New Jersey

[webny99]

So apparently a tweet counts as sufficient notification that a major interstate link is closed.  A tweet.  Seriously?  Are drivers supposed to use Twitter while behind the wheel?  If one wasn't using Twitter, there was NO warning of this prior to encountering the cones blocking off the road at NJ 208.  There was a VMS just a mile away, but it was displaying a message about US 202 being closed (which turned out not to be the case, thankfully).  ...

Wow. I was going to say that wouldn't happen in NY, but then again, NYSDOT has gotten a lot better in recent years, both with installing more VMS's and keeping them updated with relevant incident/closure and/or construction info. The ones on NY 590 have even been programmed to warn drivers about intermittent lane closures for shoulder tree work the last few weeks.

In this case though, the US 202 thing is a weird complicating factor, and obviously US 202 and I-287 both being closed would be the nightmare scenario for thru traffic. Where was the supposed closure on US 202?  This might be a bit of a stretch, but I'm wondering if something changed with US 202 because of the I-287 closure (either it was reopened or the closure was postponed), and the VMS's never got updated.

[jeffandnicole]

At least on 295, the VMSs usually do display relevant information for crashes and incidents.  That is a different district though, so it can have different policies. 

When a message is displayed about a closure, usually it'll say 'Use Alternate Route' rather than one specific route, because that one route will quickly be clogged with traffic and the complaints will then focus on NJDOT telling everyone to detour to a jammed alternative.

[vdeane]

In this case though, the US 202 thing is a weird complicating factor, and obviously US 202 and I-287 both being closed would be the nightmare scenario for thru traffic. Where was the supposed closure on US 202?  This might be a bit of a stretch, but I'm wondering if something changed with US 202 because of the I-287 closure (either it was reopened or the closure was postponed), and the VMS's never got updated.

Just south of Darlington Avenue.

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/TEqXB32bcZB54Gtn8

I noticed that the Exit 163 ramps crossing over Route 17 have piers, but the Parkway itself has no piers to support itself over Route 17.  I assume the ramps crossing are the original Parkway bridges over the route and to make the right side exits transformed the old carriage way crossings into the ramp overpasses.

https://goo.gl/maps/VZkDuccNgs4E359K8
Also noticed that NJDOT still haven't signed proper exit guides at the NB Parkway ramp on Route 17 either.

Considering all other exits have guide signs for exits, this would be an abomination being the other exits are for local roads and this being a ramp between two major highways.

All you get is the Parkway Infamous Trapezoid signs like it's a small local or two lane roadway.  Very  substandard for a six lane highway.

[tsmatt13]

https://goo.gl/maps/TEqXB32bcZB54Gtn8

I noticed that the Exit 163 ramps crossing over Route 17 have piers, but the Parkway itself has no piers to support itself over Route 17.  I assume the ramps crossing are the original Parkway bridges over the route and to make the right side exits transformed the old carriage way crossings into the ramp overpasses.

https://goo.gl/maps/VZkDuccNgs4E359K8
Also noticed that NJDOT still haven't signed proper exit guides at the NB Parkway ramp on Route 17 either.

Considering all other exits have guide signs for exits, this would be an abomination being the other exits are for local roads and this being a ramp between two major highways.

All you get is the Parkway Infamous Trapezoid signs like it's a small local or two lane roadway.  Very  substandard for a six lane highway.

From this older GSV, the new bridge now carrying the Parkway lanes was built in the mid-2010s, while from a Historic Aerials photo, the original bridge now carrying the exit lanes was built in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.9387457,-74.0714163,3a,75y,55.78h,84.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2KSApA1hjFb1e1_vCdHBng!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[roadman65]

From the photo above. Looks like the original Parkway overpasses over Route 17 were both reduced from their original width.   From the piers in the older GSV, it looks like the  work of six lane widening of the Parkway in circa 1978 is visible as the inside piers were capped differently.


Going to another part of the state, I see Atlantic County is doing the combined US 40-322 thing like North Jersey has done with the one shield US 1-9 for US 1 and US 9 concurrency.   I see at the Circle by ACY, there is a one shield US 40 & 322 for SB CR 583 leaving the circle.  However the two routes are stacked with 40 on top ( obviously a 40-322 across wouldn't fit) over 322 instead.

