Drury Lane, which divided the airport property from what is now Stewart State Forest, save for a small corridor along the road near the interstate, was long the line in the sand for local environmental activists who opposed any development to its west.

[2] Here it passes the western end of the airport's main runway, and sometimes large C-5 cargo planes from Stewart Air National Guard Base can be seen taking off right above the road.

The ramp from I-84 west to NY 747 goes over a small bridge built to protect the Catskill Aqueduct from the vibrations of passing trucks.

[2] The section of Stone Castle Road north of Route 17K has itself been slightly relocated to provide for a better location for the intersection, at which another traffic light was erected.

Despite this plan, a new Valero-branded convenience store and gas station has been opened at the current intersection of NY 17K and Drury Lane to take advantage of interstate traffic coming off the exit.

With supersonic transport (SST) considered at the time to be the next major development in air travel, Rockefeller wanted New York to have an airport that could handle both the SSTs and regular jets.

The former saw the recreational and conservation possibilities of keeping it a protected area; the latter pointed to ideal real estate in a region that was beginning to lose its job base.

On November 21, 2005, a compromise was reached in which most of the land that had not been designated as part of the state forest was and 400 acres (1.6 km2) near the exit was made available for development.

However, a federally required 1999 value engineering study recommended instead rerouting Drury to make a four-way intersection at Stone Castle Road and Route 17K.

[5] The project's design took into account several considerations for rare or endangered species native to the area, which earned it an Exemplary Ecosystem Initiative award from the Federal Highway Administration.

These included the construction of 12 vernal pools adjacent to the road to provide habitat for the Blue-spotted Salamander and Jefferson Salamander and box culverts to allow them to safely cross under the road, avoiding tree removal during the season when Indiana bats are roosting, and siting new wetlands to avoid impacting Purple milkweed.

The 1.25-mile (2.01 km) long east–west airport access road from Route 747 to the main terminal, International Boulevard, was opened on November 20, 2007, officially completing the $55 million project.