Interchange of the Week
Monday, 19 January 2004
Monday, 19 January 2004
I-190 & NY 198, Buffalo
NY 265 & NY 266
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| A full-size image (228 kb) is also available. |
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| A full-size image (228 kb) is also available. |
Orientation: Interstate 190, the Niagara Section of the New York State Thruway, runs from bottom to top. NY 198, the Scajaquada Expressway, branches off toward top right. NY 266 (Niagara Street) enters at bottom, then forks toward upper left. At this same fork, NY 265 (Tonawanda Street) begins straight ahead. Between Niagara Street and I-190 runs the CSX railroad and Amtrak Niagara branch.
Exit numbers: Exit 11 on I-190 is for NY 198. Exits are not numbered on NY 198.
The interchange: Where Scajaquada Creek empties into the Niagara River (more specifically, the Black Rock Canal), so too the Scajaquada Expressway empties into the Niagara Thruway. At the same spot, Tonawanda Street empties into Niagara Street, with the railroad running tightly between them and the Niagara Thruway. The interchange, a semi-directional T, is elevated over all of this, with lacelike concrete flyovers supported by slender columns. NY 198 also flies over West Avenue (one block east of Tonawanda Street), itself bridging Scajaquada Creek. Two ramps descend from NY 198 to meet the intersection of NY 265 and NY 266.
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| A full-size image (248 kb) is
also available. |
Orientation: NY 33, the Kensington Expressway, runs from bottom to top right. NY 198, the Scajaquada Expressway, enters at upper left and ends at NY 33. Humboldt Parkway acts as a service road along NY 33 and NY 198, and East Delevan Avenue passes through the interchange at center.
Exit numbers: Exits are not numbered on NY 33 nor on NY 198.
The interchange: The interchange at the other end of NY 198, though difficult to visualize as such, is also a semi-directional T. It is squeezed between residential areas along Humboldt Parkway and the CSX Buffalo Belt Line, with a minimal displacement of homes resulting from its construction. The most notable feature here is the ramp from NY 198 to NY 33 eastbound. It curves tightly around along the north side of the East Delevan Avenue overpass, narrowing from two lanes to one just as it does so. This ramp, as a result of these two facts, is often congested. Although the ramp provides a left turn movement, it both merges and diverges on the right-hand side.
From the northbound side of Humboldt Parkway, two ramps enter the expressways: one joining the ramp from NY 33 eastbound to NY 198, and the other, at the intersection with East Delevan Avenue, joining the ramp from NY 198 to NY 33 eastbound. Northbound Humboldt Parkway is discontinuous at East Delevan Avenue, picking up again as a dead-end street northwest of NY 33. Southbound Humboldt Parkway runs straight through, but has no connections to the expressways within the limits of this interchange.
