New York State Route 33

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NY Route 33
Length:	69.26 mi[1] (111.46 km)
West end:	NY 5 in Buffalo
Major junctions:	NY 198 in Buffalo US 62 in Buffalo I-90/NYST in Buffalo I-490 in Gates
East end:	NY 31 in Rochester
Counties:	Erie, Genesee, Monroe
Numbered highways in New York < NY 32A NY 33A > < NY 33A NY 34 > Interstates - U.S. Routes - State Routes

New York State Route 33 is a New York State highway that connects Buffalo and Rochester. It is, in fact, the only state highway that directly connects both cities, although it is rarely used today for that purpose.

The western 10-mile stretch of 33, in Buffalo and the neighboring town of Cheektowaga has been upgraded into an expressway. It is of considerable local importance as it not only forms one of the major expressways leading out of downtown, it links it with the airport. As such it is often the first glimpse of Buffalo for many first-time visitors to the region.

On the Rochester end, 33 primarily serves as a paralleling local route to Interstate 490, of less importance to the area's traffic patterns. Between the two cities, it is a rural two-lane.

Contents 1 Route description 1.1 Kensington/Martin Luther King Expressway 1.2 Buffalo Airport to Batavia 1.3 Batavia to Rochester 2 Communities along the route 3 Exit list 4 Major intersections 5 History 5.1 Route 33B 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Route description

33 can be subdivided not only into its limited-access and unlimited-access portions, but into sections east and west of Batavia as well.

[edit] Kensington/Martin Luther King Expressway

The highway begins as two one-way streets, East Goodell (traveling west) and East Tupper Street (traveling east), both intersecting with NY-5 (Ellicott Street) in Buffalo, and becomes the Kensington Expressway, also known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway within city limits. As it travels at first through some dense urban areas, the road is cut below grade, leading to somewhat incongruous rock walls in some areas, and both roadways are separated only by a Jersey barrier.

The expressway runs past the Buffalo Museum of Science through the middle of Humboldt Parkway in Buffalo, where the Scajaquada Expressway, NY 198, leaves at the former exit for Main Street. During rush hour, particularly in the mornings when most drivers are traveling into the city, the westbound section between the Scajquada and Harlem Road (NY 240) just outside the city limit is regularly the site of Buffalo's most severe traffic jams.

East of 198, the road becomes more open as it passes through neighborhoods with a more suburban residential feel to them. Here it runs above the grade of the surrounding streets and has a grass median strip. The Bailey Avenue US 62 intersection is below the highway while the last Buffalo exit, Eggert Road, is above.

Past Harlem, the expressway curves as it prepares to meet the New York State Thruway, here a toll-free section following I-90 that runs through Cheektowaga. The exit is a full cloverleaf; however the short and busy slip lanes on the Kensington can lead careless drivers to miss the exit. Beyond, the expressway goes below grade into a concrete-walled cut as it passes its last interchange, with Union Road (NY 277), then curves under Genesee Street before joining it at a traffic light in front of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

[edit] Buffalo Airport to Batavia

Now returning to its pre-Kensington route, 33 follows a four-lane, divided Genesee Street past the airport on one side and numerous associated businesses such as hotels and fast food restaurants on the other. The large aerospace contractor Calspan has its headquarters here, and until 1982 Westinghouse operated a large industrial lathe plant on the airport side of the road (it was torn down when the airport was rebuilt in the late 1990s).

Beyond the airport, the divider ends and, after a short curve and minimal descent, 33 intersects Transit Road (NY 78) and enters the Town of Lancaster. After this junction, the highway becomes a two-lane route once again through the small hamlet of Bowmansville, where it crosses Ellicott Creek near some scenic rapids.

For the next several miles, 33 runs parallel to the Thruway and very close to it, with both roads visible from the other. Much of this section of Lancaster has remained rural in character; however that began to change in the late 1990s when Tops Friendly Markets, the regional supermarket chain headquartered in nearby Williamsville chose a site near the Gunnville Road intersection for a major distribution center. It necessitated the widening of the highway and construction of a traffic light and turn lanes at its entrance. Ardent local opposition claimed the increased truck traffic in and out of the site would ruin the peace and quiet of a country neighborhood located so close to a major city.

33 does, however, become a two-lane route once again as it heads out into Alden and eventually joins another street radiating out from the city, Walden Avenue. As Walden Road, it assumes a straight, slightly north-trending course as it leaves Erie County behind. In Genesee County, its intersection with NY 77 centers the first community it encounters, the small village of Corfu. At the Batavia town line, it becomes Pearl Street, a name it keeps as it reaches the city.

