Old NJ-37 and NJ-38

[MaddogMicharski]

I'm wondering if anybody has any information on what NJ-37 and NJ-38 were supposed to look like before NJDOT decided to replace both freeways with I-195.

[roadman65]

http://www.phillyroads.com/roads/NJ-38/

[MaddogMicharski]

Do you know where I can find information about NJDOT's freeway plan in 1960?

[Alps]

Phillyroads or sister site nycroads.com should have it under Unbuilt Freeways somewhere. I can tell you that it was basically an X shape. 37 started where 195 meets 295 and draw a line to where it now meets 70. Similarly, connect the east end of 38 (the divided part, not the eastern leg that was 530 for awhile) to the west end of 138.

[NE2]

1968: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035770513&seq=51

[MaddogMicharski]

I have a theory that NJ-37 was intended to start at the White Horse Circle in Hamilton NJ (circled in red) and was going to start as a freeway at present-day Exit 2 with I-195 (circled in blue). I hold this belief because I heard from a Hamilton police officer that South Broad Street at the White Horse Circle used to be an unmarked state highway until the last few years.

[NE2]

I have a theory that NJ-37 was intended to start at the White Horse Circle in Hamilton NJ (circled in red) and was going to start as a freeway at present-day Exit 2 with I-195 (circled in blue). I hold this belief because I heard from a Hamilton police officer that South Broad Street at the White Horse Circle used to be an unmarked state highway until the last few years.

See the map I posted above. There were several short segments of 37. That one was probably taken over to improve the bridge: http://catalog.archives.gov/id/23853286 (sheet 2)

[roadman65]

There were old maps too that once showed Route 37 using overlaps with CR 524, CR 539, and NJ 70 to connect the Whitehorse Circle with the Lakehurst Circle. 


A mileage sign in Seaside Heights on Route 37 even used Trenton as final control city up until 1985.  So it makes one wonder if that was a failed proposal that engineees acted on with the mileage sign in Seaside Heights.

[Alps]

1968: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035770513&seq=51

So what do we think 821F represents? At one point the Driscoll Expressway was moved from its original intent (roughly along now NJ 18).

[NE2]

WTF 38 in 1972: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ien.35556021394556&seq=45

[jeffandnicole]

I have a theory that NJ-37 was intended to start at the White Horse Circle in Hamilton NJ (circled in red) and was going to start as a freeway at present-day Exit 2 with I-195 (circled in blue). I hold this belief because I heard from a Hamilton police officer that South Broad Street at the White Horse Circle used to be an unmarked state highway until the last few years.

That Hamilton Police Officer doesn't know what he's talking about, and maybe his judgement on his traffic stops should be called into question.  A simple GSV search from 2008 shows it was marked just as much then as it is now.

https://goo.gl/maps/o3QeCqqcrT8qb8537

https://goo.gl/maps/5EnG3fvoctVAZ6ow7

https://goo.gl/maps/ARKzqcpkxvCqNJju7

[Alps]

37 was built as a state highway but never signed as such. Its western pieces existed in the Straight Line Diagrams into the 1980s but it's definitely all county route now west of NJ 70 - albeit with a longish state maintained section of 524 at the I-295 interchange. ("NJ 524" was briefly in the SLDs to compensate.)

[MaddogMicharski]

There were old maps too that once showed Route 37 using overlaps with CR 524, CR 539, and NJ 70 to connect the Whitehorse Circle with the Lakehurst Circle. 


A mileage sign in Seaside Heights on Route 37 even used Trenton as final control city up until 1985.  So it makes one wonder if that was a failed proposal that engineees acted on with the mileage sign in Seaside Heights.

Have you seen any plans of NJ-37 when it was intended on being a freeway from Trenton to Seaside Heights?

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/EGJbuqUb88PWghH49
Carbon copied from old NJ 37 days when planned to go to Trenton in Seaside Heights.