[bzakharin]

The Atlantic City Expressway is horrible at signing road work in a useful manner, when they leave only one lane open (or even block all traffic while waiting for construction vehicles to come through) with the first "road work ahead" usually after the last opportunity to exit. I don't have nearly as much experience with the Turnpike, so I don't know how often this happens, but there was a huge late evening traffic jam about two months ago as six lanes of traffic merged into a single open lane south of Exit 6, again with the first "road work ahead" sign after the previous exit.

[storm2k]

NJDOT is continuing new overhead structure/sign installs on 78 westbound in the Union area, replacing the triangular truss structures that have been around since the 70s and likely well past their expiry date. New structures are basically right behind the current structures and new signs still covered. I'll go thru there and grab some pictures as soon as I see they're revealed.

[jeffandnicole]

For those that have been down NJ 324, the closed, all-but-abandoned roadway that used to serve the Chester (PA) - Bridgeport (NJ) Ferry, there may be some life coming to it after all!

In the very informational 42Freeway website and Facebook page, they disclosed that there's a large warehouse project that is seeking approvals to build in and around the road along all of NJ 324.  There's no plans yet, other than the parcels the owner is seeking to build on, and truth be told this road could either be a main road for the warehouses, or torn up with another roadway built to serve the area. 

This complex resides in Logan, NJ, and the township has seen a huge warehouse building boom lately due to its available land and easily accessible location along I-295 and US 322 which provides easy access to I-76, I-95, the NJ Turnpike and within a half-day's drive of a significant portion of the eastern half of the country, with a large population of residents nearby available to work.

https://42freeway.com/news/5-million-sq-ft-warehouse-park-proposed-for-logan-at-commodore-barry-bridge-20-year-window/?fbclid=IwAR2-q7hQ7FHQOC92-JFrtW8W36T4WTGUoFaWgBZNX-as5Iply4mBt5kjL5c

[kernals12]

For those that have been down NJ 324, the closed, all-but-abandoned roadway that used to serve the Chester (PA) - Bridgeport (NJ) Ferry, there may be some life coming to it after all!

In the very informational 42Freeway website and Facebook page, they disclosed that there's a large warehouse project that is seeking approvals to build in and around the road along all of NJ 324.  There's no plans yet, other than the parcels the owner is seeking to build on, and truth be told this road could either be a main road for the warehouses, or torn up with another roadway built to serve the area. 

This complex resides in Logan, NJ, and the township has seen a huge warehouse building boom lately due to its available land and easily accessible location along I-295 and US 322 which provides easy access to I-76, I-95, the NJ Turnpike and within a half-day's drive of a significant portion of the eastern half of the country, with a large population of residents nearby available to work.

https://42freeway.com/news/5-million-sq-ft-warehouse-park-proposed-for-logan-at-commodore-barry-bridge-20-year-window/?fbclid=IwAR2-q7hQ7FHQOC92-JFrtW8W36T4WTGUoFaWgBZNX-as5Iply4mBt5kjL5c

Warehouses are to New Jersey as Lab Space is to Massachusetts I see.

[Roadgeek Adam]

I'd be more concerned about flood levels of those warehouses than anything. Much of that area is pretty close to swamp level.

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/VKJN14JRmPKfdqj48

Does anyone know if this assembly is still standing?  I've heard it got replaced without Columbia and the mileage to Del. Water Gap adjusted.

[Mr. Matté]

Looks like "red clearance extensions" are coming to the problematic Route 129 & Lalor Street intersection in Trenton. The press release calls it a "first in the nation" application, at first I had thought, "didn't Road Guy Rob already cover this?" but his video detailed giving additional green time for speeding vehicles in the dilemma zone. I'll be interested in seeing how this test works out.

NJDOT press release (PDF)
NJ.com article (may be paywalled)

[storm2k]

Drove my girlfriend to EWR last night and saw some new signage on 78 Eastbound. Will have to go back thru and photograph.

- Signs for the crossover from express to local ahead of the Parkway exit now feature the Parkway shield.
- Some of the signs now show 78 with "Express lanes" and "local lanes" separated by a horizontal line. Those areas of the signs are just white on green, not black on yellow and NJDOT has done in the past for the express and local lanes.
- The crossover past Exit 52 that's for traffic headed to EWR now features the standard MUTCD airport pictograph since PANYNJ has changed the logo for EWR (it's now the Lady Liberty torch). RIP as always to the four color EWR logo that I'm still sad has been retired.

