New Jersey Roads - NJ 181




Espanong Rd. WB at the beginning of NJ 181. Well, 181 really begins at the Espanong Rd. interchange with NJ 15, so I suppose this is NJ 181 NB turning right. There once was a circle around the 181, but now you might mistake this sign for a transplant from Massachusetts.


Heading south from the photo atop the page (past CR 517 in Sparta) to Pine Cone Lane. There's still a water park there.


The top sign has a NB counterpart on the other side of the CR 517 intersection.


The NJ 15 SB offramp to Blue Heron Rd. WB, showing the unbuilt inner loop that would have been WB-SB. Instead, traffic from the eastern stub must turn onto the ramp that was only supposed to be EB-SB. Now, why is this on the NJ 181 page? First of all, I have enough photos on the NJ 15 page, and second of all, this SB ramp meets Blue Heron Rd. where NJ 181 turns to stay on Woodport Rd. Therefore, this is essentially acting as the southern Sparta connector from 15 to 181, so it's my webpage and I'll cry if I want to.


Blue Heron Rd. WB past the same unbuilt loop ramp, looking back to where I took the previous photos.


The other unbuilt loop ramp is from NJ 15 SB to Blue Heron Rd. EB; again, traffic just uses the ramp that was supposed to be for NJ 181 only. There's 181 in the background of the first photo, which further legitimizes this part of the page.


Continuing east, this time there is a loop ramp built but not the outer (finger) ramp that would have been from NJ 15 NB to Blue Heron Rd. EB. (Basically, all of the ramps pointing to or from the east were not built.) Of course, it would have made more sense from a traffic perspective to have built the outer ramps as a diamond interchange, but there's not a whole lot of traffic here anyway. There is, however, a Park and Ride conveniently built on the right of way of the would-be NB-EB ramp. Now, whatever happened to Blue Heron Rd.? It does go to Blue Heron Lake, but only as a private trail, and development never made it to the east like the interchange planners anticipated. I assume the whole road was a trail until the NJ 15 freeway was built (at which point NJ 181 came into existence as the old route).


Last but not least, WB at the unbuilt WB-NB finger ramp. From that snowy winter to this green summer, some of the curb leading into that ramp was removed along with some pavement, presumably to make the intended vehicle path easier to follow and not mislead anyone into the forest.

Onto NJ 15
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