Origins Before the automobile From Binghamton to Corning, NY 17 follows the course of the Great Bend and Bath Turnpike, which was legislated in 1808 to continue the
Cochecton and Great Bend Turnpike (US 11) through the Susquehanna Valley. The road ran from the Pennsylvania state line at Great Bend through Binghamton, Owego, and Elmira to Bath. In its day, it was a major route of travel through the Susquehanna Valley. Today, the road is designated US 11 from Pennsylvania to Binghamton, then NY 17C to Waverly, NY 352 into Corning, and NY 415 to Bath. The at-grade sections of NY 17 in Orange County follow the Orange Turnpike south of Southfields and the New Windsor and Cornwall Turnpike to its north.
Liberty Highway and Legislative Route 4 The original routing of NY 17, from
Westfield to
Harriman, was largely designated in 1908 by the
New York State Legislature as Route 4, an unsigned
legislative route. This routing was incorporated in 1918 as the main portion of an
auto trail called the
Liberty Highway, which connected
New York City to
Cleveland via
Hackensack,
Liberty, the
Southern Tier, and
Erie. Legislative Route 4 began at legislative Route 18 (current
US 20) in Westfield and proceeded southeast through
Mayville to
Jamestown on what is now
NY 394 and
NY 430. From there, the route headed generally eastward to
Salamanca over modern NY 394,
NY 242, and
NY 353, and southeast to
Olean via
NY 417. At Olean, the route shifted northward, passing through
Hinsdale,
Friendship, and
Belvidere on current
NY 16,
NY 446 and Allegany County's
CR 20 before returning southward on what is now
NY 19 to access the village of
Wellsville. From Wellsville to
Andover and from
Jasper to
Corning, Route 4 followed modern NY 417. In between Andover and Jasper, however, Route 4 veered north on current
NY 21 and
NY 36 to serve
Hornell. East of Corning, the alignment of legislative Route 4 ran along the Great Bend and Bath Turnpike, and more closely resembled the modern alignments of the Southern Tier Expressway and the Quickway. Route 4 exited Corning on what is now
NY 352 and followed it to
Big Flats, where it broke from NY 352 and proceeded to
Horseheads on Chemung CR 64 and to
Elmira on what is now Lake Road, Madison Avenue and the east end of
NY 352. Between Elmira and
Binghamton, Route 4 followed either local roads that were bypassed or upgraded into the Southern Tier Expressway, namely modern NY 17 and Chemung and Tioga CR 60 from Elmira to
Waverly,
NY 17C between Waverly and
Owego,
NY 434 from Owego to
Vestal, and NY 17C and Riverside Drive (via
NY 26) from Vestal to Binghamton. however, this designation was removed on March 1, 1921. Another auto trail, the West Shore Route, also followed this section of the Liberty Highway, but proceeded north from Harimman along modern-day NY 32.
Designation and early changes When New York first signed its state highways with route numbers in 1924, much of legislative Route 4 was designated as NY 17. From
Randolph to Salamanca, NY 17 followed the more southerly routing of the Liberty Highway instead of the Route 4 routing, bypassing
Little Valley to the south in favor of a direct connection between Randolph and Salamanca (current NY 394 and
NY 951T). In Vestal, NY 17 was routed along the south bank of the
Susquehanna River, bypassing
Endicott and
Johnson City on what is now NY 434 and Broome CR 44. Lastly, NY 17 broke from the path of legislative Route 4 in Harriman and followed the former Route 39-b south to the
New Jersey state line at Suffern. In the
1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 17 basically remained intact. The only changes made at this time were the straightening out of the Olean–Wellsville segment (now via
Ceres) and the Andover–Jasper segment (now via
Greenwood). NY 17 initially reached New Jersey by way of Suffern's Orange Avenue (now
US 202) and connected to New Jersey's
Route 2 at the state line. In 1932, an alternate route of NY 17 between the New Jersey state line at
Hillburn and the hamlet of
Ramapo on the western bank of the
Ramapo River was designated as
NY 339. The route largely followed the path of modern
I-287 and the
New York State Thruway between the two locations. It initially became a local road upon crossing into New Jersey; however, Route 2 was realigned to connect to NY 339 instead of NY 17. In the mid-1930s, the alignments of NY 17 and NY 339 south of Ramapo were flipped, placing NY 17 on the western route. In 1938, NY 17 was relocated onto a new highway through the Hillburn village limits. While the southern half of the new road utilized the old highway, the northern half veered to the west of both Hillburn and old NY 17, bypassing the village before rejoining the old road south of Ramapo.
