Interstate 280 (New Jersey) - History

History

What is now the easternmost part of I-280 was legislated as Route 25A in 1939. This route was a branch of Route 25 (US 1/9) that ran from Jersey City west through Kearny and Harrison across the Passaic River and into Newark, connecting with Route 21 and Clifton Avenue. The William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge opened in 1949, with approaches stretching east to Harrison Avenue (now CR 508) in Harrison (crossing Cleveland Avenue and Hamilton Street at-grade) and west beyond Route 21 to Broad Street. Route 25A was redesignated as Route 58 in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, and the next year an extension opened west beyond Clifton Avenue to Orange Street east of Duryea Street.

Around the time the Stickel Bridge opened, the Essex Freeway was planned to connect US 46 in Morris County east to the New Jersey Turnpike in Hudson County, with the intention of alleviating traffic along Route 10. During planning for the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, the Bureau of Public Roads proposed an Interstate Highway along Route 3, to the north of Newark. The New Jersey State Highway Department countered with the proposed Essex Freeway, which would run from I-80 to the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95) via the existing Route 58, saying that the Route 3 corridor "does not meet Interstate standards, and cannot be economically converted to such standards." The Essex Freeway was selected as the interstate corridor, which was called FAI Corridor 105 before being designated I-280 in 1958.

Construction progressed slowly, starting in 1960 near Orange. There were many obstacles that had to be overcome when constructing I-280. The first was whether to build the highway on an elevated or depressed alignment through urbanized areas of East Orange and Newark. Following opposition to the elevated option, it was decided to build I-280 on a depressed alignment through the area. In addition, there was an issue of building the road across First Watchung Mountain in West Orange. A tunnel had initially been considered, although the expense of such a project caused this alternative to be rejected. Instead, a rock cut along a longer route was built through the mountain. Much of the material that was excavated from this section of I-280 and east was removed via a temporary rail line that was built in the center of the right-of-way west to I-80. I-280 fully opened west from Newark to I-80 in Parsippany-Troy Hills in 1973. The portion of I-280 east of Newark was planned onto an alignment that would disrupt the fewest homes and would utilize existing railroad and utility right-of-way. The road east from Newark to the New Jersey Turnpike was completed in the 1980s. In the 1966 plans, I-280 was to continue east to I-78 in Jersey City near the Holland Tunnel, following the CR 508 and Route 7 corridors; this was planned again in the 1970s but never built.

In the 1990s, the Route 58 designation was officially removed from I-280 through Newark. In 2001, the state determined the Stickel Bridge over the Passaic River and its approaches were structurally deficient and was going to need to be replaced after sections of it were falling apart. Instead of replacing the bridge, in 2007 the NJDOT decided to rehabilitate it at a lower cost. Reconstruction of the bridge was completed in April 2009 at a cost of $33 million.

I-280, like many other highways in New Jersey, once had solar powered emergency call boxes every 1.0-mile (1.6 km), however with the advent of cell phones the usage of these call boxes became extremely limited. To save on maintenance costs, the NJDOT removed these call boxes in 2005.