Garden State Parkway

[NJRoadfan]

They haven't changed the names of the other service plazas yet.

In other news, if you are traveling in the area, avoid the GSP northbound in Union County. A new construction pattern at Exit 140 (US-22) has been causing a bit of chaos. There are only 3 thru lanes at the moment as opposed to 4. The 5th lane just vanishes north of Exit 138 and the 4th lane quickly because an exit only lane for Exits 139 and 140. Southbound isn't much better, but doesn't have the awkward lane drops.

[roadman65]

https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/uploads/comm/pubmeet/details/Handbook_20210610_113045_2021-05-24RT22-82-GSP-FD-ReforestPICFlyer.pdf

Is this part of this project on US 22?

[NJRoadfan]

Separate project that they just started on top of the GSP work.

[Alps]

Separate project that they just started on top of the GSP work.

Definitely doesn't help to have two simultaneous projects. I just went through there. GSP SB down to 4 lanes after 78 then drops to 3 with no warning, no signage. Really dangerous. Then 22 gets 2 lanes coming back in to restore 5, so people in the know will dump onto 22, weave across lanes, and back on. Let me just say I'm not a fan.

[roadman65]

Separate project that they just started on top of the GSP work.

I understand from NJDOT info documents, that the U Turn ramp that carries 4 movements of the complex GSP/US 22/ NJ 82 (Morris Avenue) exchange is being removed.  The ramp between the EB lanes and WB lanes east of Route 82 are being removed.  It did not say much else, but that will create chaos as the ramp is used not only to make a u turn, but to carry traffic from NJ 82 West to US 22 West as well as provide the missing movements between the N Bound Parkway to US 22 W Bound, and from US 22 E Bound to the Parkway South as well as to NJ 82 W Bound and Union Center.

The document makes it sound like more ramps to US 22 will be added from Morris Avenue, however many homes line the west end of the interchange and to add even a loop ramp would require acquisition of 70 year old homes off Morris Avenue.

Does anyone know the plans?  I tried to find a sheet with designs, but NJDOT is hard to navigate.

[Alps]

Separate project that they just started on top of the GSP work.

I understand from NJDOT info documents, that the U Turn ramp that carries 4 movements of the complex GSP/US 22/ NJ 82 (Morris Avenue) exchange is being removed.  The ramp between the EB lanes and WB lanes east of Route 82 are being removed.  It did not say much else, but that will create chaos as the ramp is used not only to make a u turn, but to carry traffic from NJ 82 West to US 22 West as well as provide the missing movements between the N Bound Parkway to US 22 W Bound, and from US 22 E Bound to the Parkway South as well as to NJ 82 W Bound and Union Center.

The document makes it sound like more ramps to US 22 will be added from Morris Avenue, however many homes line the west end of the interchange and to add even a loop ramp would require acquisition of 70 year old homes off Morris Avenue.

Does anyone know the plans?  I tried to find a sheet with designs, but NJDOT is hard to navigate.

I know the plans, but I can't share them because I'm on the other side of them (designer). AFAIK homes are not being removed. And the only movement that is being removed, I believe, is the actual U-turn from 22E-22W.

[roadman65]

It will be then interesting as it unfolds.

I see the Parkway itself is redoing three bridges as they are from 1948 era.  The two over Route 22 and the one over Morris Avenue need new decks and that is why the lane shifts presently.  According to GSV, the SB Roadway over NJ 82 (from the view of the piers) seems to suggest that span predated the Parkway and probably might of carried US 22 over the local roadway before the Parkway was built.

Edit: The 1931 aerial shows it wasn't as US 22 crossed Route 82 in between the Parkway and current US 22 EB.   That might of been the original part of that bridge where the NB Parkway was redone later along with the extended US 22 EB to Parkway NB project. Originally the ramp was shorter and merged into the freeway before NJ 82.  I remember now them extending that ramp in the late seventies. They most likely replaced the original NB part of that bridge with that particular project.

[Alps]

It will be then interesting as it unfolds.

I see the Parkway itself is redoing three bridges as they are from 1948 era.  The two over Route 22 and the one over Morris Avenue need new decks and that is why the lane shifts presently.  According to GSV, the SB Roadway over NJ 82 (from the view of the piers) seems to suggest that span predated the Parkway and probably might of carried US 22 over the local roadway before the Parkway was built.

Edit: The 1931 aerial shows it wasn't as US 22 crossed Route 82 in between the Parkway and current US 22 EB.   That might of been the original part of that bridge where the NB Parkway was redone later along with the extended US 22 EB to Parkway NB project. Originally the ramp was shorter and merged into the freeway before NJ 82.  I remember now them extending that ramp in the late seventies. They most likely replaced the original NB part of that bridge with that particular project.

