New Jersey Route 3

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Route 3
Maintained by NJDOT
Length: 10.84 mi[1] (17.45 km)
Formed: 1927
West end: US 46 in Clifton
Major
junctions:		 GSP in Clifton
NJ 21 in Clifton
NJ 17 in Rutherford
NJ 120 in East Rutherford
I-95/NJTP in East Rutherford and Secaucus
NJ 495 in North Bergen
East end: US 1/9 in North Bergen
New Jersey State Highway Routes
< NJ 1 NJ 4 >
The New Jersey Turnpike near the offramp for NJ 495
The New Jersey Turnpike near the offramp for NJ 495

Route 3 is a state highway in northern New Jersey, extening 10.84 miles (17.45 km), connecting Hudson County and Passaic County in the west. Its western terminus is at an intersection with U.S. Route 46 in Clifton and its eastern terminus is at an intersection with U.S. Route 1/9 in North Bergen. Route 3 is sometimes called the Secaucus Bypass.

The road was the inspiration for a story in The New Yorker in 2004 by Ian Frazier.[2]

Contents

[edit] Route description

The beginning of Route 3 is a divided highway but not up to freeway standards, as there are a few businesses on this part of the roadway. Three miles further down, the road becomes a freeway, but does not meet Interstate Highway standards. The intent of this road is to lead towards the Lincoln Tunnel. From 1939 to 1959, NJ 3 extended east along Route 495; it was truncated back to its original terminus when the approach was redesignated Interstate 495 (now New Jersey Route 495) as a spur of Interstate 95.

The east end at US 1 and 9 was channelized and traffic lights were added in 1959; it had formerly been a circle.

There is a local-express lane configuration between the western spur of the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 495.

[edit] History

Prior to the 1953 renumbering, Route 3 ran from Paterson along today's Route 20, through Clifton, Passaic, Wallington, Carlstadt, and East Rutherford along local streets, and finally down Paterson Plank Road (part of which is today's Route 120). The current eastbound bridge over the Hackensack River was built in 1934; prior to this, the road followed Paterson Plank Road over a no-longer-existing bridge.

The section of what is now Route 3 from US 46 in Clifton to Route 120 in East Rutherford was built in the late 1940s and early 1950s and was originally designated Route S3 (indicating a spur of Route 3) until the 1953 renumbering, when Route 3 was shifted onto its current alignment. In 1942, a spur of this road in Clifton was commissioned, later labeled Route S3 Spur; this route was renumbered Route 161.

In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 3 in Secaucus was shifted off its original alignment on surface streets to the newly built Secaucus Bypass. The original alignment then became Route 153. Only the section west of Paterson Plank Road was state-maintained after the renumbering, and the entire route was decommissioned c. 1988.

In mid August 2007, the NJDOT announced that it would replace the Route 3 bridge over the Passaic River (which connects the City of Clifton to the Boro of Rutherford). This project is supposed to be completed by December 2007, at an estimated cost of $3.7 million. [3]

[edit] Exit list

County Location Mile[1] Destinations Notes
Passaic Clifton 0.00 US 46 west Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
0.00 Valley Road - Montclair, Paterson Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
0.51 Grove Street - Montclair, Paterson
1.26 Broad Street (CR 509) - Bloomfield, Paterson
1.44 GSP south
1.53 GSP north Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
2.64 Bloomfield Avenue - Bloomfield, Passaic
3.41 NJ 7 (Passaic Avenue) – Nutley, Passaic
3.82 Main Avenue - Nutley, Passaic
4.89 NJ 21 – Newark, Passaic
Bergen Rutherford 5.01 CR 507 (Riverside Avenue) / Park Avenue
5.67 NJ 17 south (Ridge Road) / Park Avenue
6.36-
6.39		 NJ 17 / Service Road – Lyndhurst, Rutherford
East Rutherford 6.96 Meadowlands Sports Complex: Racetrack, Stadium
7.58 NJTP (I-95)
7.96 NJ 120 north – East Rutherford
Hudson Secaucus 8.60 Meadowlands Parkway
9.12 Secaucus (Paterson Plank Road)
9.89 Harmon Meadow Boulevard Access to westbound exit is from NJ 495 only
10.04 North Bergen (Paterson Plank Road) Access to westbound exit is from NJ 495 only
North Bergen 10.46 NJTP (I-95)
10.50 NJ 495 east / Kennedy Boulevard (CR 501) – Lincoln Tunnel No eastbound entrance (NJ-3 becomes NJ-495 after US-1&9 exit; leading to the Lincoln Tunnel to New York City)
10.84 US 1-9 – Jersey City Eastbound exit and westbound entrance

[edit] Related routes

There are two former spurs of Route 3:

  • Route S3, now a section of Route 3
  • Route S3 Spur, now Route 161

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b New Jersey Department of Transportation. Route 3 straight line diagram. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
  2. ^ "Route 3: What I saw on the road through New Jersey" by Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, February 16, 2004
  3. ^ "NJDOT announces bridge deck replacement on Route 3 Bridge over the Passaic River", New Jersey Department of Transportation press release, dated August 16, 2007. Accessed September 25, 2007.

[edit] External links