New York State Route 16 is a state highway in New York, USA. It runs from the Pennsylvania state line, where it is one of the highest highways in the state in elevation, to downtown Buffalo. NY 16 is a major route through Erie County, despite the construction of the paralleling NY 400 expressway from East Aurora. In Cattaraugus County it also plays an important role, serving as the major connection from Olean to the NY 17/I-86 Southern Tier Expressway. Between those two areas, and indeed for much of its length, it is a two-lane rural road.

Route 16, when assigned in 1924, originally followed NY 17 to a southern terminus at the Pennsylvania state line. The current alignment, which meets south of Olean, was known as New York State Route 16A.

Route description

McKean County, Pennsylvania

State Route 646, the continuation of NY 16 in Pennsylvania, turns off Pennsylvania Route 346 in the Derrick City borough of Gilmore. SR 646 heads to the northeast, paralleling Pennbrook and entering Bells Camp. The route progresses farther, passing several gas wells and leaving the city limits of Derrick City. The route continues for a short distance before crossing into New York, becoming New York State Route 16.

Cattaraugus County

When PA 646 becomes NY 16 at the state line, it is already at a very high elevation on a ridgecrest, and at a rise two miles (3.2 km) into New York, it reaches 2,386 feet (727 m) in elevation, making it the highest state highway in Western New York and among the highest in the state. It remains at a high elevation for several more miles, through what was once one of New York's major oil fields. Afterwards, NY 16 then begins to drop through a narrow valley to cross the Allegheny River and enter its first major community, the city of Olean (which, like several other communities in the region, takes its name from oil). It crosses the city as Union Street, intersecting its first state highway, NY 417, at State Street. A mile further north, it reaches a bridge over Olean Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny. On the other side, it becomes a four-lane road with a divider as it approaches NY 17, currently concurrent with Interstate 86 pending the entire expressway's upgrade to Interstate Highway standards. A trumpet interchange provides access to NY 17/I-86 in both directions in the vicinity of Baldwin Heights. But NY 16 runs parallel to the freeway and remains a four-lane route, although no longer divided, following the Olean valley. At Hinsdale it finally does cross NY 17. Shortly afterwards, in the hamlet of Maplehurst, NY 446, the former route of NY 408, comes in from the east and terminates. 16 now follows the narrow valley of Ischua Creek, one of the Olean's tributaries, north past the road to the city's airport, north to Franklinville. NY 98 joins NY 16 just south of the village and leaves north of it. NY 16 continues to Machias and the eastern end of NY 242. A straight course takes the highway from this junction to the Cattaraugus Creek bridge. This bridge heads into Erie County.

Erie County

In the southwestern corner of the county, NY 16 intersects with NY 39. NY 16 then begins heading slightly northwestward through a wider, more developed valley in the towns of Holland and Wales to the first sign of an approaching major metropolitan area, the south end of NY 400, the Aurora Expressway. After joining the expressway for two miles (3 km), it again leaves to become a two-lane that enters East Aurora as Olean Street. At the intersection with Main Street, NY 16 turns left and briefly joins with US 20A and NY 78. US 20A leaves the two state routes behind at a fork at the village's east end, leaving NY 16 and NY 78 to head to the northwest again as Buffalo Street. From this point NY 16 and NY 78 are concurrent with the unsigned County Route 572, which continues along the two highways for the next . At Willardshire Road as the highway passes the industrial parks and other facilities associated with local company Moog Inc. North of the village, it enters the Town of Elma and becomes Seneca Street, the name it will retain all the way to the city.

NY 78 takes on its best-known name as well when it leaves at Transit Road (US 20), as NY 16 assumes an east-west heading across the suburban neighborhoods of West Seneca. Just after the split at U.S. 20 is the end of the CR 572 concurrency as well. It crosses NY 277, a major retail strip, at Union Road in the hamlet of Ebenezer. One final trumpet exit to NY 400 (and by extension, the New York State Thruway) precedes its junctions with Harlem Road (NY 240) and a crossing of the Thruway itself as it begins once again to head to the northwest and finally enters the city of Buffalo. Running almost due northwest through the residential neighborhoods of South Buffalo, NY 16 reaches its last major junction, with US 62, at Bailey Avenue just after crossing the Buffalo River. Immediately afterwards it crosses Interstate 190 with no exit (but with northbound access) and returns to a more east-west course through industrial areas before ending at Main Street, NY 5, in the city center.

History

NY 16 was first signed in 1924 between Olean and Buffalo. In the early to mid-1930s, the route was extended south to the Pennsylvania state line via modern NY 417 (then NY 17) and NY 305 (a previously unnumbered roadway). During the same period, the modern routing of NY 16 between Pennsylvania and Olean was designated as New York State Route 16A. The alignments of both NY 16 and NY 16A remained the same until the early 1960s when NY 16A was supplanted by a rerouted NY 16. The former routing of NY 16 between the Pennsylvania state line and NY 17 became an extension of NY 305.

The completion of the Aurora Expressway (NY 400) in the early 1970s led to a minor realignment of NY 16 in the town of Aurora. In 1971, with the expressway complete, NY 16 was rerouted to follow the new highway for two miles (3 km) before exiting the freeway and returning to its previous alignment. The former routing of NY 16 in the area, a long portion of Olean Road, is now New York State Route 951V, an unsigned reference route.

Major intersections

References

1. National Bridge Inventory, a database compiled by the United States Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, available at www.nationalbridges.com. Accessed 2007-09-07.

External links

• NY State Route 16 Ends