This interchange (Parkway-22-82) was originally built in the 1940s, so you'd need the 1953 aerial in Historic Aerials to see what was there at that time.

[Rothman]

Separate project that they just started on top of the GSP work.

I understand from NJDOT info documents, that the U Turn ramp that carries 4 movements of the complex GSP/US 22/ NJ 82 (Morris Avenue) exchange is being removed.  The ramp between the EB lanes and WB lanes east of Route 82 are being removed.  It did not say much else, but that will create chaos as the ramp is used not only to make a u turn, but to carry traffic from NJ 82 West to US 22 West as well as provide the missing movements between the N Bound Parkway to US 22 W Bound, and from US 22 E Bound to the Parkway South as well as to NJ 82 W Bound and Union Center.

The document makes it sound like more ramps to US 22 will be added from Morris Avenue, however many homes line the west end of the interchange and to add even a loop ramp would require acquisition of 70 year old homes off Morris Avenue.

Does anyone know the plans?  I tried to find a sheet with designs, but NJDOT is hard to navigate.

I know the plans, but I can't share them because I'm on the other side of them (designer). AFAIK homes are not being removed. And the only movement that is being removed, I believe, is the actual U-turn from 22E-22W.

Where does the project stand in the design process?

[storm2k]

Separate project that they just started on top of the GSP work.

I understand from NJDOT info documents, that the U Turn ramp that carries 4 movements of the complex GSP/US 22/ NJ 82 (Morris Avenue) exchange is being removed.  The ramp between the EB lanes and WB lanes east of Route 82 are being removed.  It did not say much else, but that will create chaos as the ramp is used not only to make a u turn, but to carry traffic from NJ 82 West to US 22 West as well as provide the missing movements between the N Bound Parkway to US 22 W Bound, and from US 22 E Bound to the Parkway South as well as to NJ 82 W Bound and Union Center.

The document makes it sound like more ramps to US 22 will be added from Morris Avenue, however many homes line the west end of the interchange and to add even a loop ramp would require acquisition of 70 year old homes off Morris Avenue.

Does anyone know the plans?  I tried to find a sheet with designs, but NJDOT is hard to navigate.

The easiest way that I see is for them to add an onramp via Ingersall Terrace, where the current offramp from 22 West to 82 East which would put in the last missing movement (there is the loop ramp from 82 East to 22 East already, and for 82 West, you can get to both sides of 22 from the current ramp using the turnaround. If you eliminate the u-turn there, you could just signalize the intersection and restripe a left turn lane in there.

The big thing that the NJTA and NJDOT should really work to fix is the super close together ramps at 140B and 140A. Honestly, if they signalize that 82/Ingersall intersection and repave Ingsersall, just eliminate the 140A ramp and the lefthand ramp from 22 and have the current ramp onto Ingserall that's for 82 east be for both directions.

[roadman65]

I think that the EB ramp from US 22 to NJ 82 East will be converted to a signalized intersection to allow left turns. I think only the left turn access  from US 22 will bee eliminated as the project document says via NJ 82. I doubt they are going to make the Lowe's Jughandle part of that even though a third lane is being built on NJ 82 from ramp to the jughandle.

I think NJ 82 will still have access to the u turn. Probably the safety issue is with the left exit and NJ 82 merging.  The u turn ramp does have a continuous lane so no safety issue with US 22 west merger.

Plus even if you add the missing movement on Ingersoll you still won't have access to the GSP southbound.   Though you would finally allow access from NJ 82 East to US 22 West, a movement missing for many decades, you won't have access to the GSP SB from NJ 82.

Then another two movements from EB NJ 82 that are de facto via Elmwood, Stuyvesant, and Chestnut are from EB NJ 82 to both directions of the Parkway, are still not addressed as no direct access to the Parkway there.  That is why 139 has a northbound on ramp to the NB Parkway but has no SB off, as that was for Morris Avenue traffic to use via shields on EB NJ 82 at the Elmwood Avenue split and at the end of Elmwood at Stuyvesant Avenue.

The problem is there currently is no room or easy way to redo the Parkway/US 22/ NJ 82 interchange without major shifting and underpass replacements. In a perfect world you could have a SPUI just for the Parkway and NJ 82 and leave the connections to NJ 82 from US 22 as is EB and add a ramp to Ingersoll as well as a signal to Ingersoll/ NJ 82. Also sign Vauxhall Road exit for US 22 East on the GSP south as it once was originally. I don't know why it was changed to begin with unless there wastoo much ramp back ups before the traffic signal was added to Exit 141. However, now with the signal there it shouldn't be a problem.

I lived in NJ 25 years, we managed to put up with missing moves or tedious u turns as a way of life. However times have changed and so have driving habits and traffic too.

