New Jersey Roads - NJ 139/I-78

NJ 139 and I-78

NJ 139 exists almost entirely as a double roadway, upper (139U internally) and lower (plain 139). The freeway lower level is the one most people are familiar with, as it connects US 1-9 at the Tonnele Circle with the Holland Tunnel. The upper level doesn't connect well to the Tonnele Circle; heading WB, one must turn left at the end of 139U and then right, and to get to the EB upper level, motorists turn several times, none of which are marked - basically, it serves as local access to the Holland Tunnel. The EB upper level is directly atop the EB lower level, but the WB lower level sits in the median of the upper roadway, affording occasional glimpses of sunlight. The reason this page also belongs to I-78 is because once the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike merges with NJ 139 Upper/Lower (which just merged, themselves), NJ 139 and I-78 run together into New York, where I-78 ends in a ball of counter-clockwise fury.


Jersey City trying to be helpful, sending traffic from 16th St. along Jersey Ave. to NJ 139. Given the number of other destinations that NJ 139 serves besides US 1&9, I would bet this is incorrectly referencing 139 as 1&9.


See this sign? It's no longer mounted in public, so this is the only place you'll see this sign.
Eastbound


Coming off the Skyway past the first sign (or from Tonnele Circle and squinting up at it, in this case), to a remnant of when Business US 1 went this way (upper right hand corner), though the "BUSINESS" placard escapes even the memory of Bill Mitchell. Business US 1 died here in 1988, at the same time Alternate US 1 died in Trenton, in a minor state cleanup that saw a few other routes dropped like NJ 153; Business US 9 died many, many years ago. Business US 1 and 9 together went through New York City along the route originally followed by US 1 and 9 themselves. The overpass in the background is NJ 139's upper level.


A different progression of photos for those coming out of the circle, featuring the Skyway ramps overhead, then Kennedy Blvd., NJ 139 Upper (or 139U), and an ancient sign support doing nothing anymore.


Click for a video drive of the lower level east out of Tonnele Circle.


Content for those who watched the video. Cover your eyes if you didn't. These 2014 photos show EB traffic shifted over into a single lane (WB gets two) while contractors start to figure out what's wrong with the columns and beams on the right. You can see the answer is "a lot." The construction sign visible in the first photo tells you that 139U traffic is also being constricted, but this is still your standard Upper/Lower setup.


With the amount of traffic that needs to get to the Holland Tunnel, reconstruction of NJ 139U couldn't close the lower NJ 139, so here is a rare opportunity to see what the "tunnel" looks like without a deck overhead in 2015. All of the bridges had to be taken out and the walls extensively repaired before brand-new bridges were put in. You may hear things about the condition of the Skyway when contemporaneous work started, but I think NJ 139 was worse. This is also your chance to see the 1929 construction plaque.


The reconstruction of the eastbound viaduct into 12th St. in Jersey City, with a standard construction template put to no good in creating US 139. There's not even a US 39, for crying out loud (and why not?). The two left lanes are closed (in 2007-08), which is good because the pavement has been stripped away and, for one section, the supporting framework as well. To reconstruct this 70-80 year old roadway while minimizing traffic issues nearing the Holland Tunnel, one eastbound lane of NJ 139 splits along the westbound viaduct, coming back at Jersey Ave. NJDOT retimed the signals to allow I-78 and NJ 139 to go at the same time, which wreaks havoc as people used to unlimited local access try to cut off cars as quickly and obnoxiously as possible (in some cases ignoring the barriers at Jersey Ave. and going across the two lanes of I-78 traffic). The correct way to get local access to the south from NJ 139 is to make the next left and then two more, for a reverse jughandle (same but mirrored for I-78 traffic heading north). It's easier to go south from the "cattle chute" (the wrong-way temporary lane on the westbound viaduct), but to go north, one must turn right just before 12th St. into the warehouse district of Coles St.


Structural scenery exiting the tunnel: Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Original 1950s WB Turnpike Gantries.


See that mess of construction, traffic signals, businesses (especially gas stations), and cars? That's I-78. And you can bet with the revenue generated by those gas stations, priced 30 cents or more less per gallon than those on the Manhattan side of the tunnel, this will never be a freeway.
Westbound


Technically I-78, the Holland Tunnel gains NJ 139 as it crosses the Hudson WB.


