Appendix E of the 2008 New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) Traffic Data Report places the terminus at 8th Street in Troy, creating an overlap with NY 7 across the Hudson River via the Collar City Bridge.

[6][7] Contemporary maps of the Albany area also lack I-787 shields on the Collar City Bridge, signing the roadway only as NY 7.

[2][3] The portion of the highway between I-90 and NY 378 was completed by 1971;[12] the rest of I-787 south of 23rd Street in Watervliet was built and open to traffic by 1973.

[16] The Collar City Bridge over the Hudson River was built in 1981, connecting the preexisting ramps at exit 9 to downtown Troy.

On January 1, 1970, the I-787 designation was truncated westward to what is now exit 9 near Green Island while the then-proposed Collar City Bridge became (albeit on paper) part of I-88, a new highway extending from Binghamton to Troy by way of the Susquehanna Expressway and Alternate Route 7.

[29] In 2016, New York Assembly member Patricia Fahy advocated for I-787 to be demolished and to be replaced with an at-grade highway to improve traffic and access to the waterfront.

[31][32] In December 2019, Fahy "announced plans to introduce legislation calling for the state Department of Transportation to conduct an engineering feasibility study that would assess the replacement or modification of I-787 to provide greater access to Albany's waterfront and revitalize working class communities located along its route".

According to Fahy, "The Capital Region's greatest asset—access to the Hudson River waterfront—has been more or less absent from communities including downtown Albany since the late 1960s and early 1970s when I-787 went up [...].

The draft report set forth various recommendations for improvements to I-787, including "re-configuring some interchanges, making the waterfront more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians, converting from an expressway to a more traditional roadway, and pursuing strategies to reduce travel demand".

It also noted that the report did not recommend significant changes, such as making I-787 into an underground highway or removing it altogether; such ideas would be complicated by railroad tracks in the I-787 median and by the fact that I-787 is located in a flood plain.

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has continued to run studies and request public feedback for "Reimagine 787" project.