CR 508 is mostly boring in Essex County. This old EB Whittingham Place (note the second H) shield, probably long gone by now, is the only interesting photo I have. CR 508 uses assorted streets to jog between Northfield Road/Avenue and Central Ave., leaving a tiny CR 508 SPUR at the end of Northfield.


Several examples of Essex County directional signage still standing, at least by the time I got to them. The first is on the NB Oraton Parkway, which is the Garden State Parkway's service/frontage road for a while (it changes names a few times in Essex County, and dies just shy of Passaic and Union Counties), and the second is on the SB side; both are at Central Ave./CR 508. The third sign is on Western Ave. SB at that same cross street (which is why it's on this page), and has the same message as the second sign for that reason.


At the end of Central, CR 508 jogs on NJ 21 to get to this drawbridge on the aptly named Bridge St., here photographed westbound with NJ 21 in the background at the traffic signal. In its current configuration, 21's interchange with I-280 is missing three movements, and those three are all signed via CR 508/Bridge St. Recently, however, construction at I-280 Exit 16 in Harrison (where 508 is known as Harrison Avenue) has closed the key ramp to I-280 WB, meaning that a substantial amount of traffic has to follow residential back roads in either Newark or Harrison.


Older but not too old signs, westbound underneath I-280. The RIDOT (aka non-cutout) shield in the second photo indicates that the normal ramp onto I-280 West is closed. Of course, it would be nice if the detour were actually signed with arrows. (It is, a few blocks back, so this sign probably is part of another detour and should be covered better.)


An older look at the first photo above, showing an additional (Turnpike) shield on the assembly.


This contractor has otherwise been using rectangular white shields, so how did this 2-digit width shield get stuck into the mix? This is the actual signed detour I mentioned.


EB and WB at NJ 7, where CR 508 ends. Despite the fact that it ends here, there is a U-turn ramp on NJ 7 for the few people needing to access the industries along the old Newark Turnpike, which mostly became CR 508 but has a short cobblestoned section cut off by railroad tracks and a former grade crossing now eliminated. This U-turn ramp is located on the west side of the interchange, meaning CR 508 has already begun and the photo belongs here. CR 506, on the other hand, hasn't begun yet, though it once did start here, or further east, or at least might have. The missing shield is for the Turnpike.

Onto I-280
To the Garden State Parkway
Onto NJ 21
To the New Jersey Turnpike, I-95
Onto NJ 7
To US 1-9
To CR 506
Back to NJ Roads
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