John Glenn Boulevard is an

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...

serving the northwestern suburbs of

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, mainly

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Baldwinsville Baldwinsville is a village in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The population was 7,898 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area. Baldwinsville (the village itself) is located in the towns of Lysand ...

, and

Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. As currently constructed, it extends from

Interstate 690 Interstate 690 (I-690) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that extends for through the vicinity of Syracuse, New York, in the United States. It is a spur of I-90 (here part of the New York State Thruway) that travels southeast from Thruwa ...

(I-690) in Geddes to Buckley Road in Clay. In

Onondaga County Onondaga County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 476,516. The county seat is Syracuse. Onondaga County is the core of the Syracuse, NY MSA. History The name ''Onondaga'' derives from ...

, the road is officially designated as the unsigned County Route 81 (CR 81).

Route description

John Glenn Boulevard begins at a modified

directional T interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

with I-690 in Geddes. The westbound lanes also include a ramp to the northbound of

New York State Route 48 New York State Route 48 (NY 48) is a north–south state highway in Central New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is located at Interstate 690 (I-690) exit 3 near the interchange between I-690 an ...

(NY 48), which also terminates at the intersection with I-690. Heading eastbound, the boulevard has a railroad crossing before reaching an

at-grade intersection An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections a ...

with Farrell Road roughly half a mile later. For the remainder of the roadway, John Glenn Boulevard passes over the

Onondaga Lake Onondaga Lake is a lake in Central New York, immediately northwest of and adjacent to Syracuse, New York. The southeastern end of the lake and the southwestern shore abut industrial areas and expressways; the northeastern shore and northwestern ...

connector to the Seneca River/

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

and has at-grade intersections with NY 370 and CR 57 (the former

NY 57 New York State Route 57 (NY 57) was a north–south state highway in the central portion of New York in the United States. It extended for from an intersection with U.S. Route 11 (US 11) just north of downtown Syracuse to ...

), in addition to a couple of apartment complex entryways, before terminating at Buckley Road (CR 46) in

Clay, New York Clay is a town in Onondaga County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 58,206, making it Syracuse's most populous suburb. The town was named after American attorney and statesman Henry Clay. Clay is north of Syracus ...

. Throughout its length, the boulevard is a

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

and has a speed limit between , also passing by several suburban neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and industrial complexes.

History

The arterial was originally built in the mid 1960s, connecting several newly-built suburban neighborhoods to

and the

New York State Thruway {{Infobox road , state = NY , type = NYST , alternate_name = Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway , maint = NYSTA , map = {{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, type=line, stroke-width=2, type2=line, from2=New Yor ...

. It was named after former NASA astronaut and U.S. Senator

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...

, the first American to orbit the Earth, which he accomplished in 1962. The highway was originally supposed to extend to NY 481 but was never built past Buckley Road. In 2016, a woman was killed while driving on the highway when a tree fell on top of her SUV in what was later deemed a "

freak accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...

Major intersections

References

{{reflist County routes in Onondaga County, New York Transportation in Onondaga County, New York Roads in New York (state) John Glenn

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References