INTERSTATE 95 IN NEW JERSEY

'Interstate 95' is a major Interstate Highway that traverses the full extent of the East Coast of the United States, from Maine to Florida. In the state of New Jersey, it runs along much of the main line of the New Jersey Turnpike, as well as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Extension (formerly known as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Connector) and the Turnpike's northern continuation to the George Washington Bridge, also maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, for a total of 77.96 miles (125.46 km), accounting for less than 5% out of the 1,927 mi (3,101 km) length of the entire highway. The 11.03-mile (17.75 km) Western Spur of the Turnpike, considered to be 'Route 95W' by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, is also part of I-95. However, traffic is normally directed to take the Western Spur as opposed to the slightly longer 11.4-mile (18.3 km) section of the older main line.

Contents

The I-95 gap

Major cities

Spur routes

History

Exit list

Trenton segment

Main segment

References

External links

The I-95 gap

I-95 is the only long-distance Interstate in the original plans that is not yet completed. A discontinuity exists between two separate sections in New Jersey.
Interstate 95 crosses the Hudson River via the George Washington Bridge from New York City, entering New Jersey in Fort Lee. A few miles later, Interstate 80 begins in Teaneck and heads west. Interstate 95 continues its south-west bound course, running concurrent to the New Jersey Turnpike. However, the signage of the Turnpike as I-95 only extends south to Exit 6.
Northbound from Delaware, I-95 runs through Philadelphia and loops around Trenton, where the signage changes to I-295 and the road turns back southwards. This section of I-95 is more than 10 miles away from the Turnpike-concurrent section. Thus it is not possible to directly travel the entire length of I-95 without interruption.
For traffic running north-south along the Atlantic seaboard bypassing Philadelphia, the discontinuous sections are linked by the remainder of the New Jersey Turnpike (and I-295 over the Delaware Memorial Bridge). Southbound I-95 traffic headed to Delaware is directed to continue south on the Turnpike and use the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Traffic headed to Philadelphia or the Pennsylvania section of I-95 is instructed to use Exit 7A to I-195. The same is done in reverse: through traffic on I-95 near Wilmington, Delaware is pointed to New York City via the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the entire Turnpike; traffic from Pennsylvania and Trenton is directed via I-295 and I-195.
The discontinuity is due to the cancellation of the Somerset Freeway in New Jersey. Once the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project in Bristol Township, PA is completed around 2010 (junction with Interstate 276), I-95 will finally be completed and the stray section of I-95 in Bucks County, PA and Mercer County, NJ connecting to northernmost end of I-295 in Lawrence Township, NJ (where the direction changes from north to south) will be re-numbered as an extension of I-195. I-95 north in Bucks County, PA and Mercer County, NJ will combine with I-295 south in Mercer County, NJ (up to the current I-295 / US 1 interchange) to become part of I-195 east (and vice versa). (There has been talk about extending 195 south of US 1 to 295's Exit 60 (Route 29/I-195). However, it is not definite that this will happen yet.) Changing the direction to east/west will eliminate the confusion of the road currently changing directions from north/south in Lawrence Township, NJ.
Originally, Interstate 95 was supposed to separate from the New Jersey Turnpike in Edison at the Interstate 287 interchange, where the route would then continue parallel to US 1, continuing into Mercer County in Hopewell Township and then entering Pennsylvania. However, environmental concerns, as well as other conflicts, prevented this stretch from being built. This connection would have been known as the Somerset Freeway, and was cancelled in 1982. Interstate 95 between the townline for Ewing, NJ and Lower Makefield, PA to the interchange with US 1 and I-295 in Lawrence Township is sometimes called the ''Scudder Falls Freeway'' or the ''Delaware Expressway.'' At the present time, the NJDOT has numbered I-95 (8.8 miles north of Trenton) as 'Route 95M'.
In 1985, it was proposed to finally complete I-95 by constructing an interchange in Bucks County, Pennsylvania between the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 276 and Interstate 95. This would allow Interstate 95 to continue eastbound from there to the New Jersey Turnpike, finally joining the two sections. This is referred to as the 'Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project'. In anticipation of the project, the northern section of I-95 was extended down the New Jersey Turnpike to Exit 6, and along the Pearl Harbor Memorial Extension to the Pennsylvania state line on the Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge, where it becomes Interstate 276. Despite this legislative extension, the Pearl Harbor Memorial Extension is not signed as I-95, as it does not yet connect to I-95 in Pennsylvania; the mainline of the New Jersey Turnpike only received I-95 signage in 1997.

Major cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

★ 'Philadelphia, Pennsylvania'

★ 'Trenton'

★ New Brunswick

★ Newark

★ Jersey City

★ 'New York, New York'

Spur routes

★ Interstate 195 begins at I-295 southeast of Trenton, New Jersey and runs east, crossing I-95 (the New Jersey Turnpike) at exit 7A, and continuing to Route 34 near Belmar. Its main purpose is a route to the Jersey Shore.

★ Interstate 295 begins at I-95 south of Wilmington, Delaware and crosses the Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey. It then parallels the Turnpike, crossing I-95 without an interchange near Burlington. Southeast of Trenton, New Jersey it intersects with I-195, and then continues to end at U.S. Route 1 northeast of Trenton, where the Mercer County section of I-95 presently ends.

★ Interstate 495 was assigned to what is now NJ 495, a spur from the New Jersey Turnpike at exit 16E east to the Lincoln Tunnel. It was renumbered because the Mid-Manhattan Expressway across Manhattan, which would have connected to New York's Interstate 495, was cancelled.

★ Interstate 695 was to be a short connection between the Somerset Freeway and Interstate 287 northwest of New Brunswick.

