New York Roads - Robert Moses State Pkwy. - Mainline

mainline



Heading north from LaSalle Expwy., with the I-190 North Grand Island Bridge flying overhead, to a plume of Niagara Falls mist with Niagara Falls, NY and ON in the background. Only Horseshoe Falls (the largest, most famous, and least visible from the U.S.) produces the mist.

South of Lewiston, NYSDOT closed the southbound side of Robert Moses State Parkway all the way to downtown Niagara Falls. The intent was to create a recreational trail that would let people of all modes of transportation enjoy the scenic parkland and views that Robert Moses built into almost all of his parkways. (His name is also on a Causeway all the way across the state in Long Island, which shows just how influential he was.) However, it still doesn't appear that anyone is able to use the old lanes, and if they are, no one has taken up the offer.


SB from the beginning of the closure, across the hastily paved median, under the international Lewiston-Queenston Bridge (I-190 and ON 405), to the former median merge of Upper Mountain Rd. Now that there's no median, Upper Mountain Rd. SB traffic swings across a cut in the divider (see orange curve sign in the background of the last photo) to merge into the old NB left lane that is now the only SB lane. For now, the SB side is still striped and signed, and thus unready for pedestrians.


There's the aforementioned merge (former NB diverge), and past Power Vista there's a split-level section overlooking Niagara River and then another sign on the wrong roadway. Power Vista draws power from the Power Reservoir. It's as if the Niagara Power Authority named the entire area after itself.


NY 104 is intended to take a good amount of the pressure off of the missing lanes and exits of the Parkway. It connects the Parkway to I-190 and gets traffic to all parts of Niagara Falls via 104 and NY 61. If not for the access to waterfront parking lots, there would probably be no reason to keep half the Parkway around anymore. Why would the right lane of the old Parkway be striped out at Devil's Hole? It's because the original conversion of the SB lanes to a trail happened from that point south - that's the part that people can actually use right now. It will take a lot more work before the trail heads north to Lewiston Artpark.


At the entrance to Whirlpool State Park, the old NB lanes get as wide as they can and manage to accommodate a separate NB left-turn lane into the parking lot. The old SB lanes were torn up for 200 feet on either side of the entrance (looking north and south, respectively) to prevent cars from accidentally, or purposely in my case, turning onto them. It's also to keep drivers from getting the best views of the Niagara River.


Continuing south over Bellevue Avenue and the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, a NEXUS-only two-lane under a railroad track. There's also a NB stub at Findlay Dr., but this closed SB ramp is still intact down and under the Parkway.


SB traffic actually gets to go back onto the SB side, but the joy is short-lived. After passing the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center, which I claim has the best parking lot, the single lane of traffic is shunted left onto NY 384
SB, and gets to return via Day Blvd. after passing through the entire downtown. The NB side gets to continue a half-mile farther than Day Blvd. if you ignore all the warning signs that you don't belong there. The reason the Discovery Center has the best parking lot is because it has the easiest access to the completely abandoned section of the Parkway that leads south to the Falls trails - and no one else parks there when the Center isn't open. Continue that tour with me via the first big link below.


Bonus to the page: the half-mile of NB side that has no SB counterpart to the south of the Falls. That's Horseshoe Falls mist in the first photo, and there is parking allowed in the stretch between the third and fourth photos. I'm not sure who's allowed to park there, though, because there was no signage for people to U-turn in the median to use the SB side. In the last photo, the old pavement joints continue straight into a grass embankment. The clearing curves through the modern-day visitor center in the park, and comes out to the abandoned Parkway that I mentioned before and that is linked below.


SB at NY 104 as it turns south from Ridge Rd. at the southern end of NY 18F, courtesy Doug Kerr. Buffalo Canada you say? Never been. Please give directions.

Abandoned Robert Moses State Parkway
Back to the Parkway main page


To I-190
Onto NY 104
Whirlpool State Park and Niagara Falls
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