Signage from Newark Airport, which is called by many the most confusing signage in the world. I don't think it's nearly as confusing as trying to exit the Meadowlands. This is on the "South Directory," which leads from US 1-9 and NJ 81 north into the airport but is also a way out for the various south side facilities.


A more normal kind of problem, this non-cutout shield was at the end of the EWR ramp to I-78 EB, pointing to the Local lanes, and probably to the frontage road north of I-78 from there.


Brewster Rd. SB ends at South Directory with a very obvious stub. It's hard to imagine where this was intended to go without blowing out the US 1-9/McClellan St. interchange, so that must have been the intent but then NJDOT dropped their half of the plan.


Looking west from there, South Directory merges into a stub roadway whose curb suggests it was supposed to be a through alignment. I would love to see the plans of where all of this was intended to go to the south when it was built in the 1990s. My guess is McClellan St. would have to have become a compact diamond interchange.


Now standing in that South Directory stub, looking north and south.


The photo atop this page is the off-airport style of Port Authority signage, and here we have the oldest extant style on-airport. This was on the inbound roadway from the north, and was definitely ready for replacement by a modern, reflective green sign. If I can decipher this primitive changeable bulb element, I see Alternate Pick Up/Drop Off ("Alternate" is on the top line, completely obscured), Daily/Hourly Lot Full (Daily and Hourly are on top of each other), and FULL (giant letters). This is why VMS were subsequently invented.


The latest style of NYC-area airport signage debuted with the new Terminal A in 2023. The first photo shows the closure of the old Terminal A; the left sign is preserved for whatever future use there may be at this site. The second photo is a clear example of the new sign pattern and header (pardon the extra space by the "t"s), and also features temporary messaging; at some point, the middle lane will split between these two uses instead of only a single lane going to parking. I finish with the 3rd photo to show you the truncated lane-use arrows used to reduce sign height. Oh, and a DMS message that was manufactured in MS Paint, but I think you'll agree it's quite clear.


Let's flip to airside for the rest of the page. With the new Terminal A open, the old one is slowly being demolished. The terminal wings were being removed in 2024, and then the building's fate is being decided (repurposed or removed, in part or in full).


Runways are roads for airplanes, so they go here. As my airplane taxis south, my photos swing around the west side of our taxiway back toward Terminal C. This work is also related to the new Terminal A - adjusting the wearing surface so that the heaviest concrete lines up with the wheelpaths to and from the new terminal instead of the old one.

Onto US 1-9
To NJ 21
To US 22
To I-95/NJ Turnpike
Onto I-78
Into Newark
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