New Jersey Turnpike

[qguy]

What I can't understand is this: Are the gantries intentionally done with that rusted look?

Yes, and I think it ends up looking awful after a while. Not the weathered steel itself, but the concrete under it. Within a short time, water running off the steel carries the iron oxide onto the concrete and stains it horribly. In the example of the posted pic, the large concrete block on which the vertical portion of the gantry is mounted will be stained with large brown streaks within a few months.

PennDOT uses this material extensively, as do many other state DOTs.

I can't stand it; I think the staining of the concrete looks messy and unkempt, looking like something that's been abandoned or poorly maintained. But opinions may vary.

[SteveG1988]

Weathering Steel does look a bit...cheap, but it does seem to last a lot longer when properly engineered. Only major issue they had with a major project was the Omni in Atlanta, it never stopped rusting. The US Steel tower in Pittsburgh is made of the stuff, and their sidewalk has browining.

[vdeane]

Also, I thought the NJ state route shields had the black square behind them?

Not any more than any other state's shields do.  NJDOT just doesn't believe in using cutouts on guide signs.  They also have the black background on US route shields and a yellow background on county route shields.

[cpzilliacus]

Weathering Steel does look a bit...cheap, but it does seem to last a lot longer when properly engineered. Only major issue they had with a major project was the Omni in Atlanta, it never stopped rusting. The US Steel tower in Pittsburgh is made of the stuff, and their sidewalk has browining.

Corten (a brand of weathering steel) was used extensively in Virginia and nearby states by Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) and predecessor companies (VEPCO) for pylons to hold up high-voltage transmission lines (including some circuits to the Mount Storm, W.Va. generating station next to the route of ADHS Corridor H).  Corten has not worked out especially well in this application, and DVP is in the process of replacing the Corten pylons with ones made of grey galvanized steel.

[roadman65]

I am impressed NJTA is now realizing that NJ 495 exists. Wow!  It took them over 30 years and even longer if you count the brief tenor of I-495.

However, sad to see the old Exit number within the sign go, but at the same time the new gantries and the new panels look awesome!

[SteveG1988]

Weathering Steel does look a bit...cheap, but it does seem to last a lot longer when properly engineered. Only major issue they had with a major project was the Omni in Atlanta, it never stopped rusting. The US Steel tower in Pittsburgh is made of the stuff, and their sidewalk has browining.

Corten (a brand of weathering steel) was used extensively in Virginia and nearby states by Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) and predecessor companies (VEPCO) for pylons to hold up high-voltage transmission lines (including some circuits to the Mount Storm, W.Va. generating station next to the route of ADHS Corridor H).  Corten has not worked out especially well in this application, and DVP is in the process of replacing the Corten pylons with ones made of grey galvanized steel.

Some applications it sucks for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_Coliseum

It never stopped rusting.

[roadman65]

Is that why MDSHA stopped using them on I-95 in Baltimore?  Also, I remember a lot more of them in the Chicagoland area that seemed to have diminished over the last few decades.

[ixnay]

Weathering Steel does look a bit...cheap, but it does seem to last a lot longer when properly engineered. Only major issue they had with a major project was the Omni in Atlanta, it never stopped rusting. The US Steel tower in Pittsburgh is made of the stuff, and their sidewalk has browining.

Corten (a brand of weathering steel) was used extensively in Virginia and nearby states by Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) and predecessor companies (VEPCO) for pylons to hold up high-voltage transmission lines (including some circuits to the Mount Storm, W.Va. generating station next to the route of ADHS Corridor H).  Corten has not worked out especially well in this application, and DVP is in the process of replacing the Corten pylons with ones made of grey galvanized steel.

There's some Corten towers crossing the very subject road of this thread between exit 8A and the Joyce Kilmer service plaza.

Yes, Corten leaves browning - but the name is cool IMO.

ixnay

[cpzilliacus]

Is that why MDSHA stopped using them on I-95 in Baltimore?  Also, I remember a lot more of them in the Chicagoland area that seemed to have diminished over the last few decades.

SHA does not maintain anything within the corporate limits of Baltimore City, except its headquarters complex at 707 North Calvert Street. 

Those Corten sign gantries on I-83, I-95 and I-395 were probably installed by Interstate Division for Baltimore City (IDBC), though since then, maintenance of all of I-95 and I-395 in the city has been transferred to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA). 

The only Interstate in Baltimore that is still maintained by the city is I-83 (Jones Falls Expressway), and it seems that the city would like for the SHA to take that over.

[bzakharin]

Is Secaucus Junction mentioned at all for exit 15X anymore? I expect that's the main reason anyone would use that exit.

[Alps]

Is Secaucus Junction mentioned at all for exit 15X anymore? I expect that's the main reason anyone would use that exit.

I have not seen the signing plans, but I would imagine that there would be auxiliary signs for it.

[Roadrunner75]

Is Secaucus Junction mentioned at all for exit 15X anymore? I expect that's the main reason anyone would use that exit.

