New York State Route 204 (NY 204) is an east–west

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

located just southwest of

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

Monroe County, New York Monroe County is a county in the Finger Lakes region of the State of New York. The county is along Lake Ontario's southern shore. At the 2020 census, Monroe County's population was 759,443, an increase since the 2010 census. Its county seat an ...

, in the United States. The western terminus of the route is at exit 6 on Interstate 490 (I-490) in

Gates Gates is the plural of gate, a point of entry to a space which is enclosed by walls. It may also refer to: People * Gates (surname), various people with the last name * Gates Brown (1939-2013), American Major League Baseball player * Gates McFadde ...

. Its eastern terminus is at I-390 exit 18. The western portion of NY 204 is a

limited-access highway A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

known as the Airport Expressway that indirectly connects I-490 to the

Greater Rochester International Airport Frederick Douglass - Greater Rochester International Airport is a public airport located within the City of Rochester, three miles (6 km) southwest of Downtown, in Monroe County, New York, United States. It is owned and operated by Monro ...

. The remaining part of the connection is made by an

at-grade At-grade may refer to: * At-grade intersection, a crossing between roads on the same level * Road junction *Level crossing, where a road or path crosses a railway on the same level * Diamond crossing, where two railway tracks cross * At-grade railwa ...

portion of NY 204 on Chili (NY 33A) and Brooks Avenues. NY 204 was assigned from I-490 to the Rochester city line in Gates, however the section between I-390 and the city line was removed by January 2017.

Route description

NY 204 begins at I-490 exit 6 in

. The route heads southeast along the Airport Expressway, a four-lane

through the town of Gates. No exits exist along the expressway; in fact, it only comes in contact with one highway (Pixley Road, which it passes over). After , the highway ends at NY 33A (Chili Avenue). NY 204 turns east here, joining NY 33A northeast for to the heavily commercial

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Tressmar. The routes split near Westgate Plaza, where NY 204 veers eastward onto Brooks Avenue. Old shield on NY 204 east

The route heads through a small residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tressmar, which then gives way to more commercial and industrial surroundings. Along this stretch, NY 204 passes the headquarters of

Wegmans Food Markets Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a privately held American supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Gates, New York, and was founded in 1916 in Rochester. As of , Wegmans has 110 stores, mostly in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions. ...

. Past the Wegmans offices, the road dips sharply in elevation to pass under the

Rochester and Southern Railroad The Rochester and Southern Railroad , a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc., is a class III shortline that runs from the city of Rochester in Monroe County to Silver Springs, NY. The RSR started in 1986, when the B&O sold off its Buffalo a ...

. NY 204 gradually returns to its prior elevation east of the railroad and connects to Airport Way, the primary access road to the

, by way of an interchange. The highway runs along the northern edge of the airport grounds toward the

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 ...

, where it meets I-390 at exit 18 on the southern bank of the waterway, the eastern end of NY 204.

History

The portion of Brooks Avenue from Howard Road in

to Genesee Park Boulevard in

was originally designated as part of NY 47 between 1935 and 1938. When NY 47 was rerouted to follow Beahan Road and Scottsville Road between Howard Road and Elmwood Avenue , the former alignment of NY 47 on Brooks Avenue and Genesee Park Boulevard was redesignated NY 33B. The NY 33B designation was removed and reapplied to a new highway in the Buffalo area . The portion of NY 33B west of the Rochester city line was redesignated as NY 204. To the west of Brooks Avenue, construction began in the mid-1960s on the Airport Expressway, a

between I-490 and NY 33A (Chili Avenue) near the Gates– Chili town line.

National Bridge Inventory The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below them. That is similar to the grade-crossing ...

, a database compiled by the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

, available at www.nationalbridges.com. Accessed June 1, 2009. The highway was opened to traffic and designated as an extension of NY 204 by 1968. In between the end of the expressway and Brooks Avenue, NY 204

overlap Overlap may refer to: * In set theory, an overlap of elements shared between sets is called an intersection, as in a Venn diagram. * In music theory, overlap is a synonym for reinterpretation of a chord at the boundary of two musical phrases * O ...

ped with NY 33A. As planned, the Airport Expressway would be extended eastward along the Brooks Avenue corridor to meet the

Rochester Outer Loop Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom * Rochester, Kent **City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area **History of Rochester, Kent **HM Prison R ...

(NY 47) just north of the then- Rochester–Monroe County Airport. On January 1, 1970, the NY 204 designation was officially extended eastward along the proposed highway; however, in the field, NY 204 remained routed on Chili and Brooks Avenues. The proposed extension of the Airport Expressway remained on maps as late as 1979; however, by 1981, the routing was demapped as the planned extension was cancelled after opposition from area residents. The intersection between the Airport Expressway and NY 33A was a stub half-interchange until 2001, and rebuilt as a traditional T-shaped intersection. The extension of NY 204 in Gates east of I-390 was removed from the state highway system by 2017.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{NYSR external links, type=N, nyroutes=yes, termini=yes, route=204, alps=yes 204 Limited-access roads in New York (state) Transportation in Monroe County, New York

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links