New York State Route 17M

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NY Route 17M
Old 17
Length:	26.63 mi[1] (42.86 km)
Formed:	By 1952[2]
West end:	CR 76 in Fair Oaks
Major junctions:	I-84 near Middletown US 6 / NY 17 in Goshen NY 94 in Chester
East end:	NY 17 in Harriman
Counties:	Orange
Numbered highways in New York < NY 17K NY 18 > Spur of NY 17 Interstate - U.S. - N.Y. - Reference
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New York State Route 17M is a New York state highway in Orange County. It runs east-west from west of Middletown to what is currently the north-south section of NY 17 south of Harriman. It is in fact, for much of its route, the course followed by Route 17 prior to the construction of the Quickway expressway soon to become Interstate 86.

Between New Hampton and Chester, the highway overlaps US 6. The eastern section of that overlap, from Goshen to Chester, is further routed onto the Quickway, making a three-route concurrency with NY 17. It is a busy main street in Monroe and Middletown, where it divides into a parkway for several blocks and provides the city's major commercial strip to the south, just north of Interstate 84. The rest of the road is a two-lane rural route.

Contents 1 Route description 2 History 3 Major intersections 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Route description

Orange County Route 76 becomes Route 17M when it passes through the site of a former interchange (once exit 118A) with the nearby Quickway north of the former New York, Ontario and Western Railway right-of-way in the Town of Wallkill. It goes over some gentle hills and then reaches a traffic light a half-mile (800 m). This is the southern terminus of NY 302, 17M's first junction with another state highway.

From that intersection, the road continues to another traffic light with Ingrassia Road, then into the more developed Washington Heights neighborhood just outside of Middletown. At North Street, it turns left and soon enters the city. At first fairly wide, it narrows in the heavily Latin residential neighborhoods closer to the city's center until it turns right at the light with Wickham Avenue, joining NY 211. The two roads climb a bit and then become West Main Street at a turn.

The concurrency ends at the Monhagen Avenue light, where 211 turns right toward Otisville and 17M turns left, expanding into a parkway with tree-planted median strip for several blocks just south of downtown. This section ends at the Fulton Street light, where 17M turns left. After several blocks and the crossing of the Middletown and New Jersey Railway, it widens into Dolson Avenue, with two lanes in either direction and a center turn lane to accommodate traffic turning into the many commercial plazas on either side.

This small extrusion of the city of Middletown does not yield to the neighboring Town of Wawayanda until a block before the traffic light where US 6 comes in from the right and joins 17M as the two cross over Interstate 84 at Exit 3, providing access to Port Jervis and Newburgh. Just past the interstate the hamlet of New Hampton begins, with car dealerships and other commercial establishments on either side. The road narrows to two lanes as the combined highways begin a slow, gentle descent to the bridge over the Wallkill River, at the northern tip of the county's Black Dirt Region. Short sections of the approach on either side add a passing lane in the uphill direction.

The river marks the Goshen town line, and after the slight climb development aside the road picks up slightly, again with some extra lanes. Just outside of the village of Goshen, 6 and 17M are absorbed into 17.

Route 17M leaves the Quickway before US 6 does, resuming an independent course on surface roads several exits to the east, at the junction with NY 94 in Chester. Passing through the rural areas of the southern portion of the Town of Blooming Grove, it eventually becomes heavily developed as it passes just south of the downtown portions of the villages of Monroe and Woodbury. Development abates slightly past the villages as 17M continues with a slight southward bent towards its final junction with Route 17 just south of Harriman.

[edit] History

NY 17M was created when the initial part of the NY 17 expressway was opened in 1950.^{[citation needed]} This section of the expressway was first known as the Middletown By-Pass.^{[citation needed]} The original 17M designation therefore refers to its original use as a Middletown business route, one of the few cases in New York where the letter designation of a main highway spur has actual meaning. The initial section of 17M ran over the former section of NY 17 from what is now Exit 123 through Denton, New Hampton and Middletown, to the former exit 118A on 17.^[3] As more sections of the NY 17 Expressway (known as "The Quickway") were added, the NY 17M designation was added to those sections of 'old' 17 that runs through Chester, Monroe and Harriman.

[edit] Major intersections

County	Location	Mile[1]	Roads intersected	Notes
Orange	Wallkill	0.00	CR 76	Hamlet of Fair Oaks; continuation of NY 17M beyond the site of former exit 118A (NY 17)
		1.12	NY 302	Hamlet of Rockville; southern terminus of NY 302
	Middletown	3.96	NY 211 east	Eastern terminus of overlap
		4.74	NY 211 west	Western terminus of overlap
	Wawayanda	7.04	US 6 west	Western terminus of overlap
		7.42	I-84	Hamlet of New Hampton; exit 3 (I-84)
	Village of Goshen	12.20	NY 17 west	Exit 123 (US 6/NY 17/NY 17M); western terminus of overlap
		12.59	NY 17A NY 207	Exit 124 (US 6/NY 17/NY 17M); western termini of NY 17A and NY 207
		13.17	US 6 east / NY 17 east	Exit 125 (US 6/NY 17/NY 17M); eastern termini of US 6/NY 17M and NY 17/17M overlaps
	Village of Chester	17.20	NY 94 west	Western terminus of overlap
		17.40	NY 94 east	Eastern terminus of overlap
	Village of Monroe	23.04	NY 208	Southern terminus of NY 208
	Harriman	26.63	NY 17

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• NY 17M Termini