New Jersey Roads - CR 524, 524/539

CR 524 and 524/539


WB at the very odd White Horse circle and the end of CR 524. US 206 NB cuts through the heart of the circle, from left (in this photo) to the YIELD sign straight ahead. Because all this traffic is cutting through the middle, someone decided to let traffic from the north leg (CR 533) hang a left onto CR 524 EB at the same time - never mind that there's almost no traffic here. When I was at this circle, a truck was busy getting itself stuck trying to negotiate it - since the middle is more pavement than grass, the driver thought he could turn sooner than he was supposed to. NJDOT, please delete the SB-EB cutoff.


Fuzzy dusky photo of old stuff eastbound (at CR 609 and CR 672).


CR 524 EB at the former US 130 in Yardville, with cutey-wootey shield for the actual route. The Yardville Bypass, the last four-lane segment of US 130 to be constructed, was built in 1952, conveniently a year before the Great Renumbering in which NJ 156 got its number.


WB over Doctors Creek just east of Yardville.


Looking north and south along the NJ Turnpike as the massive Interchange 6-9 Widening was wrapping up in 2014. By May, traffic was in the new outer lanes while the original roadway was being rehabbed to become the inner lanes. The new structures obscuring my southward view are for the service areas just north of here.


WB over Indian Run, just another old bridge until you realize this one says STATE NEW JERSEY on it. CR 524 from Trenton to Allentown was intended to be the western extent of NJ 37, which also had a couple of segments constructed along what's now CR 539 but never enough to keep it as a state route. I-195 spelled the plan's demise.


I decided to break the first assembly on CR 524 EB/CR 539 NB into multiple parts so you could gawk at each individually. Newell House itself is the last photo.


There's a premium on the letter U in Allentown. All taken on CR 524 EB/CR 539 NB, with the 3rd and 4th photos top/bottom of the same assembly.


Now westbound/southbound, up to red cats-eyes that are probably 80-90 years old. Whenever Old York Road/Main St. opened to vehicular traffic, someone must have slammed into the old mill that juts several feet into the roadway to prompt this circular warning - not that it does much good anymore (though I didn't try it at night, and I wouldn't want to fail if I did). Also, note that CR 526 was signed as going both ways NB but only one way SB. That's because it does a half-block jog in the middle of Allentown; both directions' photos were taken at Church St., the western leg that's just south of Waker Ave.


CR 524 WB and CR 539 SB at the brand-new Alt. CR 526, the Allentown Bypass, last photo courtesy Scott Colbert. The signs are misleading, as Alt. 526 doesn't actually make it all the way back down to CR 539 as a complete eastern bypass, but requires the use of local roads or else backtracking on CR 526 WB. And of course, there is no sign indicating that CR 539 in fact continues straight along the multiplex.


All WB nearing the end of the 524-539 duplex; middle photo with stretched shield courtesy Scott Colbert.


Eastbound, same spot.


At the beginning of another multiplex. Not only are the lettered arrows not up to the new standards (with the letters inside the arrow heads), the bi-directional arrow is in the wrong place.


Jackson Mills Rd., Monmouth CR 23, heading south from US 9. A little design help needed.


Ancient embossed street sign, at the end of Clayton Ave. in Freehold, courtesy Scott Colbert.


I don't know who the interloping ACS is, but they're jamming up a perfectly great old milemarker for my collection. Maybe it means Alpsroads Conquers Signs.


Westbound into and past the 547 duplex. The US 9 shield is storing acorns for winter.


Believe it or not, all of these photos are on both CR 524 and CR 547. Just where does Monmouth County think CR 547 goes? Clearly not here.


How many digits can we fit without widening this shield? Monmouth should take a hint from Albany County in New York - or from any county anywhere that would use an ALT banner instead. At least there's no hyphen.


That's one way to do it, though the digits are not very legible at such a reduced width. Overhead signs can be manufactured to any length - why not widen the shield at least here?


Eastbound on old CR 524, cut off by the Garden State Parkway. Look, concrete! And look across to the other side.


Heading back, and you can see how the old alignment runs straight back into the highway.

WB through a circle with NJ 34.


Spur CR 524 EB; that shield needs the county name inside (and the colors are too dark). As of 2008, according to the Straight Line Diagrams this part of the highway is no longer Spur CR 524, which makes sense because it's not on the overhead (it had turned right).

Onto CR 539 alone

Onto US 206
Onto CR 533
Onto CR 672
Onto I-195
To the NJ Turnpike, I-95
Onto CR 672
Onto NJ 156
To US 130
To CR 526
To CR 537
Onto CR 547
Onto US 9
Onto NJ 34
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