When I think of the Northway, I think of two things: rush hour stand-still and where's Exit 3? I don't think we're ever going to see an Exit 3 but your rush hour commute may be affected by these new construction plans for next year.

Construction on a new Exit 4 will begin next year, according to the Times Union. The new Exit 4 will connect the Adirondack Northway to the Albany International Airport. The Department of Transportation will pay the Albany County Airport Authority $855,000 for 12 acres of land to create this new exit ramp.

I joke about Exit 3, but apparently the original plan was to create an Exit 3 which, as the Times Union reports, "would have run from Exit 5A, the Corporate Woods exit, of Interstate 90 west to the Northway and the airport." This all was scrapped in 1977 but they never took their eyes off of the idea of easing the travel between the Northway and the Airport.

This project was first promoted with Gov. Mario Cuomo back in 1994. The Times Union broke down exactly what we can expect:

With the Exit 4 redesign, northbound Northway traffic will exit on a flyover, over the southbound lanes and behind The Desmond Hotel to a T-intersection with Albany Shaker Road to the airport, avoiding two traffic lights. Southbound travelers will have one fewer traffic light, also exiting onto a ramp looping behind the Desmond and directly onto Albany Shaker, tying into the same new T-intersection as the northbound flyover ramp.

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