NY 204 begins at I-490 exit 6 in Gates. The route heads southeast along the Airport Expressway, a four-lane limited-access highway through the town of Gates. No exits exist along the expressway; in fact, it only comes in contact with one highway. After, the highway ends at NY 33A. NY 204 turns east here, joining NY 33A northeast for to the heavily commercial hamlet of Tressmar. The routes split near Westgate Plaza, where NY 204 veers eastward onto Brooks Avenue. The route heads through a small residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tressmar, which then gives way to more commercial and industrial surroundings. Along this stretch, NY 204 passes the headquarters of Wegmans Food Markets. Past the Wegmans offices, the road dips sharply in elevation to pass under the Rochester and Southern Railroad. NY 204 gradually returns to its prior elevation east of the railroad and connects to Airport Way, the primary access road to the Greater Rochester International Airport, by way of an interchange. The highway runs along the northern edge of the airport grounds toward the Erie Canal, where it meets I-390 at exit 18 on the southern bank of the waterway, the eastern end of NY 204.
History
The portion of Brooks Avenue from Howard Road in Gates to Genesee Park Boulevard in Rochester was originally designated as part of NY 47 between 1935 and 1938. When NY 47 was rerouted to follow Beahan Road and Scottsville Road between Howard Road and Elmwood Avenue, the former alignment of NY 47 on Brooks Avenue and Genesee Park Boulevard was redesignated NY 33B. The NY 33B designation was removed and reapplied to a new highway in the Buffalo area. The portion of NY 33B west of the Rochester city line was redesignated as NY 204. To the west of Brooks Avenue, construction began in the mid-1960s on the Airport Expressway, a limited-access highway between I-490 and NY 33A near the Gates–Chili town line. The highway was opened to traffic and designated as an extension of NY 204 by 1968. In between the end of the expressway and Brooks Avenue, NY 204 overlapped with NY 33A. As planned, the Airport Expressway would be extended eastward along the Brooks Avenue corridor to meet theRochester Outer Loop just north of the then-Rochester–Monroe County Airport. On January 1, 1970, the NY 204 designation was officially extended eastward along the proposed highway; however, in the field, NY 204 remained routed on Chili and Brooks Avenues. The proposed extension of the Airport Expressway remained on maps as late as 1979; however, by 1981, the routing was demapped as the planned extension was cancelled after opposition from area residents. The intersection between the Airport Expressway and NY 33A was a stub half-interchange until 2001, and rebuilt as a traditional T-shaped intersection. The extension of NY 204 in Gates east of I-390 was removed from the state highway system by 2017.
