Interstate 590 - History

History

I-590 appeared on maps of the Rochester area as early as 1977 as a designation for the portion of the Rochester Outer Loop south of I-490. At the time, only two portions of the loop—from I-490 in Gates southeast to NY 383 in Chili and from Winton Road in Brighton to I-490 in Rochester—were complete and open to traffic. The western portion was constructed c. 1965 and designated as part of NY 47. The eastern section, which opened from Monroe Avenue (NY 31) to the Can of Worms c. 1965 and from NY 31 west to Winton Road by 1968, was part of NY 47 between Elmwood Avenue and I-490. South of Elmwood Avenue, the expressway had no signed number as the Federal Highway Administration had yet to assign the I-590 designation. Construction on the missing section of the Outer Loop's southern half began in the late 1970s.

Around the same time, the state of New York began to look into the possibility of changing the designations that were assigned to the Outer Loop. In one proposal submitted to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in the late 1970s, I-590 would be truncated to begin at the then-proposed junction with I-390 in Brighton but also extended northward along the Sea Breeze Expressway to NY 104 in Irondequoit. The rest of the loop south of I-490, meanwhile, would become part of an extended I-390. NY 47, the then-current designation for much of the Outer Loop, would be eliminated entirely. Most of the plans went into effect when the NY 47 designation was eliminated on March 18, 1980. The southern half of the Outer Loop was signed as planned; however, I-390 and I-590 were modified to end at their junctions with I-490. The section of I-590 from Winton Road to I-390—as well as the interchange connecting the two—was completed c. 1981.