New York State Route 631

Plans to construct a bypass of the village of Baldwinsville have existed in some form since at least the mid-1970s. Around that time, NYSDOT developed a proposal for a highway intended to divert traffic away from the Baldwinsville village center and provide access to Radisson, a planned community developed east of Baldwinsville by the New York State Urban Development Corporation. Several alignments of varying endpoints and length were considered by NYSDOT; however, all of the potential routes began south of Baldwinsville at NY 690 and proceeded generally northeastward along the NY 31 corridor to NY 481 in the adjacent town of Clay.[8] The 1988 New York Transportation Bond Act, dubbed "Rebuild New York", provided funding for the design and planning stages of the project, and NYSDOT began gathering feedback on the project from the community in June 1991.[9]

In January 1994, NYSDOT released a new, refined set of plans for the project based on community input that considered four specific alignments for the road. Unlike the original highway proposed 20 years before, the proposed paths, referred to by the state as the Red, Yellow, Purple, and Railroad alternatives, would only run from a point just south of the village center to a location along NY 31 in either eastern Baldwinsville or just east of the village in the town of Lysander. The Red Alternative would begin at NY 48 near the southern village line and head to the northeast, while the Yellow route would start at the junction of NY 48 and Downer Street just across the Seneca River from the village center and proceed to the east. After crossing the Seneca River, the two routes merged to follow a single path north-northeastward across NY 370 to NY 31 in Lysander. The Red and Yellow alternatives were the two most expensive options, with an estimated cost of $15 million and $18 million, respectively.[9]

Heading away from NY 370 on NY 631 northbound

The other two proposed paths stayed much closer to the village center. Like the Yellow Alternative, the Purple route would begin at the intersection of NY 48 and Downer Street; however, the Purple Alternative went to the northeast instead, meeting NY 370 two blocks southeast of its intersection with NY 31. At this point, the road would turn north for a short distance to connect to NY 31. The Railroad Alternative began at the junction of NY 48 and Van Buren Road south of the village and generally paralleled NY 48 northwestward into the village center, where it would end at NY 31 one block to the east of NY 48's junction with NY 31. The projected price tag on the Railroad Alternative was $14 million, while the Purple Alternative was the least expensive of the four alignments at $11 million.[9] By March 1998, the state had selected the Red Alternative, now projected to cost $20 million. Although the plans to build the road were in place, construction of the highway was delayed for years due to a lack of funding.[10]

With the bypass project stalled, the state of New York assigned NY 631 in June 1999[2] to a series of pre-existing, locally maintained roadways[5] between NY 31 and the intersection between NY 48 and NY 690.[11] The new route provided a signed bypass of Baldwinsville, albeit to the north instead of the south.[12] In July 2000, construction finally began on the section of the southern bypass between NY 370 and NY 31. The $3.1 million highway opened to traffic on October 16, 2001, as part of an extended NY 631.[13]

There are currently no plans to build the remainder of the bypass; however, the topic was discussed in August 2012 by officials from the town of Lysander. In 2013, NYSDOT rehabilitated NY 370's bridge over the Seneca River southeast of the village, partially or completely closing the bridge to traffic for half of the year. The completion of the bypass was one of several ideas proposed by town officials to reduce the impact of the bridge closure on motorists.[14] While the originally chosen Red Alternative called for the highway to intersect NY 48 near the southern village line,[10] the town suggested building the missing segment of the road along the path of the Yellow Alternative to connect to Downer Street instead.[14]