[edit] Batavia to Rochester

In the knot of highways that is the Genesee County seat, 33 crosses and briefly multiplexes with not only NY 5, the other east-west route in town, but both north-south routes, 63 and 98.

To the east of the city, it passes Genesee Community College, then, continuing its northward slant, crosses under the Thruway once again (with no exit). It remains close to the interstate for a few miles, intersecting NY 237 less than a mile north of its overpass, but then leaves it behind for good shortly thereafter as it turns even more to the north, taking it to the small village of Bergen in the county's northeast corner, where 33 crosses the long north-south route NY 19. Shortly afterwards, just west of the Monroe County line at I-490, NY 33A picks up 33's course as the main route turns to the north yet again.

Once across the county line, however, 33 returns to a more easterly orientation. As on the outskirts of Buffalo, it parallels an interstate, picking up a brief multiplex with NY 36 at Churchville and crossing NY 259 at North Chili. Another multiplex, with NY 386, comes in as the suburbs begin at Gates, where 33 finally has an exit with 490 (but not with Interstate 390 just a few miles further east).

33A completes its southern loop inside the city, and then 33 finally reaches its east end at NY-31.

[edit] Communities along the route

• Buffalo
• Bowmansville
• Corfu
• Batavia
• Bergen
• Churchville
• North Chili
• Rochester

[edit] Exit list

Mileposts derived from ^[2].

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
Erie	Buffalo	0.0		Elm St	Westbound only.
		0.0	1A	Goodell St. / Oak St.	Westbound only.
		0.5	1B	Jefferson Ave.	Westbound only.
		1.0	2	Best St. / Buffalo Museum of Science
		1.8	3A	Humboldt Pkwy.
		2.3	3B	NY 198 - Scajaquada Expressway
		3.3	4	Grider St. / Deerfield Ave.
		3.8	5A	Olympic Ave.	Eastbound only.
		4.0	5B	US 62 - Bailey Ave.	Eastbound only.
		4.3	5C	Suffolk St.
		4.9	6A	Eggert St.
		5.6	6B	NY 240 - Harlem Rd./Pine Ridge Rd.
		6.5	7	I-90/Thruway - Albany, Erie	This portion of I-90/Thruway is untolled.
		7.2	8	NY 277 - Union Rd.
		7.8	9	Dick Rd. / Cayuga Rd.
		8.0		Buffalo Niagara International Airport
EXPRESSWAY ENDS. NY 33 returns to street level.

[edit] Major intersections

County	Location	Mile	Road(s)	Notes
Erie	Buffalo	8.6	NY 33B Genesee St.	Former eastern terminus of NY 33B.
		10.8	NY 78 Transit Rd.
Genesee	Corfu	26.0	NY 77
	City of Batavia	37.2	NY 98 Walnut St.
		37.3	NY 98 Oak St.
		37.3	NY 5 NY 63 W. Main St.
		37.6	NY 63 Ellicott St.
		38.8	NY 5 E. Main St.	Eastern terminus of duplex.
	Town of Batavia		I-90/Thruway New York State Thruway	NY 33 passes over I-90.
	Town of Bergen	44.3	NY 237
	Village of Bergen	51.1	NY 19
		51.5	NY 33A	Western terminus of NY 33A.
Monroe	Churchville	55.2	NY 36
		56.0	NY 36
	North Chili	59.4	NY 259
	Gates	63.3	NY 386	Western terminus of duplex.
		63.5	NY 386	Eastern terminus of duplex.
		64.3	I-490	Exit 7 (I-490).
			I-390	NY 33 passes over I-390.
	Rochester	68.4	NY 33A	Eastern terminus of NY 33A.
		69.3	NY 31

Legend
Crossing, no access	Concurrency termini	Decommissioned	Unconstructed	Closed

[edit] History

[edit] Route 33B

Prior to the construction of the Kensington, 33 followed Genesee Street through the city of Buffalo to the point where it rejoins it in Cheektowaga. Afterwards, this was signed as New York State Route 33B until being decommissioned in the mid-1970s. It is still maintained by the state outside the city, however, as reference route 952L.

Signs for 33B remained on the road near its former termini well into the 1990s.

[edit] References

1. ^ New York Routes - New York State Route 33
2. ^ The Upstate New York Roads Site: NY 33 / Kensington Freeway

[edit] External links

• Kensington Expressway Junction List
• Kensington Expresway Pictures