New Jersey Roads - NJ 17 SB




Time to replace the US 202 overpass? They don't make them like this anymore.


I don't know about you, but when a sign tells me an exit is in a quarter mile, I tend to exit in a quarter mile, not immediately - so why the arrow? Click on the penultimate photo for a closeup of the exit sign; the one on the left was replaced.


I don't know why all the bridges are 14' 2", since this is a great route for trucks from Metro NYC to points north. The 2nd photo is a closeup of the first, but again the Spring St. BGS was replaced.


Again, Allendale Road doesn't seem to exist, but Sheridan Avenue gets full billing SB.


The last 2 photos are left and right on the same bridge.


Here are the original signs in this direction - can't be newer than the '60's, could be late '50's, could be as old as the highway.


The old speed limit sign matches one that once stood on US 46 EB on the Riverview Drive overpass in Wayne, and was probably reserved for Jersey freeways (driveways but no cross streets). It's old.


It's all from the 1980's, but the 4 shield at least has weathered somewhat to look older.


NJ 4 overhead signage is all-new both directions, but the NJ 17 LGS is still vintage from the cloverleaf era.


Among all this new signage, the Garden State Plaza still has button copy, since the early-'90's signage is still holding up quite well. I included the 3rd photo to show you the modern signs here, curiously with underlines, on the left side of the last sign.


The part of NJ 17 that snakes between houses, between NJ 4 and I-80, was constructed as you can see in 1932, as NJSHR 2.


I've already commented on the I-80 interchange on the NB page. I don't know whether the second assembly is second-generation (i.e. 1970's instead of 1950's/1960's) or just had the shields replaced, but I suspect the former.


The LGS at the exit gore is nonreflective.


A pair of nonreflective LGS's, courtesy HNTB Corporation, and their replacements (but still the old overpass).


The beginning of NJ 120 as seen from NJ 17 SB; to the west, it's a perfectly ordinary road that was meant to be NJ 20, linking 120 with the completed portion of 20 in Paterson. 120 was called 20 for quite some time before the notion was finally dropped, so there were two 20's - and NJ 19 was also supposed to be 20.


Courtesy HNTB Corporation, the 1930's Erie RR crossing of what is now only the SB lanes of NJ 17. As you can see, when 17 was originally constructed to bypass Rutherford and East Rutherford, both sides ended up here, and each side had a sidewalk. Now, with three lanes of fast-moving traffic and a median, there is obviously no sidewalk on the left side of the lanes, and not a very well-maintained one on the right side.


The signage from the service road exit that immediately precedes NJ 3 (the service road is for the entire 3/17 interchange).


Ending at NJ 3 on the half-expressway half-Jersey freeway part of NJ 17, you see some mini-sized BGS's (MGS's? Medium Green Signs...) at 3 WB. NJ 3 EB steals half of NJ 17 SB, with two lanes going each way out of three SB lanes (which makes sense, since more traffic is going to the Lincoln Tunnel than south toward Newark). South of here, NJ 17 makes a sudden 180 degree loop to the west and north, then a 90 degree turn back west, and parallels NJ 3 for a mile before following Ridge Road until 17 ends at NJ 7. There are all the elements of a cloverleaf to this interchange, although slightly screwed up - this would have been a perfect cloverleaf if NJ 17 had been extended as a freeway to the NJ Turnpike Westerly Alignment, but that was deemed unnecessary. Several millions of dollars in interchange and NJ 3 bridge improvements later, it is that much more unlikely there will be an Exit 16AW. (Bill Mitchell says some plans would have taken NJ 17 as far south as Exit 15W and I-280.)


Now onto surface streets, Rutherford Ave. WB as NJ 17 jogs over to Ridge Rd. NJ 3's Rutherford widening is in full force.


The NB side of this Lyndhurst railroad bridge is rather plain, but the SB side goes all out to show you how this was NJ 2 for several years. Before 1927, this was coincidentally NJSHR 17, but it was renumbered to 2 in the new system (radiating north from Newark), and then un-renumbered later to match NY 17. Interestingly, it was New York that had originally matched NJ's number.

Over to the NB lanes
Back to NJ 17 main page

NJ 3/17 interchange service road
Onto Franklin Turnpike, CR 507/old NJ 17
Onto Polifly Rd./Terrace Ave., CR 55/old NJ 17

Onto US 202
Onto Lake St., CR 2
Onto Hollywood Ave., CR 502
Onto Racetrack Rd., CR 112
Onto Paramus Rd., CR 62
Onto Van Emburgh Ave., CR 71
To the Garden State Parkway
Onto NJ 4
Onto Farview/Rochelle Aves., CR 61
Onto Essex St., CR 12/56
Onto I-80
Toward Hasbrouck Heights onto Summit Ave., CR 57
Onto US 46
Onto NJ 120
Onto NJ 3
Back to New Jersey Roads
Back to Roads

Who the hell named Ho-Ho-Kus anyway? Did Santa Claus choke on a cookie? Did he have to sneeze? Was the town of Kus taken over by Hostess (although then Twinkie-Kus would be more plausible)?