I think this sign is pretty current for 15X:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=40.758221,-74.082334&spn=0.000016,0.013078&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.758189,-74.084474&panoid=ax4iMzMTOy--UZmcWcoN4A&cbp=12,49.91,,0,-3.15
I use this exit from time to time, and it's actually pretty handy to get to the Secaucus industrial area.  Of course this means looping around one of the longest railroad overpasses I have ever encountered.  The Secaucus Junction I believe was originally intended as a transfer-only station, and the roadway access to station clearly reflects this with the way it seems to have been wedged in when they later installed the turnpike exit.

[bzakharin]

Is Secaucus Junction mentioned at all for exit 15X anymore? I expect that's the main reason anyone would use that exit.

I think this sign is pretty current for 15X:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=40.758221,-74.082334&spn=0.000016,0.013078&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.758189,-74.084474&panoid=ax4iMzMTOy--UZmcWcoN4A&cbp=12,49.91,,0,-3.15
I use this exit from time to time, and it's actually pretty handy to get to the Secaucus industrial area.  Of course this means looping around one of the longest railroad overpasses I have ever encountered.  The Secaucus Junction I believe was originally intended as a transfer-only station, and the roadway access to station clearly reflects this with the way it seems to have been wedged in when they later installed the turnpike exit.

Now I'm confused.

The two appear to be at the same general location, but the scenery around the signs doesn't match up.

Edit: as for your second point, I'm sure you can use the exit for other purposes, but it was built and is mostly used for the train station. The "X" supposedly stands for "eXchange", though  my theory is that "15W" and "16W" were already taken, and "X" is the next letter after "W".

[Zeffy]

The two appear to be at the same general location, but the scenery around the signs doesn't match up.

Whoa, that's trippy. The GMSV shows a giant mountain-ish piece of terrain to the west of the road, but in the image posted it doesn't seem to be there. The skyline of Newark(?) is visible in both of them though in relatively the same location, which means that the location isn't significantly different between the two pictures.

[Roadrunner75]

The two appear to be at the same general location, but the scenery around the signs doesn't match up.

Edit: as for your second point, I'm sure you can use the exit for other purposes, but it was built and is mostly used for the train station. The "X" supposedly stands for "eXchange", though  my theory is that "15W" and "16W" were already taken, and "X" is the next letter after "W".

I'll have to look next time I go through, but the photo (didn't see it before) definitely looks newer after the recent construction was complete.  I'm probably so used to seeing "Secaucus Junction" that I didn't notice the new sign.  For an exit built with the station in mind, the signage from the exit to the station is absolutely terrible.  It's not all that clear from the exit ramp which side is for drop-off/pick-up (N/W side) with the other side for buses.  I've always used the exit to get to a business in the adjacent industrial area, but I recently had to pick-up somebody from the station, and it was not immediately evident which of the two left turns from the ramp was for the pick-up area.  It's almost as if they tried their hardest to discourage this use, as was the original intent of the station for transfers only.

[qguy]

The two appear to be at the same general location, but the scenery around the signs doesn't match up.

The pic from vdeane was taken from further back than the Google Maps pic, but with a long (telephoto) lens. The Google Maps pic used a wider angle lens.

[vdeane]

The pic I took is also less than two weeks old.  The street view is from January 2013.

[Alps]

If it were X being after W, they would have used F because this is the Easterly Alignment.
As for the rock, it hasn't gone anywhere.

[bzakharin]

Ok, yeah, that's true, but 15X is north of 15W, so there is that. They could have called it 16D, I suppose.

[KEVIN_224]

Or turn the road into a mileage-based system, call it Exit 111E and have a nice day!

[jeffandnicole]

Or using strictly I-95's mileage, it could be Exit 65E. 

[bzakharin]

Would the E's and W's stay in a mileage-based system? I'm not aware of any other roadway that signs its exits that way (with a direction suffix based on which roadway you're on), nor of any other highway with such a configuration at all, really.

[Alps]

Would the E's and W's stay in a mileage-based system? I'm not aware of any other roadway that signs its exits that way (with a direction suffix based on which roadway you're on), nor of any other highway with such a configuration at all, really.

More likely they'd pick a spur and number it I-x95 (probably the Easterly Alignment) and reset the numbers at 0 for it.

[storm2k]

When I was on the NJ Tpke recently I noticed a lot of new signage and but some older originals still mixed in around the Vince Lombardi Service area and NJ-495.  Anybody have any news on signing contracts, I'm trying to see if their days are "numbered."  If they are, I wanna swing through and get pics.

The white button copy NJ Tpke entrance sign on the NJ-3 frontage road is gone.

These were still there:





this was getting off at US-46.

Plans are afoot to replace all signage north of Exit 11 with MUTCD compliant signage. If you look through this thread, you can see some examples peppered throughout. So, yes, those signs you showed are definitely going to change.

[1995hoo]

I've always found those "obey local speed laws" signs amusing because I've always thought they imply you don't have to do so on the Turnpike.