New Jersey Route 85

According to the New Jersey Department of Transportation in 1972, the Route 85 Freeway would have begun at an interchange with Interstate 78 (the Newark Bay Extension and the Holland Tunnel Approach) in the community of Jersey City. The route would head northward as an eight-lane freeway, changing to 10 lanes at Sip Avenue. The 10 lanes would be in an express-local format, with two local lanes serving interchanges and three express lanes for faster approaches. The route have its second interchange at the Pulaski Skyway with U.S. Routes 1 and 9 in Jersey City, where it would parallel the congested two-lane Tonnelle Avenue. The route would continue northward, paralleling the New Jersey Turnpike's eastern spur, interchanging with New Jersey Route 3 in North Bergen. Route 85 would continue northward as a 10-lane freeway to an interchange with Interstate 495 (now NJ 495), which would serve access to the Lincoln Tunnel.^[1]

At the interchange with Interstate 495 in North Bergen, the freeway would shrink to two lanes in each direction, using variable medians and wide shoulders. Route 85 would continue northward through North Bergen, interchanging with 69th Street before crossing the county line into Bergen County. There, the four-lane freeway would interchange with U.S. Route 46 in the community of Ridgefield. From there, Route 85 would continue through Bergen County until interchanging with Interstate 80 at the George Washington Bridge approach in Fort Lee. There, the freeway and the Route 85 designation would terminate.^[1]

On January 20, 1956, the three major agencies in New Jersey regarding transportation, the New Jersey State Highway Department, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reached an agreement to construct a freeway from the Holland Tunnel to the Lincoln Tunnel, which serves both states. The route, known as the Hoboken Freeway, was to start at Interstate 78 and the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike northward towards the Lincoln Tunnel, where it would also serve the Port Authority's piers in the city of Hoboken. The State Highway Department also put forth a possible extension from the Port Authority docks northward to the Lincoln Tunnel. At the time, the Port Authority and the Turnpike Authority would both pay a percentage to build the highway. This was divided 60–40 with the Turnpike Authority paying the 60% and the Port Authority paying the other 40. The project according to the state agencies would relieve congestion on the New Jersey Turnpike and throughout Hoboken.^[2] The original cost to construct the 2.2-mile-long (3.5 km)^[3] freeway was situated at about $9 million (1956 USD), but would be up for future changes.^[2] Eight months later, on September 20, 1956, it was announced that the Newark Bay Extension of the Turnpike was going to open a week from that day, and that the extension to Hoboken had ballooned to a cost of $18 million (1956 USD) for the first 0.80 miles (1.29 km). This project would also tie in with the construction of a new interchange between the Turnpike and U.S. Route 1^[4] in the general area of current-day New Jersey Route 81 in Elizabeth.^[5] A year after the project was announced, the State Highway Department decided that the route should become part of the Interstate highway system along with New Jersey Route 58 (the Essex Freeway) would receive funding to help the commercial areas of northeastern New Jersey. Using Federal Aid Improvement Route 105, which had been originally conceived for New Jersey Route 3, the Federal Highway Administration supported funding for Route 58 (which eventually became Interstate 280 upon completion), but did not support funding the Hoboken Freeway.^[6]

 

Although the request for Interstate funding did not succeed, the authorities continued to push forward for the Hoboken Freeway throughout the next several years.^[3][7] During that time, the freeway received the Route 85 designation, and the Tri-State Transportation Commission (along with the New Jersey Department of Transportation) released information on the effects of building the new highway. According to the statement, the new freeway would head from the Holland Tunnel Approach in Jersey City northward to Weehawken, where it would meet Interstate 495 at the Lincoln Tunnel. The waterfront highway, as referred to, would serve the heavy industry, high-density population, and the redevelopment for the waterfront. Route 85 would also serve as a backup to Manhattan's West Side Highway (New York State Route 9A) as a controlled access distributor. This would relieve congestion on the West Side Highway and create a backup route between both tunnels.^[8] The state of New Jersey passed a bill in 1965 adding the new Route 85 Freeway to the state law.^[9]

In 1966, the Tri-State Transportation Commission along with the Regional Plan Association proposed an extension further northward to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee. The two agencies saw the proposed freeway as an integral part of starting Hudson River development of the communities in its path. The agencies also noted it would also be an important part of preserving the New Jersey Palisades, a mountain range in northern New Jersey.^[8] However, constructing this freeway was halted when problems relating to engineering such a highway, the economic cost, and environmental concerns arose. The political community also had an issue in constructing the highway, as creating a six-lane freeway through the established communities would be daunting. $3 billion (1966 USD) was allocated for the construction of the Route 85 Freeway from the Holland Tunnel to the George Washington Bridge. Local residents demanded an agency be included in the plan to preserve the Palisades and that it be done quick.^[10] The proposed price to construct the Route 85 Freeway in 1969 had ballooned from the original $18 million to $110 million (1969 USD).^[11]

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• New Jersey Route 185, an unfinished freeway serving the same area as Route 85 would

• NJ 85 Freeway history on nycroads.com