New Jersey Roads - NJ 10


The first reassurance shield in each direction.


NJ 10 begins at a former rotary with US 46. It's still called the Ledgewood Circle by most Jerseyites (just like NJ 495 is still called Route 3), but now two-lane undivided US 46 to the east T's at four-lane divided NJ 10, which becomes four-lane divided US 46 west of the intersection until the Lake Hiawatha connector to I-80 (Exit 29 on 80). 10 used to run the length of Mt. Pleasant Avenue, and possibly down Park Avenue to the east of that as well according to some maps, but has been truncated to CR 577 and Prospect Avenue.


Almost right after NJ 10 EB begins, it runs into button copy. Very old button copy, from when the road was first constructed through Succasunna.


On the left and right sides of NJ 10 at those exact railroad tracks are these two very old but mismatched crossbucks. I have an excellent hypothesis why this happened. Originally, there was no button copy here (including the previous sign), and the embossed crossbucks in the median served as the warning for both directions. (I don't know if there was a median or not way back then, but whether there was or wasn't, this sign would have served that purpose). Either when this alignment was twinned or, if it never was, when NJDOT decided to get more serious about safety, the EB-only button copy warning sign and crossbucks were added. I do wonder why there's no corresponding westbound button copy, though.


From Salem St. SB in Dover. If you go straight, you can get to NJ 10 WB, but it makes more sense to turn right to go there.

Morris County, if you were wondering. You oughtn't have to wonder.


Speaking of Morris County, I know NJDOT wouldn't make this sign. Actually, neither would the county. This is a Denville install.


Despite what contractors say on the ramp from NJ 10 EB, this is US 202.


Coming... coming... came. Somehow, I doubt the contractors made it to 1987 intact. This is in an open, overgrown field just off NJ 10 west of I-287.

Sylvan Dr. WB at Dryden Way in the office park northwest of NJ 10/I-287.


On EB NJ 10 at I-287. The EB-NB ramp is the only loop of the interchange, which was designed so that there are no weaves anywhere. A lot of ramps, like SB-EB, are a lot longer than they need to be, because they hook way around the interchange and come all the way back. These signs all probably date from the designation of the freeway as 287, which would have happened as soon as it was long enough to be an Interstate, probably in 1967. The only intact shields at the interchange are on that first sign, though it is possible the others were just patched on top without taking down the other 2di-width originals.


Newer, larger photo features newer, larger shields.


The WB signage at I-287. On WB 10, you've been on 2 lanes of asphalt, which get quite backed up at Jefferson Road. You cross that intersection, and suddenly there are three concrete lanes, and the exit to NB I-287 is suddenly right there. From the interchange westward, the original concrete lanes of NJ 10 continue underneath new asphalt, but its entire character has changed for a brief half-mile. The effect is worth a side trip - start a few miles east of the interchange, then U-turn and come back west on the 9-lane-wide section of 10. As the WB ramp leaves to I-287 NB, it looks like there was a former ramp joining it from the left. That was the original left turn from NJ 10 EB onto a very short stretch of I-287 NB that then went up to US 46. Most of it followed the current 287 alignment, but it was constructed as a Parsippany bypass unrelated to the Interstate, and it veered off at the current I-80 interchange (287 goes left, this unnumbered road went right). The evidence of the US 46 connection is even stronger - there's an overpowered wye intersection at the end of Smith Rd. that was the end of the bypass.


Something about the American Legion that hasn't been legible in many a year. EB just past I-287, before even Jefferson Road.


The (EB) Brookside Diner is indeed at the side of a brook, the Malapardis. In back of the diner is this original NJ 10 bridge on Old Mt. Pleasant Ave.


The eastbound side of the CR 511 underpass. Unlike most old state highways, NJ 10 was still the same number before 1953.


Now the WB side. On most bridges, you would come to the route number and year in the same order in either direction, but on this bridge that happens to not be the case.


The underside of the bridge, which has seen much better days.


A wide detour shield appeared to me somewhere removed from NJ 10, possibly on CR 511.


A Ford Fairline made my acquaintance in Whippany.


EB on Mt. Pleasant Ave., old Route 10 (just a block south of NJ 10 through East Hanover).


Walking the wrong way down the former WB jughandle for Walnut St. in Livingston, Essex CR 607. It was converted to a far-side jughandle via Daven Ave. several years ago, and some part of the original ramp was either left intact or paved over, or a combination of both. I report, you decide.


Coming back up the ramp the correct way. From the second photo, it curved left (there was no roadway coming from the left and continuing straight ahead, that's what replaced the jughandle) directly into Walnut St. The problem was that in order to develop the area at the end of Daven Ave., businesses wanted better access from NJ 10 EB, and that caused a new EB jughandle to be built as well as the realignment on the WB side.


A wide view of the infamous Livingston Circle, home to a very high proportion of accidents, from EB 10. Doesn't help that Northfield Rd. (CR 508) WB merges into one lane in the middle of the circle, or that direct left turns are allowed from NJ 10 but not any other road. Old Road (former NJ 10) used to merge in as well on the west side but has now been cut off, leaving only a sidewalk conection. NJ 10 was restriped several times in the 2000's to try to improve capacity and reduce accidents. The third EB lane beginning and ending on either side of the intersection is a great improvement, although it comes at the cost of the direct EB-SB right turn onto Eisenhower that used to bypass the red light. The WB side took more time, with various iterations of striping dumping several lanes together without regard, but finally they seem to have hit on an approach that works - each lane flows directly across the intersection!


Signage approaching and departing the circle on EB NJ 10. The first dates from the 1960's (the date is on there), or the original construction of Eisenhower Parkway and the Livingston Circle. The second might be that old, and is found on the Northfield Road traffic light. You might be able to read the Northfield Ave. (not Road) on the wide view above the diagram; there's also at least one Northfield Dr., or there was a few years ago at least.

WB approaching the circle - this sign has no border!


Two Livingston relics along NJ 10. The old-style street sign is right in the center of town, and amazingly survived the new town center (see the Livingston link below for more photos from that area). The repainted state-issue lightpost is at Greenwood Court.


The former WB reassurance shield at Shrewsbury Drive in Livingston (a 1960's construction linking CR 527 to CR 634/Laurel Avenue) is not just any old shield. When the NJ 24 freeway was completed between Millburn and I-287, NJ 124 took over the surface routing from its Exit 7 into Morristown. This meant that a bunch of NJ 24 shields were replaced by NJ 124 shields, and able to be recycled. Using a flash, it's easy to uncover where this happened. (I think this was not from the western decommissioned section of NJ 24, between NJ 57 and Morristown, because shields there are allowed to stay up until they decompose, as people and other signage still call it Route 24.)


Old shield EB at Pleasant Valley Way, small shield (on a sign that seems county-erected) approaching Mile END at Prospect Ave. CR 577 continues to the left as Prospect Avenue, taking you to Exit 8 on I-280, and also straight ahead, while CR 677, formerly Spur CR 577, branches to the right on Prospect, ending at Northfield Road. Even though that's a former designation, brand-new signs like in the third photo herald its existence once more.

Whippany Railway Museum

Westward onto US 46
Onto CR 617, Sussex Tpk.
Onto US 202
Onto I-287
To I-80
Onto the Eisenhower Pkwy. (and toward I-280)
Turn off NJ 10 into Livingston
Onto Northfield Road, CR 508
Onto Livingston Ave., CR 527
Onto CR 577
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