New Jersey Route 33 - Business Route

Business Route

Route 33 Business is a short state highway in New Jersey that is the original alignment of Route 33 before a freeway was built as a bypass of Freehold. This business route stretches 6.89 miles (11.09 km) through Manalapan Township, Freehold Township, Freehold Borough and Howell Township. The highway holds the distinction of being the only business route state highway in all of New Jersey.

Route 33 Business begins at the interchange with Route 33, its parent route, in Manalapan Township, New Jersey. A short distance after, the interchange from Route 33 eastbound merges into Route 33 Business, and the route passes to the south of Monmouth Battlefield State Park and enters Freehold Township. Soon after entering the borough of Freehold, Route 33 Business interchanges with U.S. Route 9. Route 33 Business turns to the southeast, passing to the north of Freehold Raceway. A short distance later, Route 33 Business intersects at a traffic light with New Jersey Route 79 (South Street) in downtown Freehold. At the intersection with Fairfield Road, Route 33 Business enters the interchange with Route 33 and the freeway, where the designation terminates.

Route 33 Business originates as an alignment of Route 33, designated across the state in the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering as a replacement to Routes 1 and 7, which were assigned in the 1920s. The route remained intact for several decades, continuing as the proposals for the crosstown Route 33 Freeway during the 1960s were drawn up. The new Route 33 Freeway was to be 39 miles (63 km) long, starting at U.S. Route 1 in Trenton, crossing through Princeton and into Hightstown, where it would connect with the current-day New Jersey Route 133, heading eastward, where it would connect with the unbuilt Driscoll Expressway in Freehold. The freeway would continue, interchanging with the Garden State Parkway near Exit 100 in Neptune and terminate at the Route 18 freeway in Neptune. However, the next year, the New Jersey Department of Transportation had to scale down the project to a new bypass of Freehold, and prevent the congestion of traffic through the borough. Design studies began that year, and the entire bypass was constructed during the 70s and 80s, with the entire freeway finished in 1988. This new bypass was designated as Route 33 Bypass from 1965 until Route 33 was re-aligned off the local roads onto the new freeway in 1990, which at that time, Route 33 Business was designated on the former alignment.