Interstate 280 (New Jersey)

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Interstate 280
Length: 17.85 mi[1] (28.73 km)
Formed: 1958
West end: I-80 in Parsippany-Troy Hills
Major
junctions:		 GSP in East Orange
NJ 21 in Newark
East end: I-95 (NJTP) in Kearny
New Jersey State Highway Routes
< I-278 NJ 284 >

Interstate 280 (abbreviated I-280) is a 17.85-mile (28.73 km) Interstate Highway, providing a spur from Interstate 80 to Newark, New Jersey and Interstate 95 (the New Jersey Turnpike) and towards the Holland Tunnel to New York City. It includes a lift bridge, the William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge over the Passaic River. The highway is sometimes called the Essex Freeway.

Contents

[edit] Major cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

[edit] Route description

I-280 begins at Interstate 80 in Parsippany-Troy Hills Township and heads southeast, passing through First Watchung Mountain in a cut. The terrain becomes urban soon after exit 10, when it enters Orange, where I-280 is depressed with frequent overpasses. After a full interchange with the Garden State Parkway and the border with Newark, three of the five lanes in each direction are dropped at exit 13, a left-side exit and entrance. The exit, built for a connection to the never-built Route 75, once had stubs from the unbuilt connection, but has been reconfigured with a simple T intersection at First Street.

I-280 eastbound heads up and over the exit 13 ramps, rejoining the westbound lanes on a bridge over First Street, Orange Street and the Newark City Subway. As the road returns to surface level, and begins to parallel the New Jersey Transit Morristown Line (former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad main line) to the north, an unused bridge carries the western end of the 1954 section of freeway over the railroad to Orange Street east of Duryea Street. I-280 passes under Clifton Avenue and Nesbitt Avenue before rising again to pass over High Street, Broad Street and Route 21. Just after a complicated interchange with Route 21, I-280 crosses the Passaic River on the six-lane William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge, a lift bridge opened in 1949, into Harrison.

I-280 continues to run just north of the railroad through Harrison, splitting off to the northeast near the Kearny town line. After the final interchange, exit 17 for County Route 508, which provides access to the Holland Tunnel via Route 7, U.S. Route 1-9 Truck and Route 139, I-280 ends at the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) at exit 15W. Full access is provided with the Western Spur, which carries through I-95 traffic; ramps to and from the north on the Eastern Spur allow for access to the Lincoln Tunnel via Route 495.

[edit] History

1955 map, showing the planned Interstate Highway along Route 3
Enlarge
1955 map, showing the planned Interstate Highway along Route 3

The first part of I-280 to be built was the William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge and approaches. Route 25A was legislated in 1939 and amended in 1945 as a branch of Route 25 (U.S. Route 1/U.S. Route 9) from Jersey City west through Kearny and Harrison across the Passaic River and into Newark, connecting with Route 21 and Clifton Avenue. The bridge opened in 1949, with approaches stretching east to Harrison Avenue (now County Route 508) in Harrison (crossing Cleveland Avenue and Hamilton Street at-grade) and west beyond Route 21 to Broad Street.

Route 25A was redesignated as Route 58 in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, and the next year an extension opened west beyond Clifton Avenue to Orange Street east of Duryea Street (where there is now an unused stub).

During planning for the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, the Bureau of Public Roads proposed an Interstate Highway along Route 3, to the north of Newark. The New Jersey State Highway Department countered with the proposed Essex Freeway, which would run from Interstate 80 to Interstate 95 via the existing Route 58, saying that the Route 3 corridor "does not meet Interstate standards, and cannot be economically converted to such standards." Interstate 280 was chosen for the freeway in 1958.

[edit] Construction Issues

Construction progressed slowly, starting in 1960 near Orange and fully opening west from Newark in 1973. The road east from Newark to the Turnpike was completed in 1980, at which time a median barrier was installed on the Stickel Bridge.

It should be noted that due to the 6% grade (maximum allowable on interstate highways) between Exits 8 and 9 that a tunnel had initially been considered in order to lessen the grade, although the expense of such a project caused this alternative to be rejected. Nevertheless, this section continues to be an operational headache due to the grade (especially eastbound) and the high rock walls that surround the highway at this point. Interestingly, much of the material that was excavated from this section and east was removed via a temporary rail line that was built in the center of the right-of-way.

