New Jersey Roads - NJ 27 - Elizabeth/Newark

in Elizabeth and Newark

Above: the first SB reassurance, on Poinier Street just after NJ 27 SB begins from Broad Street. Not bad, but the turn onto Frelinghuysen Ave. and Frelinghuysen itself are both not signed, either on the surface or from US 22 (which is where the US 1&9 shield is pointing you).


Entering Elizabeth, NJ 27 is known as Rahway Avenue, which is the sign you can see here. There are four different street signs, each of which has picked its own particular angle of repose.


I'll read the first one for you to make it easier. It points down Pearl St.; E'PORT is Elizabethport, which clearly didn't fit on this sign. The LEFT banner beneath the traffic light in the second photo (half a block later) seems doubly redundant. That second sign keeps you following NJ 27, which is adequately signed all through Elizabeth except at the next turn, Westfield Avenue (and NJ 28). Following the through street, Cherry St., at Westfield eventually takes you around to the beginning of NJ 82 at NJ 439, which is west of the center of the city. All this trouble because Elizabeth wanted Rahway Avenue to be one-way and quaint under its old arch.


One-way Rahway Avenue under its quaint old arch.


On Cherry Street over Conrail as NJ 27 NB.


Now on Chilton St., NJ 27 SB, 0.2 miles farther by Conrail's mileage.


If you stay on Cherry St. too long, don't fear. According to Orchard St. in Westfield, it's still NJ 27 well after 27 turns off. This is how you end up on NJ 82.


After bypassing downtown, NJ 27 comes back to Broad St. on Westfield Ave. This overhead may be illuminated or may just be a weird city install.


SB starting on Broad Street and turning onto Westfield Ave. Signage implies that NJ 28 has a block-long multiplex with NJ 27 SB between Cherry St. and Chilton St., which further implies that NJ 27 once used Cherry Street in both directions. Maps imply that NJ 27 once used Broad St. directly to Rahway Ave., so I'm sure the route's changed several times, and the straight-line diagrams have kept up with it, ending NJ 28 at Chilton. FORM 2 LINES is an outdated way of saying "use the shoulder."


The NB Broad St. counterpart to the first SB sign of the three immediately above.

Old style P, SB.


The old signals at the northeast corner of Prince St./Magnolia Ave.


Blocks-long factory in Elizabeth.


All on the EB side, and at least the last one is gone. The first two are on the same original post at Virginia St.

Ewww. Is that Pennsylvania font? SB.


Heading north from there into Newark.

Back south on NJ 27
Back to NJ 27 main page


Onto NJ 28
Toward the Goethals Bridge, I-278
Onto US 22
To the N.J. Turnpike, I-95
To US 1&9
See more of Elizabeth
See more of Newark
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