We met up around 11 AM at Centennial Park in downtown Corning and walked over to lunch at Sorge's.
Meet Tour
Our first stop was the same place as we parked, at the former NY 414 bridge in the park, now used as a pedestrian bridge. We took the meet photo here as well as noting the new street name blades on NY 352 on the walk to/from the restaraunt.
We split into two cars and drove over to another park to view the reconstruction of Patterson Bridge on NY 352, which formerly carried NY 17 over the river before the Corning Bypass was built in 1995.
We then headed over to I-86, clinching part of the Corning Bypass, and got off at US 15 (future I-99) to drive down the new portion between Presho and Pennsylvania, and to view the new mileage-based exit numbers on the road. We stopped at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center, which overlooks the Tioga River.
We continued down US 15 and stopped at Sheetz in Mansfield, PA. On the way back to NY, we detoured down PA 328, which becomes NY 328 at the border. Note the improvement in road quality in New York! Also note the mono sign with the wrong font for Chemung County.
We continued up NY 328 and NY 14 through Elmira over to the Horeseheads Bypass on I-86/NY 17, stopping in a parking lot to view the bypass from ground level. This section of NY 17 used to be an at-grade expressway with traffic lights.
At this point, the car with Anthony and Adam split off to clinch more highways in Pennsylvania. The rest of us continued on I-86, passing through the recently rebuilt section in eastern Chemung County (which eliminated the at-grade intersections and added an interchange east of Lowman), getting of at US 220 where NY 17 takes a short dip into Pennsylvania. We took the very short section of US 220 in New York between I-86 and former NY 17. We took old 17 to NY 427, detouring to clinch NY 367. We took Chemung CR 60 back to Elmira. CR 60 used to consist of several discrete segments connected by NY 17; these sections were combined into a continuous road as part of the NY 17 reconstruction.
We then visited the Lake Street bridge in Elmira, the only bridge to survive the 1972 flood, now closed due to its deteriorating contition.
We then traveled down NY 352 back to Corning, taking a quick stop on the shoulder to take pictures of an abandoned railroad bridge over Old Narrows Road.