Will try to get out on both directions of 78 soon and get new pictures. There are so many triangle truss overhead structures in the Dual lanes section that there are going to be a ton of new signs once all is said and done with all the replacements.

[roadman65]

I-78 seems to have changed their signs several times since it opened in the late seventies.   I remember when in 1986 the Express Local split in Springfield didn't sign either as I-78, but signed the Express with TO US 1 US 9 and a NJ Turnpike shield with Newark Airport Holland Tunnel as control cities for it.  The Local Lanes simply read TO NJ 24 NJ 124 NJ 82 and Garden State Parkway shield, but no control cities. 

Of course now I-78 Express and Local are signed each with I-78 and both use control cities. New York City for Express and Newark for local.  Nearby US 1-9 in Elizabeth followed that same format when replacing the guides at the North Avenue Express Local split using the big city for Express and Newark for the Local in the early or mid nineties.

[Alps]

Drove my girlfriend to EWR last night and saw some new signage on 78 Eastbound. Will have to go back thru and photograph.

- Signs for the crossover from express to local ahead of the Parkway exit now feature the Parkway shield.
- Some of the signs now show 78 with "Express lanes" and "local lanes" separated by a horizontal line. Those areas of the signs are just white on green, not black on yellow and NJDOT has done in the past for the express and local lanes.
- The crossover past Exit 52 that's for traffic headed to EWR now features the standard MUTCD airport pictograph since PANYNJ has changed the logo for EWR (it's now the Lady Liberty torch). RIP as always to the four color EWR logo that I'm still sad has been retired.

Will try to get out on both directions of 78 soon and get new pictures. There are so many triangle truss overhead structures in the Dual lanes section that there are going to be a ton of new signs once all is said and done with all the replacements.

i feel like this has changed in the last week because i didn't see any of this in my last trip down there recently

[ran4sh]

Drove my girlfriend to EWR last night and saw some new signage on 78 Eastbound. Will have to go back thru and photograph.

- Signs for the crossover from express to local ahead of the Parkway exit now feature the Parkway shield.
- Some of the signs now show 78 with "Express lanes" and "local lanes" separated by a horizontal line. Those areas of the signs are just white on green, not black on yellow and NJDOT has done in the past for the express and local lanes.
- The crossover past Exit 52 that's for traffic headed to EWR now features the standard MUTCD airport pictograph since PANYNJ has changed the logo for EWR (it's now the Lady Liberty torch). RIP as always to the four color EWR logo that I'm still sad has been retired.

Will try to get out on both directions of 78 soon and get new pictures. There are so many triangle truss overhead structures in the Dual lanes section that there are going to be a ton of new signs once all is said and done with all the replacements.

I thought the EWR logo was just 3 colors unless you're counting the color of the aircraft itself.

[storm2k]

Some new signs on 80 in Elmwood Park (replaces this gantry):

EB at Exit 61 (CR507/River Dr)


WB at Exit 60 (NJ20)


The main takeaway that I have is that it seems like NJDOT is starting to move to install new cantilever signs as one size fits all with the intention of holding a second sign (as the WB photo does) even if there isn't a second sign attached. For reference, here are two more examples of this: this one on NJ19 and this one on US22.

[storm2k]

Drove my girlfriend to EWR last night and saw some new signage on 78 Eastbound. Will have to go back thru and photograph.

- Signs for the crossover from express to local ahead of the Parkway exit now feature the Parkway shield.
- Some of the signs now show 78 with "Express lanes" and "local lanes" separated by a horizontal line. Those areas of the signs are just white on green, not black on yellow and NJDOT has done in the past for the express and local lanes.
- The crossover past Exit 52 that's for traffic headed to EWR now features the standard MUTCD airport pictograph since PANYNJ has changed the logo for EWR (it's now the Lady Liberty torch). RIP as always to the four color EWR logo that I'm still sad has been retired.

Will try to get out on both directions of 78 soon and get new pictures. There are so many triangle truss overhead structures in the Dual lanes section that there are going to be a ton of new signs once all is said and done with all the replacements.

i feel like this has changed in the last week because i didn't see any of this in my last trip down there recently

They've been extremely active with replacements in the past few weeks so I think these were very new.

