New York State Route 481

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NY Route 481

Veterans Memorial Highway

Length:

31.79 mi^[1] (51.16 km)

Formed:

January 1, 1970^[2]

South end:

I-81 / I-481 in North Syracuse

Major
junctions:

NY 31 in Clay

NY 3 in Fulton

North end:

NY 104 in Oswego

Counties:

Onondaga, Oswego

Numbered highways in New York
< I-481		NY 488 >
Interstate - U.S. - N.Y. - Reference

New York State Route 481 is a state highway in Central New York. NY 481's southern terminus is at Interstate 81 and Interstate 481 in North Syracuse. The northern terminus is located at NY 104 in Oswego about two blocks from Lake Ontario. In between, NY 481 serves the communities of Clay and Fulton along the Oswego River.

NY 481 serves as the northern extension of I-481 from its southern terminus to the Fulton city line. It remains a four-lane expressway with limited interchanges. North of Fulton to the Oswego city line, NY 481 reverts back to four-lanes, but has at-grade intersections. NY 481 is one of two state routes in New York that serve as an extension of an interstate in the Syracuse area. The other is NY 690.

NY 481 also serves as a faster alternate to NY 48 from the Syracuse area to downtown Oswego. Both travel along the Oswego River, with NY 481 on the eastern side and NY 48 on the western side. NY 481 was commissioned in 1970 from North Syracuse to Fulton and extended northward to Oswego in 1982.

1 Route description
- 1.1 Official designations
- 1.2 Alternate routes
2 History
3 Major intersections
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Route description

NY 481 begins in North Syracuse at I-81 (running north to Watertown and south to Syracuse) and I-481 (continuing east in a loop around Syracuse). This is about a mile to the north of Syracuse Hancock International Airport. NY 481 begins as an extension of I-481 as it is a four-lane expressway with limited interchanges for about the first 20 miles of its run. NY 481 crosses US 11 almost immediately, passing just south of the former site of Penn-Can Mall. NY 481 then enters the town of Clay, where it interchanges with NY 31 in the center of a large area of retail shopping, including several strip malls and the Great Northern Mall.^[3]

NY 481 continues northward, mostly through farmland, crossing the Oneida River and the Erie Canal at the boundary between Oswego and Onondaga counties. Just across the county line, NY 481 interchanges with NY 264 about a mile north of Phoenix in rural Schroeppel. The junction with NY 264 is the last interchange on the route. However, NY 481 remains limited-access up to the Fulton city line, where it intersects County Route 57 at-grade.^[3]

In Fulton, NY 481 travels slowly through the center of town along several predominantly two-lane city streets, and constitutes the main north-south route through that town. Bridges across the Oswego River may be seen to the west when the road crosses Broadway and Oneida Street. North of the city, NY 481 expands to a four-lane divided highway once more.^[3]

The portion of NY 481 from Fulton to Oswego closely parallels the Oswego River and contains several stretches of scenic beauty, mostly consisting of glimpses of locks, rapids and small waterfalls through trees along the river. The views are slightly better coming from the north, since the waterfalls are more evident when coming from downstream. Here it closely parallels NY 48, which it is only separated from by the river itself.^[3]

NY 481 enters Oswego and becomes the two-lane East River Road, passing by a large post-modern structure which is the Oswego County "Public Safety Center" (actually a Correctional Facility). As NY 481 approaches its northern terminus at NY 104, bridges across the Oswego River can be seen to the west at Bridge Street and Utica Street. East First Street, which NY 481 becomes upon entering downtown, continues north past NY 104 to Oswego Harbor on the shores of Lake Ontario.^[3]

[edit] Official designations

By New York state statute, Route 481, as well as its continuation, Interstate 481, comprise the Veterans Memorial Highway.^[4] A sign on the northbound side of Route 481 near its southernmost point announces this. However, a sign on the southbound side of the highway, just after it leaves Fulton, erroneously announces that the highway is the Disabled American Veterans Memorial Highway. The same statute indicates that this is the designation of "that portion of United States route twenty beginning at the community of Irving, where route five and route twenty merge with Old Lake Shore road, and continuing northeasterly until approximately one mile south of the town of Depew, Erie county, then continuing easterly across New York state to its terminus at the New York-Massachusetts border approximately two miles east of the town of New Lebanon, Columbia county." This highway never intersects any part of the Veterans Memorial Highway, though it does come within eight miles of it at one point. The erroneous sign lies approximately 40 miles north of that point.

[edit] Alternate routes

A route combining NY 48 and NY 690 also travels between Oswego, Fulton and Syracuse, but along the western side of the Oswego River. Although shorter in distance, this route travels through more built-up areas and is significantly slowed by reduced speed limits. This route is therefore more commonly used for trips from Oswego to Baldwinsville or other points to the west of Syracuse.

[edit] History

When state highways in New York were first signed in 1924, NY 20 was assigned to the primary north-south roadway connecting Syracuse to Oswego via Fulton on the eastern bank of the Oswego River.^[5] NY 20 was redesignated as NY 57 in 1927 to avoid duplication with the newly designated U.S. Route 20.^[6]

The NY 57 corridor remained unchanged until the late 1960s when construction began on the limited-access highway south of Fulton that would become NY 481 and largely replace NY 57 as the primary roadway between Fulton and Syracuse.^[7] NY 481 was assigned to the new expressway, as well as a short piece of NY 57 from where the highway ended south of Fulton to NY 3 in the city, on January 1, 1970.^[2] Work began on a new roadway to replace the existing two-lane, curvy routing of NY 57 between Fulton and Oswego shortly afterward. NY 57 was rerouted onto the new highway by 1978.^[8] In May 1982, NY 481 was extended northward to its present terminus in downtown Oswego when NY 57 was removed from the state highway system.^[9]

[edit] Major intersections

The segment of NY 481 between North Syracuse and Fulton is a limited-access highway. Exit numbers continue from I-481.

County	Location	Mile^[1]	#	Destinations	Notes
Onondaga	North Syracuse	0.00		I-481	Continuation beyond I-81
		0.00	9N-S	I-81 – Syracuse, Watertown
		0.50	10	US 11 – North Syracuse	Access to US 11 via Bear Road and Circle Drive
	Clay		11	Caughdenoy Road / Maple Road	Northbound exit only (no entrance)
		6.97	12	NY 31 – Baldwinsville, Cicero
		Oneida River
Oswego	Schroeppel	Oneida River
		10.54	13	Phoenix (CR 57A)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		13.04	14	NY 264 – Phoenix, Mexico
		Begin at-grade intersections northbound; begin limited-access highway southbound
	Fulton
		19.49		CR 57	Former routing of NY 57
		20.62		NY 3
	Oswego	31.79		NY 104