[6][7][8] At this point the highway exits the facility of JFK Airport and maintenance switches to the New York State Department of Transportation.

[9] After entering Jamaica, the Van Wyck crosses under a complex, two-level Long Island Rail Road structure with 13 tracks.

A short distance later, the highway approaches a large interchange with NY 25 (Queens Boulevard) and Main Street at exits 8–9.

Crossing through Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, I-678 continues northward until exit 12, where there are ramps to College Point Boulevard and the westbound Long Island Expressway (I-495).

A short distance later, the expressway crosses under Roosevelt Avenue and the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains) of the New York City Subway.

After crossing Roosevelt Avenue, I-678 passes Citi Field to the west, then intersects NY 25A (Northern Boulevard) and the Whitestone Expressway at the Flushing River Interchange, via exit 13.

I-678 passes over Linden Place, served by exit 14, and continues northeastward past the distribution center of The New York Times to the west.

After exit 17, which serves 3rd Avenue, the expressway passes over Francis Lewis Park and begins its approach onto the Whitestone Bridge over the East River.

[6][7] The bridge descends to ground level and I-678 passes through an open-road toll gantry,[7] which is located at the former site of a tollbooth.

North of Lafayette Avenue is the Bruckner Interchange, where I-678's designation ends and the highway continues northward as the Hutchinson River Parkway.

[6][7] In 1936, New York governor Herbert H. Lehman signed a bill that authorized the construction of the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, which would connect Queens and the Bronx.

The new highway was intended as a major thoroughfare to the World's Fair, which was hosted in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, near the Whitestone Parkway's southern end.

[4] The Van Wyck Expressway was to be built to higher standards than New York's parkways, as it was intended to handle truck traffic.

[29][30] The city had acquired 355 houses in the expressway's path,[30] and it ultimately relocated 263 households,[31][28] as well as the Van Wyck Avenue Congregational Church.

[37] One of the most complex aspects of the project was the replacement of an overpass carrying the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) near the Jamaica station.

[43] Later the same year, the Gull Construction Company was contracted to install "safety plantings" in the median, consisting of shrubs and trees, to separate the different directions of traffic.

[44] New York state officials announced in 1960 that they would install a Jersey barrier in the Van Wyck's median, replacing the plantings, which had not been effective in preventing crashes.

[28] The project included widening a segment of Grand Central Parkway between Horace Harding Boulevard (today's Long Island Expressway) and the Kew Gardens Interchange.

[56] The head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), Robert Moses, stated that the upgrade could start in 1960.

[58] In early 1959, Moses formally asked the United States Army Corps of Engineers for permission to close the existing Flushing River drawbridge permanently.

[57][59] Several boat operators initially opposed the plans—the bridges would be 40.8 feet (12.4 m) above mean high water, shorter than some of the vessels that used the creek—but they eventually withdrew their opposition.

[66][67] The new four-lane bridges over the Flushing River opened in June 1963; it temporarily carried two lanes in each direction until the old drawbridge was upgraded.

[72] The opening of the Jewel Avenue interchange had been delayed by six weeks after a major steel contractor had filed for bankruptcy during the project.

[64] City traffic commissioner Henry A. Barnes subsequently claimed that Moses had proposed the I-678 designation unilaterally.

[75][76] Early plans for I-678 had the highway following the Astoria Expressway, a proposed freeway that would run along the NY 25A corridor from I-278 to the Grand Central Parkway.

[79][80] In early 1988, both directions of the Whitestone Expressway near Northern Boulevard were temporarily closed because several girders in the southbound viaduct had corroded to the point that a structural failure was imminent.

[83][84] The Jamaica Branch of the AirTrain JFK people mover system was built within the median of the Van Wyck from Atlantic Avenue to the Belt Parkway.

[85][86]: 22  The fact that the Jamaica Branch had to be built in the middle of the Van Wyck Expressway, combined with the varying length and curves of the track spans, caused complications during construction.

At the Kew Gardens Interchange, the two-lane ramps between the Grand Central Parkway and the Van Wyck Expressway would be upgraded to three lanes in each direction.

[94][95] In October 2018, Cuomo released details of his $13-billion (equivalent to $15.5 billion in 2023[22]) plan to rebuild passenger facilities and approaches to JFK Airport.