Interstate 78 in New Jersey - History

History

The oldest section of I-78, the Holland Tunnel, was established in September 1927. The tunnel predated the Interstate Highway System, as a commuter linking Jersey City and Manhattan. Six months after it was opened, 3,655,000 passengers used the tunnel. In 1927, Route 11 had been legislated as a high-speed bypass of US 22, running from Route 28 in White House east to Route 29 in Warrenville, roughly following the alignment of present-day I-78; it was never built.

The Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike was the first limited-access section of I-78 to be built in the state of New Jersey. The 8.2-mile (13.2 km) long expressway was opened in 1956 to provide access from the New Jersey Turnpike mainline to the Holland Tunnel. At this time, the Interstate Highway System was established and a route was planned to run east-west from the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area to New York City, running across the northern part of New Jersey from Phillipsburg to Jersey City along the US 22 corridor. This freeway was originally planned as FAI Corridor 102 and I-80 before it became I-78 in 1958.

The part of I-78 between exit 3 and exit 13 opened in the 1960s; this segment runs concurrent with US 22 with the old alignment of US 22 becoming Route 173. In building the road between CR 614 and exit 13, the eastbound lanes of US 22 became westbound I-78 and the westbound lanes of US 22 became the Route 173 frontage road. By 1969, I-78 had also been completed between exit 13 and CR 525. In July 1963, New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes approved a plan to build I-78 through the city of Newark at a cost of $204,696,637. This plan had been opposed by several communities along the route. The section of I-78 between Route 24 and the New Jersey Turnpike was completed in the mid 1970s. Along this stretch, exit 56 was to connect to the proposed Route 75 freeway, which was never built.

The section of freeway between CR 525 and Drift Road (Exit 41) in Watchung was completed in 1974. The section from Drift Road to Route 24 (Exit 48) in Springfield Township was delayed because of environmental impacts to the Watchung Reservation. In order to mitigate opposition to the original plan, that was shifted closer to the northern edge of the Reservation, which required extensive cuts into the Second Watchung Mountain. Extra land was added to the Nikesite Road overpass and a separate land bridge was built to allow for animal migration. The road was also designed to use a narrower right-of-way with no median strip and just a Jersey barrier dividing the highway, to minimize the amount rock to be removed. This stretch of I-78 opened in 1986.

A section of I-78 in Newark was closed off in August 1989 when a debris pile under a bridge caught fire and damaged the elevated highway. The road was opened nine days after the fire occurred. The westernmost section of I-78 in New Jersey opened in November 1989 after a more northerly alignment along present day US 22 through Phillipsburg was rejected due to community opposition. This led to I-78 being rerouted to the south of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The additional length of roadway that resulted from this rerouting is the reason exit numbers 3 through 52 (which were assigned before this westernmost section opened) are mismatched by approximately one mile when compared to their corresponding mile marker.

I-78, 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.

In 2006-07 the highway between Route 24 (Exit 48) and the Garden State Parkway (Exit 52) was rebuilt. This included re-decking of bridge decks, and covering the deteriorated concrete pavement with an asphalt overlay . Exit 52 (Garden State Parkway) in Union Township and Hillside was reconstructed due to missing ramps from the Garden State Parkway and I-78 since the I-278 connection was canceled. Construction began in June 2008, with the ramp from the northbound Garden State Parkway to westbound I-78 being completed in September 2009. The connection between the southbound Garden State Parkway and eastbound I-78 was completed in December 2010. In 2012-2013, the highway between the Garden State Parkway (Exit 52) and US-1/9 and NJ-22 (Exit 57), which involves covering the deteriorated concrete pavement with an asphalt overlay, the last section of I-78 within New Jersey that was still concrete