| NYS Route 85 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by NYSDOT | ||||
| Length: | 26.49 mi[2] (42.63 km) | |||
| Existed: | 1930[1] – present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end: | CR 351 / CR 353 in Rensselaerville | |||
| NY 443 in New Scotland | ||||
| East end: | I-90 in Albany | |||
| Location | ||||
| Counties: | Albany | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Numbered highways in New York
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New York State Route 85 (NY 85) is a state highway in Albany County, New York, in the United States. It is 26.49 miles (42.63 km) long and runs from County Route 351 (CR 351) and CR 353 in Rensselaerville to Interstate 90 (I-90) exit 4 in Albany. It also has a loop route, NY 85A, which connects NY 85 to the village of Voorheesville. The portion of NY 85 north of NY 140 to the Bethlehem–Albany town/city line is known as the Slingerlands Bypass. From there north to I-90, the road is a limited-access, four-lane highway named the Crosstown Arterial.
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NY 85 starts in the hamlet of Rensselaerville within the town of the same name at the Ten Mile Creek bridge, the terminus of CR 351. It proceeds through Rensselaerville and makes a right, heading towards the Westerlo hamlet of Reidsville. Prior to reaching Reidsville it bears left, and proceeds to a hill known to locals as the "Letter-S", named after the old-routing of the highway. On the "Letter-S", NY 85 is concurrent with NY 443, which proceeds to Berne and Schoharie westbound and to Albany eastbound. At the bottom of the "Letter-S", by the Stewarts Gas Station, Route 85 turns east, splitting from Route 443. NY 85 then proceeds northeastward to the New Salem Hill. NY 157 splits off prior to the New Salem Hill, providing access to Thacher Park.
At the bottom of New Salem Hill is the hamlet of New Salem within the town of New Scotland. NY 85A splits off here and reunites just east of Voorheesville. NY 85 proceeds through suburban Slingerlands until it reaches a roundabout at NY 140 and New Scotland Avenue. Here, NY 85 leaves New Scotland Avenue to follow the Slingerland Bypass. It proceeds as a four-lane highway through the town of Bethlehem with a series of roundabouts providing access to local roads. NY 85 remains four lanes wide until it reaches the Blessing Road roundabout, where it narrows to two lanes until reaching the city limits in Albany.
Within the city of Albany, NY 85 follows the Crosstown Arterial, a four-lane limited-access highway serving the western part of the city. Between U.S. Route 20 (US 20, named Western Avenue) and I-90 (where NY 85 ends), NY 85 is networked with Washington Avenue and the W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus ring road. There are also exits for Lincoln Avenue (only accessible from the eastbound direction) and Krumkill Road. NY 85 and the Arterial terminate at a trumpet interchange with I-90 northwest of downtown Albany.
The path of modern NY 85 west of Slingerlands roughly follows that of the Albany, Rensselaerville, and Schoharie Plank Road, a plank road established to connect the city of Albany with the town of Schoharie by way of passing through Rensselaerville. The Albany, Schoharie, and Rensselaerville Plank Road Company was organized on October 10, 1849, with Lansing Pruyn as president.[3] On March 25, 1850, the company was given a 30-year charter; and the road from Lydius Street in Albany (today Madison Avenue) to the hamlet of New Salem—now New Scotland Avenue in the city of Albany and New Scotland Road in Bethlehem and New Scotland—and the portion of the road from Bernville to Gallupville were planked with wooden boards.[4] Portions of the plank road were already long established roads, such as the Beaverdam (or Beaver Dam) Road in western Albany County near New Salem, which had already existed for quite some time prior to moving to an easier grade around New Salem in 1806.[5] The plank road/turnpike spurred the development of many places along its path, such as a hotel at what would evolve into the hamlet of Hurstville and a post office at what would become the hamlet of Slingerlands.[4][6]
In 1854 the state authorized the fiscally unsound plank road company to abandon or sell portions of the road and to turn other sections into a turnpike and charge tolls. The section from New Salem east to the hamlet of New Scotland subsequently had its planks removed and the portion from Bernville to Gallupville was also abandoned.[4][7] In 1881 the charter was renewed for another 30 years.[4] In 1896 the turnpike company opposed the construction of a railroad that would have been in direct competition to the turnpike from Albany to Schoharie.[8]
