Interstate 690 - History

History

The portion of the modern I-690 corridor west of downtown Syracuse was originally served by NY 48, a route assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. NY 48 followed the length of State Fair Boulevard from Van Buren to downtown Syracuse, where it followed several local streets to reach NY 5. In the early 1960s, work began on a new freeway extending from the New York State Thruway to Syracuse by way of the western shoreline of Onondaga Lake. The new road, designated as I-690, was completed from the Thruway to NY 298 by 1962. I-690 supplanted State Fair Boulevard as the primary highway through the area, and from NY 297 southeast, State Fair Boulevard was upgraded on the spot. As a result, NY 48 was truncated to its current southern terminus in Van Buren.

The section of I-690 near the New York State Fairgrounds was originally a surface highway. When I-690 was extended eastward through downtown to Midler Avenue (now NY 598) in the mid-1960s, I-690 was moved onto its current, limited-access routing. State Fair Boulevard runs on the former I-690 eastbound right of way, while a service road occupies the westbound right of way. State Fair Boulevard continues east along this right of way onto a ramp to I-690. The section of I-690 between Midler Avenue and I-481 was completed in the early 1970s. I-690 gained a mile when its western terminus was relocated in 1988. The interchange with the Thruway was relocated and completely rebuilt, forcing a complete renumbering of all the exits on the highway.

I-690 follows an old New York Central Railroad right-of-way through a portion of downtown Syracuse and actually cuts through the site of the former New York Central station. A remnant of the old railroad station platforms is visible to the north of the freeway, with cement statues of people waiting for trains, who are occasionally dressed up for winter by area residents with scarves and other winter apparel.

In summer 2009, the New York State Department of Transportation posted new milemarkers on both NY 690 and I-690. The mileposts treat the entire length of both routes as a single entity, with mile 0 being at the northern terminus of NY 690 at NY 48 and mile 20 being near the eastern terminus of I-690 at I-481.