Deteriorating non-reflective LGS on Bloomfield Ave. NB in Clifton.

NJ 3 EB

NJ 3 WB

Into the Meadowlands

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When you're driving on NJ 17 SB, you're doing fine until suddenly you face a tight curve, and you're driving back northward again, and hello I just drove that stretch of road to my right, and suddenly you're on old NJ 3 facing westward. Well, NJ 17 was planned to run through to the NJ Turnpike, and you can read about that on nycroads.com. There would have been a doubly-suffixed exit, so maybe it's better that didn't happen, and traffic loads are handled quite adequately by NJ 3. But the interchange design clearly would support a full cloverleaf. Why do I mention this here? You're about to see signs on the strange service road, which runs a U shape from the southern part of the most-clo, all the way east to Berry's Creek, then loops under NJ 3 and runs all the way back again. In fact, it ends up being the northern frontage road all the way to the Passaic River, making it more of a bobby pin than a U.


These are westbound on the southern leg of the service road, which technically starts at the NJ 17 SB offramp/NJ 3 WB onramp pair, and ends here again at NJ 17 to the south of the interchange.


WB at the northern end of the service road, which is the opposite direction of the above WB, naturally. After going all around the mulberry bush, traffic may now get back to civilization. The WEST 3 is a bit misleading, and the ORIENT WAY gore sign does little to help; in fact, the service road continues to the left, and goes into the heart of Lyndhurst/Rutherford.


WB and EB, respectively, on the north half of the service road, where the NJ 17 SB offramp to NJ 3 WB spawns a service road on/off ramp pair. In other words, traffic on the SB-WB ramp is temporarily on its own one-lane one-direction freeway, and has a service road exit and entrance. For reference, the blue SERVICE ROAD sign in the background of the second photo faces NJ 17 SB offramp traffic. Follow the NJ 17 link at the bottom of this page for more confusion in this area.


On Paterson Plank Road EB, east of NJ 120, this points to a connector road that will take you to the overpass that takes NJ 120 over CR 503 - in other words, this is access to both NJ 120 NB and, via ramp, NJ 120 SB, while otherwise this stub of PPR, which ran into Hoboken before its bridge went bye-bye, can only get to CR 503 NB. In daylight, it might have a faint 3 on it.


On the N.J. Turnpike Western Spur onramp from the Meadowlands/NJ 3.


Courtesy Scott Colbert, these monstrosities appear outside a Walmart in Secaucus.


Slightly less monstrous, Union Tpk. WB in Hoboken. It's a one-piece sign, so the white background for the Turnpike shield can be excused, and only slightly less so the narrow US 1-9 shield.

Onto NJ 17
Onto NJ 120
Onto the NJ Turnpike (I-95) Western Spur

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NJ 3 EB
NJ 3 WB
Into the Meadowlands

NJ 3 on Steve Anderson's nycroads.com
Back to NJ Roads
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