New Jersey Roads - NJ 495 WB

NJ 495 WB



You can go through all the photos at your leisure, but you can first drive the freeway from the Tunnel to US 1-9. Enjoy the sketchy driving and the vaguely audible commentary. NERDS!


The first two BGS's coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel. You can tell they're new because the contractor forgot:
a) black squares behind the US 1 and 9 shields on the first sign, and all of them in the second sign
b) an I-95 and a Turnpike shield are allowed to appear on the same sign
c) Turnpike and Sports Complex are not destinations
d) directionality of NJ 495 (WB)
e) never mix square and rounded corners (NJDOT likes square corners with rounded borders, something that the second assembly got wrong on both signs)
f) arrows are made in 45° increments, not just 90°
g) only the "EXIT ONLY" on the Hoboken sign should be yellow, and should also be at the bottom of the sign and have an arrow to go with it.
At least you get to see a pretty Newark Airport trailblazer in the second photo.


The way the second BGS above once looked - the font's a little weird, but the rest of the sign looks much better. Photo courtesy Doug Kerr.


The Lincoln Tunnel approach in the early morning light. I'm actually looking east here, but I'll soon be curving around from south to north to ascend to the cliffs of Union City. This ancient helix was not intended to carry this much traffic over this sustained period of decades, so it frequently is undergoing moderate to major repairs and is slated for a full replacement in the 2020s. That's good for traffic but will get rid of these classic arches.


More PANYNJ signage heading up the helix.


The second sign shows more clearly than the first the lane arrow system used on NJ 495 WB. The leftmost lane takes buses into New York City in the morning, flowing against traffic (and gets nifty pylons for safety), so that arrow (too far to the left to be in either picture) will sometimes become a red X. The center lane (second lane coming up the helix; the fourth lane drops at Park Ave.) is basically always a green arrow, but the right lane can be a yellow arrow as seen here. Lately, there seems to be more and more traffic entering at the onramp a few hundred feet past the Park Ave. exit, so the arrow is warning drivers to merge left or face a heavy merge.


The first photo is to show off vintage rail from the loop. In the second photo, from the frontage road just past Park Ave. you see more stonework and a curiously squared-off 495 shield.


NB and SB on JFK Boulevard East, respectively at South and North Marginal Roads, courtesy HNTB Corporation. Yes, if you follow JFK Blvd. itself up north, it'll eventually hook around and come back down the other side as this. Well, the first photo is really more for left-turners off the NJ 495 EB frontage road at JFK East, and the second assembly points down the WB frontage road. This signage is probably from Hudson County, or even (doubtful) Weehawken.


Crazy contractor signage, all again courtesy HNTB - those US 1 and NJ 3 shields look like refrigerator magnets. And how can US 1 be mentioned without US 9? It's like... saying you're from New York without specifying "City" or "State." Add to this rant the diaper-like 1 shield in the third photo and the narrow 1-9 shields in the other two.


Pleasant Ave. SB at North Marginal Road (i.e. the frontage road for NJ 495 WB), the last HNTB photo on this page. A few shields wouldn't hurt.


All of entrenched 495's speed limit signs now light up (and are variable, usually to 35 MPH in the morning when buses use the contraflow lane). Both WB; Hudson Av. is that particular overpass.


The EB exit ramp splits for the top level (straight only, NJ 495 frontage) and the middle level (turns onto JFK Blvd./CR 501), while the WB exit ramp goes to that middle level only. This is a basic volleyball interchange - ramps up from NJ 495, ramps down from JFK Blvd., and they cross in a square.


Approaching the Turnpike, NJ 495 sheds lanes to US 1-9 and NJ 3 - the exit to 3 gets three lanes, one of which is a shoulder until just after the ramp leaves. You see here the giant diagrammatic that faces drivers with the 1-9 SB and 3 ramps, full of lanes and shields. Notice the non-reflective background and original, non-reflective gold-on-blue Meadowlands shield in the third photo.


On the ramp that takes WB NJ 495 into the NJ Turnpike, where it ends. The N-S split signs, which come in day and night flavors just because I can, clearly are from before the Turnpike was extended north from US 46 to meet I-80, which dates it as before 1970. The new gore sign has shields in all shapes and sizes; follow the Turnpike link to connect to any of those roads. The last sign is blue in daylight and possibly just as old.

Over to the EB lanes
Back to NJ 495 main page


Onto CR 501 (Kennedy Blvd.)
Onto US 1-9
Onto NJ 3
Onto the NJ Turnpike (Easterly Alignment)
To I-280, I-78, US 46, or I-80
See more of Hudson County
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