Background:

Long-range plans for NY 5 in the 1960s and 1970s made note of the traffic congestion along the route both west and east of downtown Syracuse.  This led to plans for a freeway or improved arterial for NY 5 in both directions from downtown, with various routes offered including Genessee St, an Erie Blvd upgrade, or a new alignment in the vicinity of Grand Ave.  The freeway or expressway would have extended to either Geddes St or possibly as far as West St and then tie into the arterial network around downtown.  Of these plans, made most prominent in the 1971 transportation plan, only the segment bypassing Camillus and Fairmount was built.  Though this freeway segment was built to accommodate extensions in both directions (each end is a half-completed interchange), nothing further came of the rerouting proposals for NY 5, and in fact some of the ROW originally set aside for the freeway in western Geddes (still visible on aerial images) has since been used for new home construction.

To the east, plans to extend a new alignment NY 5 east of the I-481/I-690 interchange towards Chittenango survived up to the late 1980s.  Late 1980s environmental studies studied a reduced-scope routing extending to the vicinity of the NY 257/NY 290 interchange, but even this was dropped due to various reasons.  As a result, the I-481/I-690 interchange sits partially unused, with some of the unfinished ramps serving a NYSDOT maintenance yard now instead.

This Fictional NY 5 draws upon those plans from the 1970s with a freeway routing running from near Auburn all the way to Chittenango.  Fictional NY 5 follows a new alignment freeway from northeast of Auburn to west of Camillus, then the existing freeway bypassing Camillus and Fairmount, then the abandoned right-of-way through western Geddes.  Near Onondaga Blvd, Fictional NY 5 turns east and follows an alignment generally along Onondaga Blvd and Onondaga St before turning north up West St to I-690.  Fictional NY 5 then duplexes with I-690 to I-481 and continues east along a new alignment from there, north of Green Lakes State Park, and ending on Tuscarora Rd just west of Genesee St in northern Chittenango.

Map/Routing:

Map will be part of a future update.

Route Log:

Mileage is based on NY 5's existing route mileage beginning at Auburn

Fictional NY 5 duplexes with I-690 from West St to I-481.

Links (some under development):

A VIRTUAL CRUISE of eastbound NY 5
A VIRTUAL CRUISE of westbound NY 5
Exit List of Fictional NY 5 west of Syracuse
Exit List of Fictional NY 5 east of Syracuse
Back to Fictional Freeways
Back to Magnolia Meanderings

Last Updated:  April 23, 2005
(C)  2005  Adam Froehlig