[storm2k]

Finally got to drive on the Rt 202 freeway portion from Ringoes to the river to grab pictures of the new sign structures that have been installed. Of note: they only replaced the triangular truss sign structures that were on this stretch outside of DRJTBC jurisdiction (I didn't actually drive on the bridge to see if any signs there were replaced, I just u-turned at Rt 29), so some of the sign structures that were replaced in the 2010s still remain. All the ground mount BGS's remain as well.

Southbound:


This is at the Mount Airy/Dilts Corner exit. The "Frontage Rd to CR605" legends seem like unnecessary information that just make the sign harder to read. But the continuing new standard of signing the 6xx series county roads, going against decades of standards. Also, the "Toll" banner on the pullthrough sign doesn't belong there, as there is another exit before the bridge. Also not sure why they use the fully spelled out Pennsylvania like it's a second control city instead of just the standard "Pa" abbreviation.


This is at the Rt 29 exit. Technically it should say "To 29" as the southbound ramp doesn't connect directly to Rt 29. Also, the exit only banner is wrong! The "lane drop" is just a deceleration lane, not a lane that just stops. No idea why they did that, especially as it forced the "last exit before toll" banner above the sign.

Northbound:


This is at the Mount Airy/Dilts Corner exit. note the CR605 shield now added. I like that the pullthrough now includes the dual destinations of Flemington and Somerville.


Ths is at the Rt 179 SB exit. No major commentary, these signs all look great. The NB ramp sign has been ground mount for years and it was not replaced (so it has a backplate even though none of these do).

[famartin]

I drove the bridge just the other day, no replacements I could see.

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/ntoj7QpyM6kGrG5FA
Speaking of signs, I noticed some inconsistency on US 46 in Totawa and Little Falls.

The sign at the Passaic River uses the 600 series number routes for McBride Avenue and Browerton Road.

https://goo.gl/maps/j5AUWaprrGMnpSnd8
Yet further up the road it omits the route numbers.

I'm guessing the signs in Little Falls is more recent than those in Totawa.


On another subject, I see the caption now of both the old and new overpasses across Route 3 for US 46.
https://goo.gl/maps/EWUQogY1Tfbhb9PU6

[Alps]

Southbound:


This is at the Mount Airy/Dilts Corner exit. The "Frontage Rd to CR605" legends seem like unnecessary information that just make the sign harder to read. But the continuing new standard of signing the 6xx series county roads, going against decades of standards. Also, the "Toll" banner on the pullthrough sign doesn't belong there, as there is another exit before the bridge. Also not sure why they use the fully spelled out Pennsylvania like it's a second control city instead of just the standard "Pa" abbreviation.

Delete "Frontage Rd" from the legend. 6xx signing is NOT new to the state. It was done in some areas (I-295) but not others. Appearing here does not go against anything. I'm fine with spelling out Pennsylvania since it's on a separate line. Could just as easily have been "New Hope PA" on a single line though.

[NJRoadfan]

WB at Exit 60 (NJ20)


The main takeaway that I have is that it seems like NJDOT is starting to move to install new cantilever signs as one size fits all with the intention of holding a second sign (as the WB photo does) even if there isn't a second sign attached.

They installed lighting, impressive given that should have gone away about 20 years ago. These signs wouldn't look so bad if they were properly aligned on the gantries. It just looks messy with a single sign in the middle and not on the end. Obviously that isn't an option with an Exit Only sign that needs to be over a particular lane.

What I don't like is the cheapening out. The old gantries were full span over the highway because they included advance signing for upcoming closely spaced exits. Those were signed for a reason.

[storm2k]

WB at Exit 60 (NJ20)


The main takeaway that I have is that it seems like NJDOT is starting to move to install new cantilever signs as one size fits all with the intention of holding a second sign (as the WB photo does) even if there isn't a second sign attached.

They installed lighting, impressive given that should have gone away about 20 years ago. These signs wouldn't look so bad if they were properly aligned on the gantries. It just looks messy with a single sign in the middle and not on the end. Obviously that isn't an option with an Exit Only sign that needs to be over a particular lane.

What I don't like is the cheapening out. The old gantries were full span over the highway because they included advance signing for upcoming closely spaced exits. Those were signed for a reason.

NJDOT had stopped doing illumination on signage for close to 20 years. I am surprised that they seem to have committed to doing it again (obviously this time with LED illumination) given that retroflectivity standards have improved so much in sign design over the years.

As for this particular sign, the structure it replaced only had the older versions of these two signs on it. There were no further signs on that structure.