★ Interstate 895 would have provided a freeway between I-295 near Burlington and I-95 near Bristol, Pennsylvania, replacing the Burlington-Bristol Bridge. This would have completed the partial beltway around Trenton, New Jersey formed by I-95 and I-295.

History

The New Jersey State Highway Department proposed 'Federal Aid Interstate Route 103' in 1956, and it was approved in 1957 by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR). At that time, the New Jersey Turnpike (main line and Pennsylvania Extension) and George Washington Bridge had been completed; U.S. Route 46 connected the north end of the Turnpike to the bridge. The BPR approved the planned alignment north of the Trenton area, which would have run generally northeast to exit 8 (Route 18) of the Turnpike. From there it would use the Turnpike to its north end (exit 18, US 46) and a proposed freeway north to the planned Interstate 80, then head east to the George Washington Bridge. The road was designated as part of Interstate 95 in 1959.
However, the location in the Trenton area had not been finalized. The BPR preferred using the Trenton Freeway (US 1 and Route 174), which was completed to Whitehead Road, but New Jersey and Pennsylvania proposed using the Scudders Falls Bridge and its approach (Route 129), opened in 1961 to Scotch Road (exit 3), due in part to low design standards of the Trenton Freeway.
A new plan was approved by the BPR in March 1964, running further west in and north of the Trenton area. From Pennsylvania it would use the Scudders Falls Bridge, continuing northeast on what was called the Somerset Freeway to the planned Interstate 287 near present exit 4 (Durham Avenue), and then running east on I-287 to the Turnpike at exit 10. A completely free alignment into North Jersey, closely paralleling the Turnpike, was denied by the BPR. That same year, the first new section of I-95 opened as part of the Interstate 80 project, from I-80 east to the bridge, though it did not form part of the through route until the connection from the Turnpike opened in 1971. The Western Spur of the Turnpike opened in 1970, providing an alternate route north of Newark.
The approach to the Scudder Falls Bridge was extended in 1974, northeast to the planned interchange with the Somerset Freeway, and then east to US 1 as Interstate 295.
The Somerset Freeway was opposed locally, and in December 1982 the United States Senate cancelled it. I-95 would continue south over the New Jersey Turnpike and its Pennsylvania Extension, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project would connect it to Pennsylvania's section of I-95. In 1995, the I-95 designation was extended north (compass east) along I-295 north of Trenton to US 1, where I-295 now begins.
In 1992 the New Jersey Department of Transportation transferred the section of I-95 north of the Turnpike to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

Exit list

Trenton segment

''This segment will no longer be part of I-95 when the Pennsylvania Turnpike Interchange Project is completed.''

Exit #	Mile	Municipality	Destinations	Notes
I-95 continues into Pennsylvania on the Scudder Falls Bridge
1	0.07	Ewing Township	NJ 29 – Trenton/Lambertville
2	1.56	Ewing Township	CR 579 – West Trenton/Trenton-Mercer Airport
3	2.83	Hopewell Township (Mercer County)	Scotch Road	split into exits 3A and 3B northbound
4	4.24	Hopewell Township (Mercer County)	NJ 31 – Ewing Twp/Pennington	formerly split into exits 4A and 4B northbound
5	5.64	Lawrence Township (Mercer County)	Federal City Road	southbound only; split into exits 5A and 5B; originally I-295 exit 71
7	7.11	Lawrence Twp	US 206 - Trenton/Lawrenceville/Princeton	split into exits 7A and 7B; originally I-295 exit 69
8	8.12	Lawrence Twp (Mercer County)	CR 583 – Princeton Pike	split into exits 8A and 8B; originally I-295 exit 68; northbound exit 8A is CR 546 east to CR 583 south
67	8.93	Lawrence Township	US 1 - New Brunswick/Trenton	split into exits 67A and 67B southbound (northbound I-295)
End Interstate 95 at Junction U.S. 1 Continues as I-295

Main segment

''This segment does not yet connect to I-95 in Pennsylvania and points south, and is only signed as I-95 north of Exit 6.''

Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
Florence Twp	2.61
Mansfield Township	6.55		, Delaware	South end of NJTP overlap
See New Jersey Turnpike
Village of Ridgefield Park		68		Exit number only signed southbound
	72.31	68	Challenger Road	Southbound exit is part of exit 68 (US 46); former exit 68A
South end of the split into express (upper) and local (lower) lanes
Teaneck Township	73.59	69		Exit number only signed southbound
	74.1	70	Leonia, Teaneck	Signed as exits 70A (Leonia) and 70B (Teaneck) northbound
Boro of Leonia		71	Broad Avenue - Leonia, Englewood	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
Boro of Fort Lee	76.2-76.53	72A		Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		72B		South end of US 1-9/US 46 overlap; southbound exit and northbound entrance
		72		Signed as exit 73-74 southbound
		73		Southbound exit and northbound entrance are on the express lanes only
		74		Southbound exit and northbound entrance (express lanes only)
	George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River

References

1. Interstate 95 straight line diagram New Jersey Department of Transportation
2. Interstate 95M straight line diagram New Jersey Department of Transportation

External links

★ I-95, N.J. Turnpike - West Alignment straight line diagram (PDF)

★ An enlarged view of road jurisdiction at the Fort Lee approaches to the George Washington Bridge

★ An enlarged view of road jurisdiction at the confluence of 95M, NJ 29 and NJ 175 in Ewing Township

★ History of the Interstate 95 "Missing Link" of central New Jersey

★ The Roads of Metro New York - New Jersey Turnpike (I-95)

★ The Roads of Metro New York - Interstate 95 (Trenton Section)

★ Speed Limits for New Jersey State Roads: Interstate 95