New Jersey Roads - NJ 23/US 46/I-80

NJ 23/US 46/I-80 interchange


Included here is all the ground signage from NJ 23 and US 46. Not included here is the freeway signage from I-80, since the perspective from I-80 is just a normal interchange with some nice trees and a couple of bridges. It's from 23 and 46 that the ramps become a maze (made worse by construction in 2006-7), and where the best signs are/were:
NJ 23


NB signage in the giant US 46/I-80/NJ 23 circle. Go to the US 46 section below to read more about it. Check out the three different types of old shields - the bluer one in the second from last photo is clearly newer, but I'm not sure why the one in the last photo doesn't have a state name while the other shields of the same apparent age do.


Contractor-installed construction shields are never cut out anymore. No extra effort, I say. No good will. No... no... naches? I ramble. These are northbound, between the last BGS I showed you and the final chance to take that I-80 ramp.


On the NB ramp to US 46 EB, there once stood a sign here with a 46 shield, EAST, and a straight arrow, above a line, below which was SERVICE ROAD and a slanted right arrow. All button copy, all gone, not likely to be replaced before the interchange upgrades about to start.


SB signage from the freeway approaching US 46/I-80 to where NJ 23 departs the perimeter of the circle. Following that last service road sign with the tiny 46 shields puts you immediately on NB 23. Note the old diagrammatic (there is an identical newer one without button copy), as well as the odd-looking I-80 shield on the LGS - but hey, it's old, so it's forgiven.


Heading SB prior to the last set of photos, you see that there's one chance for a U-turn before entering the US 46/I-80 mess. It's accomplished via the service road, whose BGS's you can see in the last pic (same overpass as the photo before it), onto the unsigned West Belt.
US 46


Heading EB through what once was a circle with NJ 23, and now is a completely screwed-up interchange with 23 and I-80. It's entirely possible to circle through this interchange endlessly via NJ 23 SB to NJ 23 NB and US 46 WB. (The SB and NB sides are connected in order to allow traffic to access US 46 EB's service road, which was once actually US 46 out of the original circle; when I say original, I mean that Old Turnpike Road, the tiny two-lane residential road to the east of the railroad tracks, was actually NJ 23. That's a long time ago.) The 23/46 signs in the last photo are just as the old NJ 23 ramp begins to leave, and the GSP shield is just before the 23 advance (the reflective BGS), next to a pole that doubtless had an original nonreflective BGS once attached to it. Due to interchange reconstruction, the original NJ 23 North exit was closed, since it didn't do anything the Service Road exit didn't do. By taking traffic off the Service Road exit instead, NJDOT gave much more opportunity to get US 46 traffic over to NJ 23 and I-80, versus the NJ 23 NB traffic flow (small though it is) to US 46 WB. NJ 23 NB is now four lanes instead of two between the merge from 46 EB/23 SB and the diverges to 46 EB and 46 WB, which was sorely needed, but sadly all of this reconstruction has killed the original signs at this interchange.


Signage coming WB, where US 46 gives two lanes to I-80. NJ 23 NB traffic is two lanes until it loses a lane to I-80 EB, and then the one lane left merges with the two-lane 46-23/80 ramp. This used to also be two lanes, meaning that traffic to 23 NB from US 46 or traffic to I-80 WB from 23 NB had a difficult merge and weave job. Now, it's three lanes, which flow much better. Helping the situation is that I-80 WB traffic merges with NJ 23 NB from the left, instead of the right - it used to be a two-lane right merge, keeping 46/23 traffic in one lane all the way to the left so that it couldn't access the service road. No idea why SERVICE ROAD is never defined as being for US 46 EB, but then again, this signage is all from the 1960's and is just about completely replaced. In fact, the signage in the first photo has been gone for years, because the bridge was reconstructed (Riverview Drive if you care), and is only here thanks to HNTB Corp.
Eastward on US 46
Westward on US 46
Northward on NJ 23
Back to NJ 23 main page
Back to US 46 main page

Back to I-80 main page

Back to NJ Roads
Back to Roads