Late 20th century conversion into expressway and later improvements The explosive growth of the
tourism industry in the
Catskill Mountains region, which began in the 1930s and intensified after
World War II, stretched the rural road to its limits. Scores of hotels, resorts and bungalow colonies attracted hundreds of thousands of vacationing New Yorkers, whose cars left the two-lane NY 17 hopelessly jammed in summer. Many towns, especially the fairly large city of
Middletown, were paralyzed on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons in the summertime, as traffic passed through local downtowns and their traffic lights. In addition, the tight turns and steep inclines along the route led to numerous fatal crashes, including two milk tanker truck crashes in the mid-1950s. In response,
New York State officials planned a four-lane replacement, the first free long-distance expressway in the state and one of the earliest in the United States. It would replace intersections with well-spaced access ramps, separate grades with
flyovers, and allow safe travel at up to . , abandoned and banned from traffic The first segment of the new highway extended from
Fair Oaks to
Goshen, bypassing the city of Middletown to the northeast. It opened to traffic in July 1951 as a realignment of NY 17. As more sections of the freeway—known as the Quickway—opened up during the 1950s and 1960s, NY 17 was moved onto them. The Quickway was completed by 1968, connecting Binghamton to Harriman by way of a continuous expressway. Farther west, plans were also in the works to build an expressway across the Southern Tier. The highway was first proposed by New York Governor
Thomas Dewey in 1953, and the first sections of the Southern Tier Expressway were completed in the mid-1960s. At the time, NY 17 followed the entirety of two of the four open sections (
Steamburg to Salamanca and Owego to the
Broome County line) and part of a third (Corning to Lowman via Elmira). in Red House, due to be replaced As more continuous pieces of the expressway opened during the 1970s, NY 17 was realigned onto them, with much of NY 17's old alignment becoming NY 394, NY 417, or NY 17C. By 1980, the expressway was complete from
Bemus Point to Binghamton except for two areas near Salamanca and Corning. Although NY 17 continued to extend northwestward along its original alignment from Bemus Point to Westfield, both highways were also designated as parts of NY 430 and NY 394 in anticipation of the completion of the Southern Tier Expressway west of
Chautauqua Lake, which NY 17 would be rerouted to follow. This segment was built in stages during the 1980s as a
super two highway. The portions of the freeway in and around Salamanca and Corning were completed in the late 1980s In 1996, both exit 117 and exit 118A were closed. The large portion of the road west of Chautauqua Lake was widened to four lanes as part of a project completed in 1997. On December 3, 1999, the westernmost of NY 17 were replaced by
I-86, a new route that had been written into law a year earlier. As legislated, I-86 will eventually extend eastward along the length of both the Southern Tier Expressway and the Quickway to the New York State Thruway in Harriman once both highways are brought up to
Interstate Highway standards. I-86 was extended east to Horseheads in 2004, A stretch of NY 17 in central
Broome County was designated as I-86 in 2006. The remainder of NY 17 west of
I-87 was designated after the remaining at-grade sections are eliminated and the highway is brought up to Interstate Highway standards. The
New York State Thruway Authority converted the Harriman Toll Barrier at the interchange of NY 17 and I-87 (exit 16 on I-87) to cashless tolling. This included the creation of a solar photovoltaic energy generating facility (solar park) to help power the toll and maintenance facilities in Harriman, Woodbury, Spring Valley, and Nyack. Cashless tolling began on the night of September 27, 2018. This was a part of
Governor Andrew Cuomo's goal to convert the entirety of the New York Thruway to cashless tolling. On August 9, 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law that a portion of NY 17 was to be designated the "Dennis 'Matt' Howe Memorial Highway" from exit 63 in the hamlet of Lounsberry to exit 62 in the village of Nichols. On March 18, 2019, Howe died from injuries sustained when a tractor-trailer collided with his DOT truck as he and others were performing highway safety work on NY 17. The signs were unveiled and the dedication ceremony was held on October 29, 2019. In November 2019, NYSDOT completed the reconstruction of exit 131 along NY 17. As part of the project, a
diverging diamond interchange was built at the exit to improve access between NY 17 and NY 32. Also as part of the project, NY 32 was widened to three lanes to each way;
CR 64 / Nininger Road was extended to
Woodbury Common Premium Outlets; and exit ramps were built from NY 32 north and NY 32 south to meet Nininger Road at two respective traffic circles. In addition, a new park-and-ride was built, and the ramp from NY 17 west to Woodbury Common was demolished. In December 2020, NYSDOT completed construction of a new exit 125, which was built to accommodate the new
Legoland New York. As part of the project, a
four-ramp parclo was built, which replaced the prior exit 125, located west. NY 17 was expanded to three lanes in each direction between exits 124 and 125. Harriman Drive was expanded to two lanes in each direction between the exit and Legoland's entrance. On November 14, 2024, NYSDOT announced the extension of the I-86 designation from exit 60 to exit 67 (
NY 26) in
Vestal. == Future ==