For now, all photos are from bypass construction in 2011.


Homestead Rd. EB away from US 206, looking north and south under a new bridge. This is Bypass US 206, officially not part of the route until it connects to at least one end of the existing highway. The problem is, they built the middle section first (Hillsborough Rd. to CR 514, crossing here without an interchange), which is fairly useless on its own. The next piece will connect to US 206 across the railroad it just crossed, begging the question why no one planned ahead enough to route US 206 up Township Line Road and stay on the east of the railroad the whole time instead of crossing it 3 times. To make matters worse, the bypass comes into existing US 206 without modification, meaning there will be a 2-lane section between there and CR 601 with no parallel road. Trust me, it will make matters worse. At least widen the existing road to 4 lanes! The north end will take over Old Somerville Rd. at some indeterminate future date, tying into the expanded section at Falcon Rd., but that quickly dives back down to two lanes again. NJDOT is hoping to connect the upgrades by shrinking the gaps between them whenever they can, but as of 2025 there's still the railroad bridge south of the existing divided 4-lane and the problem I noted in this paragraph.


Homestead Rd. WB. Bypass US 206 is built in the remaining state ROW from the aborted I-95 Somerset Freeway, which would have connected Trenton to I-287 via Hillsborough and a number of less-populated (especially in the 1960s) townships. Don't underestimate the power of a few selfish millionaires.


Looking south from the new bridge at Hillsborough Rd. and the temporary end of the bypass. It's divided over Hillsborough and the railroad, but still just one lane each way, in another notable failure by NJDOT to fully upgrade the corridor.


Walking north up the south embankment. There's quite a lot of grade to fill, about 3 feet to the top of the grate (which is set at the roadway surface). About half is concrete, and the other half is stone subgrade to let water drain from the concrete instead of ponding underneath and cracking it.


Looking farther north at the future railroad overpass. Dirt is for the embankment, the tall steel piles are for the abutment.


I've surreptitiously crossed to the north side, so now I look south at the bridge beams.

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