This page is courtesy I-280, which came through in 1970 and wiped out the old Exit 145, just a set of frontage road slip ramps for Central Ave. I think you'll agree the current interchange is more exciting.


The I-280 EB offramp to the GSP, merging with the ramp from Oraton Pkwy. NB (the Garden State's frontage road).

Deterioration in the latter sign from 2008-2013.


Heading from I-280 Exit 12B to the Parkway, underneath a rare overhead toll plaza walkway (a few are underground, but toll takers cross at-grade at most). I was informed that this one is no longer in use due to security issues with the parking lot it connects to, but so far the cost of removing the walkway hasn't been justified - it would take a structural safety issue to do it in all likelihood. This button copy will stick around for the foreseeable future, since it's out of sight of both highways. However, they might have been noticed now that there's a project to expand the I-280 WB onramp to two lanes. (That wasn't where the worst bottleneck was, but it would cost millions to expand the GSP SB onramp to two non-merging lanes, because there are tens of thousands of graves crowding both sides of the Parkway.) Click on the first photo to shine flash on it.


Fairly new, just before the above run of button copy. Parkway jurisdiction may begin here (technically NJ Turnpike Authority jurisdiction now), but the Parkway extends just a few miles in either direction.

Toward the top of the ramp to Oraton Pkwy. NB.


Now heading through the interchange from the Garden State Parkway, which has a SB flyover to avoid the toll plaza (toll is only charged for travelers to/from the south). Thus the first sign is for NB traffic only, while the next two (including the button-copy shield) are for all traffic; the little one in the third photo is at bottom center of the second photo. The final sign is on the Central Avenue offramp. These signs are too old to show this type of information, but Central Ave. is CR 508. Park Ave. used to be NJ 10, too.


Coming from the SB direction, where as you can see the Central Ave. offramp is offlimits.


Taking the other wye of Exit 145, toward I-280, one sees these final two assemblies, with, amazingly, more button copy shields on the first one. Click on the second photo for a vintage 1970 shield closeup. These signs are at least partially and perhaps fully coming down with the reconstruction of the I-280 WB onramp.


Just because you take a ramp off of a highway doesn't mean the highway ends. Courtesy Scott Colbert, and the complement to the shield I snapped above.

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As of 2007, the northernmost pier and abutment for the new two-lane I-280 WB onramp. Not too long after these photos were taken, steel beams were laid on top of the piers to complete the structure of the overpass. These are taken from the I-280 WB ramp.


Spacy and spacey white shields stand in during construction. Click on the second photo for a shield closeup courtesy Scott Colbert. The tangle of overpasses visible in the latter photos are, from front to back, Oraton Pkwy. SB, Garden State Parkway, and Oraton Pkwy. NB (Oraton is the name for these parts of the GS Parkway's frontage roads). The one on the right is Freeway Drive, I-280's own frontage road, which rises up and over the entire set of Parkways. I would think it makes more sense to have the frontage roads intersect. As you can see in the final photo, Parkway ramp traffic now splits here for I-280, so the overhead KEEP LEFT sign is moot. Also, this closes off an escape valve for westbound traffic, which used to be able to follow Exit 12B (Clinton St.) into the Parkway ramp merge, then get back on the freeway - this is useful due to the confusing number of lanes and weaves between Exits 12B and Exit 13.


Click to drive through the interchange, over the new ramp, to I-280 westbound through East Orange.

Onto the Garden State Parkway
Onto I-280

Onto Oraton Pkwy.
To Central Ave., CR 508
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