New York Roads - NY 5 - W. of Buffalo

NY 5 west of Buffalo



The Barcelona Lighthouse overlooks Lake Erie, but was decommissioned because there's no actual harbor there for it to protect. It was the first natural gas lighthouse when it was built in 1859, and is now a 40-foot tall private residence. Great view, must have legs.


Old things EB: a college sign at Central Ave. in Dunkirk (for SUNY Fredonia), an old NY 5 alignment, and a white-text county route shield.


Very strange signage at Tifft St. leading into the beginning of construction. This part of the Skyway is getting reconstructed while a new Outer Harbor Parkway is constructed next to it. The waterfront will be made more accessible and more beautiful, but roads enthusiasts for now still get to celebrate that NY 5 will be replaced on structures instead of brought down to grade. It's a fight back against the trend of idealistically removing urban freeways.


I'm not quite sure what the extent of reconstruction is, because some parts of the road are entirely torn up, other parts are partly still there, and all of the overpasses are missing. While that goes on, NY 5 uses the former SB frontage road (Fuhrmann Blvd.), which is where the Outer Harbor Parkway will be constructed. In widening the road for that purpose, even the two-way part to the north of Ohio St., the bike path was temporarily obliterated.


In 2009, the road was still closed, and almost all torn up, but new overpasses were sprouting up like shamrocks in a clover field.


Here's what they'll all look like in the end. Stoneface is no substitute for real stone, though.


The Buffalo Road Meet stopped across from Ohio St. in this parking lot. It was realigned to meet Fuhrmann Blvd. across from Ohio St. as either temporarily or permanently part of the Skyway reconstruction. The contractor did it the cheapest way possible, though, making a straight cut across the pavement and not only leaving the stripe that takes drivers into the grass, but the speed limit for drivers who find themselves on that grass.


The southern abutment at Ohio St. is well into reconstruction - check out the underpinnings.


This is the original northern abutment (the Skyway is a north-south road even though NY 5 is signed east-west through the entire state for continuity). The method of concrete reinforcement was sure a lot different in the 1950's than today.


Looking south from the top of the northern abutment.


Now looking north from there, up to the end of the Ohio St. contract. I guess the next part of the Skyway will be reconstructed later - I assume the entire roadway is due at some point. The reinforcement is waiting up there to be arranged in new concrete just like at the southern abutment.


A milemarker left on the Skyway where no one can see it, next to shiny new guiderail that won't be tested for another year or two.


Another torn-up overpass, this either where Fuhrmann Blvd. goes back to being a pair of one-way frontage roads or at a double U-turn north of there.


The second photo is a reroute around the first SB Skyway offramp on the Outer Harbor.


NB through the same area in 2009, along the part of the Skyway that was rebuilt first, with evidence of the SB offramp returning in the last photo. By the time the Skyway reopens, there will be real grass on those slopes.


Back up onto the Skyway for the very last bit, the part that gets closed during snowy weather because it sticks so far up in the air. But to see it, you'll have to continue your journey eastward on my NY 5 page.

Continue east on NY 5
US 20 and NY 5/US 20 west of Buffalo
Back to NY 5 main page


West into Pennsylvania on 5
To the Peace Bridge
Back to the Buffalo meet page
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