and 78/US 22 WB

Above: Long Hill Rd. (Morris CR 605) SB at Division Ave. in Millington.


I've seen deer, moose, snowmobiles, tractors, pedestrians, elk, penguins... you name it, there's a sign for it crossing the highway. But for some reason, never seen a tree crossing. Well, here are two, so you can't argue it's just an isolated incident. Actually, there are roads up there too, but since this is the middle of Watchung Reservation, may as well keep everything looking pretty, and also give those aforementioned animals a chance to cross the road. If I ever see a penguin riding a snowmobile across I-78, I'll never drive again.


Notice in the last photo that The Plainfields were added more recently (to all of the advance signs, too), perhaps at their insistence, shifting all the other sign elements up and down.


What you see here are traces of Spur CR 527. Once the 6xx county route system started to get fully signed by most NJ counties, Spur routes fell out of favor - another Spur 527 became CR 649.


Thanks, Europe. I needed to know how many kilometers to a destination on a different road (US 22).


The last two are on the ramp to I-287. Click on each of the last three photos to see what they looked like a few years ago before the shields were replaced.


The ramp to I-287 SB is still paved in original concrete. It will merge with the majority of I-287 traffic to form the inner roadway down to US 202/206.


Scott Colbert espied this original I-287 shield along the left shoulder between the first and second photos above - that's some amazing power of eyesight, Scott. This is my photo, and click for Scott's closeup.


Non-cutout construction shields leading up to Spur CR 523, which is now really CR 665 after New Jersey killed most of its Alt. and Spur county routes. The last photo is on CR 665 SB, and thankfully the cutout is hidden here. With the resurgence of signage for Spur CR 527 and Spur CR 577 in Essex County, I wonder if NJDOT is going back on its plan now. More likely, this is just an exact replacement for the old sign, seen in the following photo run, without thinking about the message.


Last photo: Exit 24 ramp.


As you can see, Annandale used to include NJ 31 SB, while Exit 17 was only for NJ 31 NB. If you go to the eastbound page, you'll see that EB was split between exits 16 and 17. What's going on? Actually, only Exit 17 is REALLY NJ 31 - it was constructed with six ramps, missing EB-NB and WB-SB. I guess since the surface roads used to make the latter movement are non-intuitive, people are just now directed toward a U-turn ramp on 31. The Exit 18 ramp merges with US 22 WB before the Annandale (Beaver Ave.) exit - follow link at bottom for that sign.


NJ 173 is old US 22, but a lot of it was probably realigned to be I-78/US 22's service road. Or else it was so straight that the new freeway was able to follow it easily. This exit also happens to lead to CR 513.


This replaced the left sign in the 2nd photo above. Why? It's a freeway. Who needs to keep left? Where's US 22?


First photo courtesy Scott Colbert, who is good at finding wide shields with narrow circles, at the base of the Exit 15 ramp. Since this already is JCT CR 513, to the right is NORTH, and Mike Byrnes provides the corrected version (though the new green sign on top is now wrong, with corners too round).


Transportation you don't see on the Interstate every day, WB approaching Exit 11.


Non-reflective offramp gore sign and a shield that should be white.


The second photo is on the Exit 7 ramp.


Blame the lighting, but yes these are in fact reflective. What you should really be wondering about is why the I-78 shield is button copy - this is far more recent than any other such shields in NJ signage (such as on NJ 17). I would thank the DRJTBC for that, since as a separate agency, their sign decisions are independent of NJDOT.


Larger version of the Exit 3 sign, but the mainline pull-through had been replaced.


Courtesy John Krakoff in 1997 and Doug Kerr in 2001 respectively, the former look of the Exit 3 signs. Now that PA 33 has been extended to I-78, there is no need to direct traffic through Phillipsburg to go from freeway to freeway. It was a fairly clean sign edit - clean out the middle and move the 22/122 shields closer - and you can only see faint traces nowadays.

Over to the EB lanes
Eastward to I-78 east of NJ 24
Back to US 22 main page
Back to I-78 main page

Follow I-78 into PA
Exit 45 to CR 527
Exit 43 to Union CR 655
Exit 40 to CR 531
Exit 36 to CR 651
Exit 33 to CR 525
Exit 29 to I-287
Exit 29 to US 202, US 206, or both
Exit 24 to CR 523
Exit 24 to CR 517
Exit 20 to Cokesbury Rd. (CR 639)
Exit 17 to NJ 31
Exits 15, 13, 7 to NJ 173
Exit 15 to CR 513
Exit 3 to NJ 122
To PA 33
Back to New Jersey Roads
Back to Roads