New Jersey Route 57 - History

History

The present-day alignment of Route 57 was legislated as a part of pre-1927 Route 12, a route that was designated to run from Paterson west to Phillipsburg in 1917. In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, this portion of pre-1927 Route 12 west of Penwell in Mansfield Township was legislated as a part of Route 24, a route that was to run from Phillipsburg to Newark, while the portion between Penwell and U.S. Route 46 in Hackettstown was designated as Route S24, a spur of Route 24. The portion of Route S24 between Penwell and County Route 517 in the southern part of Hackettstown (Route 57’s current eastern terminus) became part of mainline Route 24 in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering in order to complete the gap that existed in that route between Penwell and Long Valley. The portion of Route S24 from this point north to U.S. Route 46 was designated as Route 57. In 1965, a portion of Route 57 was designated to bypass Hackettstown, running from its intersection with Route 24 to U.S. Route 46 east of Hackettstown; this was never built. Around 1970, Route 24 west of Hackettstown became part of Route 57 while the portion of Route 57 that had existed between Route 24 and U.S. Route 46 was designated Route 182. In the 2000s, the New Jersey Department of Transportation worked with communities along Route 57 to create a land use and transportation plan for the area surrounding the route.