meet US 11 at Main Street
  - east on Riverside Drive across the Chenango River and east on Washington and Susquehanna Streets to meet NY 17 at Exchange Street
    - 1947 GD Binghamton inset gives NY 17's routing as Vestal Ave-S Washington St-Conklin Ave-Exchange St-Court St (US 11)
- note on date: original NY 17H was phased out by 1938, so the second (this) 17H may have already been assigned by that time
  - however maps are unclear on the issue: although most maps from 1938-47 show Riverside Drive as a primary through route leading from Johnson City to Binghamton, none explicitly label it as 17H until 1947

1970 log: NY 17H's termini given as NY 17C in Johnson City and NY 17 in Binghamton; NY 201 is not assigned
- 1970 PennDOT map shows NY 17H basically as above and an unnumbered highway (current NY 201) leading from 17 (434) in Vestal to 17H in Johnson City

this topo shows an upgraded Riverside Drive and the highway crossing the river as NY 201
- topo drawn 1968 and "photorevised" 1976 - meaning that 201 was assigned by one of those years, definitely by 1976
- the low reference number (90D) of ex-17H implies that it was assigned at the outset of the reference route system in the late 1960s or so - unless the DOT broke tradition and moved 990D from 201 south of Floral to 17H east of 201 later on? usually NYSDOT doesn't recycle RR designations

1980 PennDOT map: NY 201 complete, NY 434 to either NY 17C or NY 17; NY 17H gone
- SH # of NY 17H north of Floral Avenue was transferred to the new NY 201 from Floral Avenue to NY 17C ([3])
- Portion of Riverside Drive between NY 201 and the Binghamton city line became ref route (990D)

Other observations:

GDs from 1954 onward and 1961 Gousha shows NY 201 river crossing (434-Floral Ave) as an unnumbered highway
- Since 17H existed until at least 1970 based on the log, perhaps the part of 201 south of Floral was a reference route?
1973 Gousha shows a "divided highway" leading from NY 434 to Johnson City along the routing of NY 201 - however there are no labels for either 17H or 201
1974 RMcN shows no divided highway and labels Riverside Drive as 17H – T M F 09:44, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This very recent Press and Sun Bulletin article states that the bridges carrying NY 201 over Vestal Road were built over 50 years ago. Very interesting considering that NY 201 didn't open as a through route until the 1970s based on the above notes. Unfortunately, that's about all I could find through Google News - the archive searches returned nothing of relevance. (As an aside, the exact year is 1954 ([4]).) – T M F 09:53, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, 201 was in Columbia County for a bit (due to the cluster of 199, 200, 201, 202, 203 and 204 being in Columbia and Dutchess Counties) of time during the 30s and that's why the designation was held up I believe.Mitch32^{(The Password is... See here!)} 10:26, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm well aware of where and how long the original NY 201 existed. However, I don't believe that had anything to do with when the current NY 201 was assigned as the portion of NY 201 south of Floral Avenue was built in the mid-1950s. By that time, the original NY 201 had already been removed and partially integrated into a rerouted NY 82. – T M F 22:25, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]