These three signs definitely date from the construction of the Turnpike Extension in 1956. Note that an I-beam is used as a gantry pole for the second set of overheads, and that the signs consist of multiple metal panels for some reason. It almost appears that several panels were arranged together within a metal frame to complete the BGS. In the third picture, there were once neon tubes beneath TURNPIKE, an approximation of Turnpike Authority VMS's. In either case, US 1 and US 9, or US 1-9, is not being signed as the 139 freeway so much as it is being signed along what were the Business routes for the highways. First photo courtesy HNTB Corp., because that sign was taken down before I could get there in summer 2004. All of these are gone now in 2007.


Courtesy SPUI, this sign used to be posted at the I-78 split, but since NJ 139 begins at the state line in the Holland Tunnel, it made no sense to keep.


Wide construction sign, put up in late 2005 on 14th St (NJ 139/I-78 WB) in anticipation of the reconstruction of the 139 viaduct.


Another I-beam for a gantry, another ancient set of signs that are gone in 2007. The KENNEDY BLVD. BGS actually points the way to NJ 139 Upper - no reason to sign it as anything if there's no intuitive through route up there. The central sign once read TRUCKS underneath the same US 1 and 9 shields that are on the left BGS, and a slightly larger arrow. Go to NJ 139 on Chris Mason's New Jersey Highway Ends page for a "before" photo. It's interesting that the Tonnele Circle exit was once signed this far east, but it was a good advance warning since traffic is practically on the Pulaski Skyway once it comes out from underneath 139U.


There was one of these US shields in each direction for the rebuild of the 12th and 14th St. viaducts that take NJ 139 down from the heights to the flats of Jersey City.


Here we are WB on NJ 139L underneath the upper level, where as I mentioned the WB lanes sit in the median of NJ 139U while the EB lanes are stacked. Entering the tunnel WB, you can see how old the underpass is from the crumbling concrete, not to mention that the architecture and material composition harken to days long gone. With this whole area closing in on massive structural failure sooner or later, rebuilding was a pretty miserable proposition. Instead of giving I-78 an extra lane each way to deal with traffic, so that this roadway could be closed entirely, torn down, and made into a proper depressed freeway with overhead frontage roads, 139 was squeezed into 3 lanes and it was done piece by piece over several years.


A WB sample of the construction experience, fortunately with 2 lanes in this direction.


Coming out of the tunnel, WB traffic got this lone advance warning for US 1-9 NB, and then a couple of shields at the exit itself. That was removed for reconstruction in late 2014, leaving no warning (or button copy) at all. Of course, there's nothing saying NJ 139 ends, and only the next assembly tells you what it turns into:


The northern beginning of US 1-9 Truck is below at the Tonnele Circle, which this exit bypasses. Note that I-280 is signed here, but in order to get there you have to follow both NJ 7 and CR 508, neither of which is on this sign - and NJ 7 is an important freeway/expressway across the swamps. I-280 signage is consistent, though, along that route.


One of the only UPPER LEVEL reassurance banners. As you see in the background, all of the traffic signal signs just say plain NJ 139. There are fewer than half a dozen shields up there in total (I haven't counted), and I don't know how many others, if any, include the Upper reminder.


NJ 139U WB ends at CR 501, popularly known as JFK Blvd. There's a ramp a block away to Tonnele Circle, which this Alt. route seems to follow to the south, because otherwise there's really no way back to US 1-9 - so then why bother signing the Alt.? The NB route could go almost anywhere, although JFK makes a terrible alternative to US 1-9 because of all the local traffic and poorly timed traffic lights. The hilarious circle shield popped up sometime after 2007 and lasted far too long before it disappeared. A shame it wasn't replaced, because it's the only one that provides proper guidance down the ramp to US 1-9.
West to I-78/NJ Tpk. Newark Bay Extension
Back to I-78 main page


Into New York through the Holland Tunnel on I-78
Onto US 1-9
Onto US 1-9 Truck
Into Manhattan
See more of Jersey City
Into Hudson County
NJ 139 on Steve Anderson's nycroads.com
The Holland Tunnel on nycroads.com
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