| Reference Route 907W/908A | |||
| Get started | New York | ||
| End | Rye Brook | ||
| Length | 19 mi | ||
| Length | 30 km | ||
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According to Bestitude, the Hutchinson River Parkway is a parkway in the U.S. state of New York, running from the New York borough of Bronx through suburban Westchester County to the Connecticut border at Rye Brook, where the highway becomes Merritt Parkway toward New Haven. The highway is 30 kilometers long.
Travel directions
The highway begins at the major Bruckner Interchange, where it intersects with I-95, I-278, I-295, and I-678. It traverses the east of the Bronx borough of New York, and has 2×3 lanes. The highway is more or less sunken. Emergency lanes are missing. In the Baychester district one crosses the I-95 again, where there are limited interchange possibilities. One passes by the Bay Mall Plaza, a huge shopping center, and crosses Eastchester Bay. One passes through undeveloped Pelham Bay Park, and at Co-op City one crosses I-95 for the third time. After this, 2×2 lanes are available, and you enter the suburb of Mount Vernon. The highway runs from here through the wooded residential areas. The Cross County Parkway connects near Bronxville, which comes from Yonkers, the largest suburb north of New York. After this, 4+3 lanes are briefly available, but quickly narrows again to 2×2. One passes through Eastchester, and through the north of the suburb of New Rochelle. Here the Hutchinson River Parkway turns northeast.
East of White Plains, there is a service area in the median, accessible from either direction. It passes through the suburb of Harrison, and crosses Interstate 287, which forms a partial ring road around New York. Immediately after, Interstate 684 exits, which leads to the northern suburbs. This area is densely wooded and has a pleasant living climate. The last suburb in New York is Rye Brook, where the Hutchinson River Parkway merges into the Merritt Parkway at the Connecticut border.
History
In 1924, the Westchester County Parks Commission proposed building a parkway in eastern Westchester County. The existing route, the Boston Post Road (later: US 1 ), was already congested in the 1920s. Construction began that same year, and in December 1927 the first two-mile section was opened in Pelham. A new railway bridge was built over the highway for important railway lines. In October 1928, 18 kilometers were completed between US 1 in Pelham and Westchester Avenue in White Plains. The highway had 2×2 lanes of 2.7 meters and a maximum speed of 60 km/h, the standard at the time. There were no real slip roads, but the road was grade separated. There was also no central partition between the two directions of travel, as was common with the first parkways in the 1920s.
As late as the 1920s, master planner Robert Moses proposed an extension to Connecticut. These plans were implemented in 1937, when the parkway was extended north to the Connecticut border, where it would connect to the Merritt Parkway. The highway was then built. In 1936, Robert Moses also decided to extend the Parkway further south, to the proposed Whitestone Bridgeto Queens. The first section of this opened for two miles in December 1937 from US 1 in Pelham to Orchard Beach Road in Pelham Bay Park. In 1941, the highway was extended to what is now the Bruckner Interchange, two years after the Whitestone Bridge opened. The highway had 2×2 lanes and a center divider and was widened to 2×3 lanes in the Bronx in the late 1940s. In 1938, the older section between Pelham and White Plains was also upgraded with wider lanes and a center fence. However, the highway was not yet up to modern standards, especially with regard to curves and slopes. There were also no emergency lanes.
In the early 1950s, some 30,000 vehicles used the Hutchinson River Parkway, twice as many as in 1945. Traffic was expected to double to 60,000 by 1958. Westchester County grew rapidly after World War II, as did southwestern Connecticut. Plans were made to widen the highway to 2×4 lanes between the Whitestone Bridge and White Plains and 2×3 lanes to the Connecticut border. The reconstruction was supposed to be completed in 1956, but in 1961 it turned out that hardly anything had happened, only a central reservation had been built. In 1962 it was decided to upgrade the section between I-95 and I-287 to an expressway, which also allowed trucks and buses to use the highway. In the end, only the southern 4 kilometers was upgraded to 2×3 lanes with access for all traffic. This was completed in 1972.
Opening history
| From | Unpleasant | Opening |
| US 1 (Pelham) | I-287 (White Plains) | 00-10-1928 |
| I-287 (White Plains) | Connecticut border | 00-00-1937 |
| Orchard Beach Road | US1 (Pelham) | 00-12-1937 |
| I-95 (Bronx) | Orchard Beach Road | 00-00-1941 |
Traffic intensities
Between I-95 and I-287, the intensities are stable at around 100,000 vehicles per day. Further towards Connecticut, the road is a bit quieter with 55,000 vehicles per day.
| Exit | Location | 2008 |
| 3 | Bronx and Pelham Parkway | 83,000 |
| 4 | 79,000 | |
| 5 | Orchard Beach Road | 109,000 |
| 6 | 116,000 | |
| 7 | Boston Post Road | 79,000 |
| 9 | Wolfs Lane | 81,000 |
| 12 | Lincoln Avenue | 106,000 |
| 13 | Cross County Parkway | 105,000 |
| 14 | Pelhamdale Avenue | 45,000 |
| 17 | North Avenue | 113,000 |
| 21 | Weaver Street | 108,000 |
| 22 | Mamaroneck Road | 91,000 |
| 25 | NY-127 | 100,000 |
| 26 | 88,000 | |
| 26A | 79,000 | |
| 27 | NY-120 | 48,000 |
| 28 | Lincoln Avenue | 49,000 |
| 29 | Ridge Street | 47,000 |
| 30 | King Street | 45,000 |
| – | border with Connecticut | 51,000 |
Lane Configuration
| From | Unpleasant | Lanes |
| Exit 1 (I-95) | Exit 6 (I-95) | 2×3 |
| Exit 6 (I-95) | exit 13 | 2×2 |
| Exit 13 | Exit 18 | 2×3 |
| Exit 18 | Exit 30 | 2×2 |