Other issues that complicated the building of the route, and which have not yet to this day resolved, include the sociological impact of entire neighborhoods in Orange and East Orange (where the right-of-way parallels what is now New Jersey Transit's Morris and Essex Lines, as well as the changes brought on by creating a wide corridor consisting of multiple roadways paralleling each another together with a major commuter railroad.

[edit] Exit list

Shields are shown at intersections with other Interstates.

# Mile Municipality Destinations Notes
0.00 Parsippany-Troy Hills Twp Interstate 80 west - Dover/Delaware Water Gap I-280 west feeds into I-80 west; I-280 east splits from I-80 east
0.00 Parsippany-Troy Hills Twp Interstate 287 to U.S. Route 46 - Mahwah/Morristown westbound exit and eastbound entrance; via the local lanes of I-80
1 1.55 Parsippany-Troy Hills Twp To U.S. Route 46 - Edwards Road/New Road Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
4 3.87 Boro of Roseland Eisenhower Parkway split into 4A and 4B
5 4.95 Roseland County Route 527 - Livingston/The Caldwells split into 5A and 5B
6 6.22 Livingston Twp Laurel Avenue split into 6A and 6B westbound
7 7.49 Twp of West Orange County Route 636, Pleasant Valley Way - Millburn/Verona
8 8.23 West Orange Twp County Route 577/Prospect Avenue - West Orange/Cedar Grove split into 8A and 8B
9 9.64 West Orange Township County Route 660, Mount Pleasant Avenue - West Orange/Montclair eastbound exit and westbound entrance
10 9.91 West Orange Twp County Route 508 - West Orange/South Orange/Montclair westbound exit and eastbound entrance
11 10.61 City of Orange Center Street - Orange - South Orange eastbound exit and westbound entrance
11B 10.80 City of Orange Day Street/Essex Avenue - Orange westbound exit only
12A 11.48 City of East Orange Harrison Street/Clinton Street - East Orange no westbound entrance
12B 12.32 City of East Orange Garden State Parkway/Oraton Parkway Toll gate at exit (for GSP)
13 13.40 City of Newark First Street - Branch Brook Park/UMDNJ/NJIT eastbound exit and westbound entrance; originally built for the proposed Route 75 freeway
13 13.18 City of Newark Orange Street/6th Street - UMDNJ westbound exit and eastbound entrance
14A 13.74 City of Newark Clifton Avenue no eastbound exit
14 14.11 City of Newark Martin Luther King Boulevard - Broad Street Station/Rutgers University/NJIT/Essex County College no entrance ramps; exit 14B westbound
15 14.42 City of Newark Route 21 south - Downtown/Ironbound eastbound exit only
15 14.42 Town of Harrison Route 21 - Newark/Belleville westbound exit and eastbound entrance
16 14.92 Town of Kearny County Route 508 – Harrison/Newark
17 16.86 Town of Kearny County Route 508 - Jersey City/Kearny split into 17A and 17B
n/a 17.05 Town of Kearny Toll Gate (New Jersey Turnpike Exit 15W)
18 17.25 Town of Kearny Interstate 95 south - New Jersey Turnpike south (Western Spur eastbound exit and westbound entrance
18 17.25 Town of Kearny Interstate 95 north - New Jersey Turnpike north to U.S. Route 46/Interstate 80 (Western Spur) eastbound exit and westbound entrance
18 17.85 Town of Kearny Lincoln Tunnel (New Jersey Turnpike Eastern Spur) eastbound exit and westbound entrance

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Interstate 280 straight line diagram (PDF)

[edit] External links

 Auxiliary routes of Interstate 80
I-180 Illinois - Nebraska - Pennsylvania - Wyoming
I-280 California - Illinois/Iowa - New Jersey - Ohio
I-380 California - Iowa - Pennsylvania
I-480 Iowa/Nebraska - Ohio
I-580 California - Nevada
I-680 California - Iowa/Nebraska - Ohio
I-780 California
I-880 California
I-980 California
past/
future		 I-180: California - Pennsylvania - I-280: Iowa/Nebraska - Pennsylvania - I-480: California - Pennsylvania - I-580: Nebraska - I-680: Pennsylvania
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