The Albany airport Northway connector is set to open this year — and it'll be called Exit 3
The Northway is finally getting its Exit 3.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the new exit off Interstate 87 to get to and from the Albany International Airport will be named "Exit 3," after decades of conversations about building the exit with no results.
"What we said is it can't take 50 years to build Exit 3," Cuomo said Tuesday at the airport. "We are making it happen, and when you put the investment together with the action, together with confidence, you put those two elements together, that is dynamite. That is TNT, and it creates a great, positive, synergistic economic explosion."
Construction on the new exit ramps is ahead of schedule, expected to be completed by the end of this year. Originally, the $50 million highway connector was scheduled to be finished by November 2020.
The flyover exit ramp is being built off the Northway to take cars directly to the airport, bypassing the intersection of Wolf and Albany Shaker roads. The Cuomo administration says the connector will also reduce congestion at that intersection.
Building an Exit 3 has been talked about for decades. Existing exits jump from 2E and 2W, onto Central Avenue, to Exit 4, which goes to Wolf Road. The number was originally planned for an interchange with an Interstate 687 that was never built. A sign was installed on the highway in the 1970s saying "Exit 3 to be built," but the exit never came.
Cuomo's administration announced plans to build the new exits this past August.
Other upgrades to the airport itself are expected to be completed by March 2020. They include a new garage with 1,000 parking spaces, as well as new dining options, new escalators and upgraded signage.
The various renovations and the new Northway connector are part of a $92 million project to modernize Albany's airport. The state is investing $72 million in the project, part of Cuomo's $200 million upstate airport competition and $100 billion infrastructure renewal plan.
Mark Eagan, president and CEO of the Capital Region Chamber, spoke during the event Tuesday, saying the airport plays a critical role in driving economic growth.
"With the airport renovation underway and the additional parking garage under construction, now coupled with greater accessibility from the Northway, the Albany International Airport will remain a key partner in fueling our regional economy," Eagan said.
More than 1.4 million people boarded a flight at the Albany airport last year, the fifth-straight year of growth.
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