New York State Route 446 - History

History

All of modern NY 446 was originally designated as part of Route 4, a cross-state unsigned legislative route defined by the New York State Legislature in 1908. Route 4 continued south from Hinsdale on what is now NY 16 and east from the village of Cuba on County Route 20. The legislative route system was replaced by the modern state route system in 1924, at which time most of Route 4 was designated NY 17, including from Hinsdale to Cuba. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 17 was moved onto a more southerly alignment (now NY 417) between Olean and Wellsville. Its former routing between Hinsdale and the Amity hamlet of Belvidere became the southwesternmost part of the new NY 63, which continued north from Belvidere to the Lake Ontario shoreline.

NY 63 was rerouted south of Mount Morris in the early 1940s to follow its current alignment to Wayland. The former alignment of NY 63 from Hinsdale to Mount Morris was redesignated as NY 408. In the early 1970s, construction began on the portion of the Southern Tier Expressway between Olean and Corning. From Hinsdale to Belvidere, the new highway closely followed NY 408. By 1974, the highway was open from Olean to Hinsdale and from Almond to Corning. The segment between Hinsdale and NY 19 in Belvidere was completed by January 1975, and the leg between Belvidere and Almond opened to traffic on January 30, 1975, completing the Olean–Corning portion of the expressway. The bypassed section of NY 408 between Cuba and Belvidere was subsequently transferred to Allegany County, and NY 408 was truncated to its current southern terminus in Nunda as a result. The portion of NY 408's former routing between Hinsdale and Cuba was retained as a state highway and renumbered to NY 446.