It was back in November of 2010 that Barnes Avenue in Utica closed to traffic. Just hours before the concrete barricades went up, I took a final drive down Barnes Avenue.

Barnes Avenue once traveled from Oriskany Boulevard in Utica north to Marcy. The road was truncated at the Erie Canal and then closed forever when one of the bridges along the road was deemed too unsafe for travel.

Barnes Avenue had provided access to the Utica Marsh and the trails along the Erie Canal. There was also an industrial component with scrapyards along the route.

It's hard to believe given the dilapidated condition of the road that 0.82 miles of Barnes Avenue north of the Utica city limit in Marcy was actually under the jurisdiction of the NYS Department of Transportation. The road is still on the rolls, as far as I know, as Reference Route 921F.

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