The Quickway exits 114 and 115 will not be closed as originally feared, said state highway officials at a special open house informational meeting, held at the Rock Hill Fire House on June 19, 2007. Instead, both will be expanded to accommodate two-way traffic.

Route 17, known locally as the "Quickway," provides a rapid avenue between key locations such as Monticello, Wurtsboro, Bloomingburg, Middletown, Goshen, the NYS Thruway, and Interstate Route 84. Current reconstruction projects along the Quickway are in preparation for Route 17's conversion to interstate status as "I-86."

In particular, bridges are being raised two feet, and interchanges are being rebuilt and reconfigured to meet federal highway standards. Some exits, including 114 in High View (halfway between Bloomingburg and Wurtsboro) and 115 (Burlingham Road, just west of Bloomingburg), were initially slated to be shut down.

Bloomingburg village trustee Clifford "Doc" Teich indicated at the June 14, 2007 board meeting, "One of the things I want to make sure, originally they wanted to shut down Exit 115 totally. I led a big charge against that, now it's becoming a major on-off exit supposedly. I'm going to make sure that's what their plans are."

Said Teich, "They acted like it was just a small country exit. It's a major player. The traffic there sometimes is unbelievable, so I want to make sure they do it right, not like exit 118A, where they shut that down without any thought as to what's going to happen." Teich added, "if they shut any other exits down, [they should do it] after they complete their work, not before. It was so stupid what they did [with exit 118A]. This is important that we show interest in 115, because I don't want anybody pulling backdoor tricks on us."

Come June 19, the Rock Hill Fire House open house was a beehive of activity, with roughly one hundred citizens milling about at any given time. People congregated around tables describing their local exits. NYDOT Region 9 public information officer David Hamburg greeted media at the door. Engineer Bill Naylor was on hand to explain numerous charts and diagrams that lined the walls of the meeting room.

Naylor explained how Exit 114 in High View doesn't meet federal standards. However, there are emergency service issues tied to the sole westbound off ramp. Sometimes firefighters and ambulances use it backwards to respond to calls on top of the Shawanga mountain. It would be cost prohibitive to blast any eastbound ramps in the hard rock cliffs on the other side. However, there is room and enough grade to build a westbound on-ramp, where motorists can head towards Monticello from Mamakating Road.

For Exit 115, over by the road to Burlingham, the Roosa Gap off ramp will be re-routed through the woods, closer to Whispering Pines trailer park. There, a westbound on-ramp will be added, and the old existing road will be torn up to mitigate wetlands paved over by rebuilding. The eastbound on ramp will remain unchanged, and no eastbound 115 off ramp is shown in the proposed plans at this time. Motorists coming from Wurtsboro and points west will still have to exit in Bloomingburg, at Exit 116.

The Region 9 folks were a friendly bunch, with a good sense of humor. Chuckles were had all around when asked if plans included a new site for litterbugs to dump garbage. The current Exit 115 is notorious for illegal trash. Bags of refuse, furniture, and whatnot are constantly being deposited at a pull-off along that rural service road, near the end of Roosa Gap.

A brochure was distributed containing full color reproductions of the DOT diagrams, showing each exit as it would look after completion. The Region 9 open house addressed Exits 109-115 in Sullivan County. Construction begins in 2009 and ends in 2011, according to the fact sheet, at a cost of $42.8 million. Included locally is a new bridge for Burlingham Road, which will be built alongside the old one, in the same fashion as last year's Exit 113 rebuild of Route 209 bridge.

Route 17 became "I-86," an interstate, as part of High Priority Corridor 36, in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) passed by Congress in 1998. Economic studies foretell that thicker "Interstate" lines standard on road maps draw tourists and businesses to the region, boosting tax revenue. Additionally, necessary construction work creates local jobs. Fearing competition, Thruway officials stymied Route 17's interstate status during construction a generation ago.

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