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/jWNd5jkcp4TheBoL7

The date stamped on the US 22 Eastbound Bridge is 1952.

[NJRoadfan]

The original 1950s concrete and curbing is still on US-22 eastbound. Westbound still has the curbing.

[Alps]

To try to shut down all this speculation: The simplest explanation is the best. If they're adding a lane from the 22E ramp to the Lowe's jughandle, what's the simplest explanation for rerouting U-turn traffic? If the only movement being closed is the U-turn, what's the simplest way to access 22W? KISS.

[roadman65]

To try to shut down all this speculation: The simplest explanation is the best. If they're adding a lane from the 22E ramp to the Lowe's jughandle, what's the simplest explanation for rerouting U-turn traffic? If the only movement being closed is the U-turn, what's the simplest way to access 22W? KISS.

Cut through Lowe's jughandle and double back.  That means the ramp from Morris Avenue to US 22WB won't be removed. Only the left ramp from EB US 22 is being efffected.

[SignBridge]

I've been studying the new MUTCD signage on the northern half of the Parkway and I've noticed a puzzling pattern in the design. At each exit the sign with the upward arrow, normally slanted to the right (called the exit direction sign in the MUTCD) is positioned differently than the Manual recommends and is contrary to normal practice.

The Manual suggests this sign be at the beginning of the deceleration lane. Or where there is no deceleration lane or a short (less than 300 ft) tapered lane, it should be overhead in the vicinity of the painted split. But the NJTA has placed most of them overhead at the split or just before it, even where there is a very long deceleration lane, that now has no sign just before it.

So now as you approach an exit you have the advance sign(s) a half mile or more before the exit and then the deceleration lane begins with no sign where there should be one. And finally the sign with the arrow is right at the split, along with the ground-mounted exit number/arrow sign on the split itself.

Does anyone know why NJTA set it up this way? I've never seen this done anywhere else, except on the NJ Turnpike, but they often have a quarter-mile sign just before the deceleration lane which the Parkway does not have.

[D-Dey65]

I was just checking the toll calculator for GSP between NJ 17 and the New York State Line, and to my surprise it said I don't pay a cent!

That doesn't seem right.

[jeffandnicole]

I was just checking the toll calculator for GSP between NJ 17 and the New York State Line, and to my surprise it said I don't pay a cent!

That doesn't seem right.

The only mainline toll in that area is a one-way toll Southbound.

[02 Park Ave]

I was just checking the toll calculator for GSP between NJ 17 and the New York State Line, and to my surprise it said I don't pay a cent!

That doesn't seem right.

However, if you entered the Parkway from NJ 17, drove about a mile to the first exit, and then got off you would pay a toll whilst not doing that but continuing north you would not pay a toll at any exit.

Hopefully when they go to electronic tolling these inconsistencies will be corrected.

[Alps]

I was just checking the toll calculator for GSP between NJ 17 and the New York State Line, and to my surprise it said I don't pay a cent!

That doesn't seem right.

However, if you entered the Parkway from NJ 17, drove about a mile to the first exit, and then got off you would pay a toll whilst not doing that but continuing north you would not pay a toll at any exit.

Hopefully when they go to electronic tolling these inconsistencies will be corrected.

So far they've corrected one - removed half the toll at Exit 145 (I-280).

[NJRoadfan]

Looks like the GSP is being converted to MUTCD style tenth mile markers. The northbound side from MP 0 to MP 16 is all done. It becomes sporadic north of there. They are not enhanced TMMs, but style D10-1a.

https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/fig2h_03_longdesc.htm

[roadman65]

I will sure miss those as they were neat. The Turnpike has them too, and used to use the tenth mile marker at the whole number with zero instead of 1-9.  Now the NJTA for the Turnpike uses horizontal whole mile markers ( at least what I’ve seen on GSV) like the Parkway uses. Wonder if the Turnpike will switch?

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/pAdwGjw7WFLrvZWJ8

Why did the NJTA remove the standard MUTCD exit tabs from overhead guides for the PNC Bank Arts Center Exits but reverted back to the original parkway exit tabs on the gore signs?

[storm2k]

I will sure miss those as they were neat. The Turnpike has them too, and used to use the tenth mile marker at the whole number with zero instead of 1-9.  Now the NJTA for the Turnpike uses horizontal whole mile markers ( at least what I've seen on GSV) like the Parkway uses. Wonder if the Turnpike will switch?

They have already started. I'm not sure what the pattern will be for them, if it's just overall project work or if it will be tied to putting up new signs in various sections, but the process to convert is slowly underway.

[NJRoadfan]

They are replacing mileposts that are attached to other signs (like speed limit signs) first. The standalone ones are done last as they appear to be replacing the posts too. Don't know why they aren't using enhanced markers like NJDOT.