In 1908, the New York State Legislature created Route 7, an unsigned legislative route extending from Binghamton to Albany via Oneonta and Schoharie. Route 7 entered the town of New Scotland on what is now NY 157 and followed it to its eastern end at modern NY 85. At this point, the route turned onto the old Albany–Schoharie plank road and continued east to Albany on New Scotland Road and New Scotland Avenue.[9][10] The section of legislative Route 7 east of modern NY 157 was not assigned a posted designation until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York when it became part of NY 85, which initially extended from NY 81 in the hamlet of Oak Hill in the town of Durham to US 20 in Albany.[1]
When it was first assigned, the route followed Makley and Siebert Roads north from Oak Hill to Medusa, then continued northeast to Westerlo on County Routes 351, 402, 404, and 401. Past Westerlo, NY 85 was routed on what is now NY 143 to the Delaware Turnpike near Reidsville, where it joined its current alignment. Northeast of Slingerlands, NY 85 followed New Scotland Avenue into downtown Albany, where it terminated at US 20.[1] The portion of the route between Medusa and Reidsville was realigned ca. 1936 to serve the hamlet of Rensselaerville. Instead of heading east from Medusa, NY 85 was rerouted to follow CR 352, CR 360, CR 359, and CR 353 north to Rensselaerville, where it met its modern routing.[11][12] NY 85 was truncated to Rensselaerville ca. 1938.[13][14]
Construction on the Slingerlands Bypass, a new highway bypassing the hamlet of Slingerlands, began in the early 1960s. The first section of the bypass from Washington Avenue to Buckingham Drive (the Krumkill Road exit) was completed by 1964.[15][16] The remainder of the highway was open by 1968 as a realignment of NY 85.[17] Between Blessing Road and the Albany city line, the bypass was constructed as a two-lane highway. This section was originally planned to be four lanes wide as well, but was constructed with only two lanes due to community activism by an anti-sprawl group known as the Bethlehem Lincoln Republicans in the early 1960s. The old alignment of NY 85 along New Scotland Road from where NY 85 turns onto the bypass to the Albany city line (a distance of 0.38 miles or 0.61 kilometres as of 2008) is now designated as NY 910E, an unsigned reference route.[2]
A four-lane extension of the bypass was constructed in 2007 between NY 140 and Maher Road. Four roundabouts were built, the southernmost where NY 85 currently meets NY 140 at Cherry Avenue Extension. After the roadway opened to traffic on November 7, 2007, NY 85 was rerouted onto the newly constructed portion of the bypass while the section of New Scotland Road between NY 140 and Maher Road became part of an extended NY 910E. The new highway, four lanes divided, meets the existing highway portion of the bypass at the same Maher Road, at the third roundabout.
NY 85 was once proposed to be extended to the unbuilt I-687.[18]
NY 85A (5.54 miles or 8.92 kilometres) is an alternate route of NY 85 in New Scotland, accessing Voorheesville.[2] It was assigned ca. 1932.[19][20]
The entire route is in Albany County.
| Location | Mile[2] | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rensselaerville | 0.00 | CR 351 / CR 353 | ||
| Westerlo | 6.51 | NY 143 | Western terminus of NY 143 | |
| Berne | 10.18 | NY 443 west (Helderberg Trail) | Western terminus of NY 85 / NY 443 overlap | |
| New Scotland | 12.20 | NY 443 east (Delaware Turnpike) | Eastern terminus of NY 85 / NY 443 overlap | |
| 14.43 | NY 157 (Thacher Park Road) | Eastern terminus of NY 157 | ||
| 15.33 | NY 85A (New Salem Road) | Hamlet of New Salem; western terminus of NY 85A | ||
| 18.89 | NY 85A (Maple Road) | Eastern terminus of NY 85A | ||
| Bethlehem | 21.69 | NY 140 / New Scotland Avenue (NY 910E) | Roundabout; southern terminus of NY 140 | |
| 22.22 | Maher Road | Roundabout | ||
| Albany | West end of freeway section | |||
| 24.55 | Krumkill Road | |||
| 25.33 | US 20 | Access via Ormond Street eastbound and Daytona Street westbound | ||
| 25.37 | Brevator Street | To Harriman State Office Complex | ||
| State Offices | To outer complex loop eastbound and inner loop westbound | |||
| 26.05 | Lincoln Avenue / Washington Avenue | Access to Lincoln Avenue eastbound and to Washington Avenue and complex westbound | ||
| 26.49 | I-90 – Buffalo, Boston | Exit 4 (I-90) | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | ||||
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