The Lincoln Tunnel Expressway is an eight block-long, mostly four-lane, north–south
arterial road
An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...
between the portals of the
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned New Y ...
and West 30th Street in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Dyer Avenue
Dyer Avenue is a short, north-south thoroughfare in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, located between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue. It is primarily used by traffic exiting the Lincoln Tunnel. Dyer Avenue runs bet ...
is an
at-grade At-grade may refer to:
* At-grade intersection, a crossing between roads on the same level
* Road junction
*Level crossing, where a road or path crosses a railway on the same level
* Diamond crossing, where two railway tracks cross
* At-grade railwa ...
roadway paralleling part of the mostly
depressed roadway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
and serves traffic entering and leaving the expressway and the tubes of the tunnel. Like the tunnel, the roads are owned and operated by the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized ...
.
They traverse the
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
neighborhoods of
Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...
and
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
between
Ninth
In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second.
Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...
and
Tenth avenues.
The highway serves as the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel from Manhattan, with the entrance from
Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken is a Township (New Jersey), township in the North Hudson, New Jersey, northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the North River ...
being the
Lincoln Tunnel Helix (
NJ 495).
Route description
The Lincoln Tunnel Expressway runs eight blocks and runs within the
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
neighborhoods of
Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...
and
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, between
Ninth Avenue to the east and
Tenth Avenue to the west, connecting to the
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned New Y ...
to New Jersey at its northern end. The southern terminus of the expressway is located at West 30th Street, midblock between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. The block of 30th Street between these two avenues is a six-lane divided street: the southern roadway hosts eastbound local traffic, while the northern roadway funnels northbound traffic from Tenth Avenue east into the northbound expressway, and southbound traffic from Ninth Avenue west into the expressway. Southbound expressway traffic is forced to turn left onto eastbound 30th Street.
![Lincoln Manh portal 9-38 jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Lincoln_Manh_portal_9-38_jeh.JPG)
The expressway then continues north as
Dyer Avenue
Dyer Avenue is a short, north-south thoroughfare in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, located between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue. It is primarily used by traffic exiting the Lincoln Tunnel. Dyer Avenue runs bet ...
, a divided four-lane street, for one block. At 31st Street, there is a traffic light, and the expressway continues north underneath the
Manhattan West
Manhattan West is a mixed-use development by Brookfield Properties, built as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment. The project spans 8-acres and features four office towers, one boutique hotel, one residential building, of retail space an ...
development and local streets as a grade-separated highway. The highway passes under 33rd Street, where an entrance and exit ramp to and from the Lincoln Tunnel descends from 33rd Street to the median of the below-grade highway, merging with the respective directions of traffic. The Lincoln Tunnel Expressway passes under local streets for three more blocks. At 36th Streets ramps lead to and from the southbound highway, while a ramp from northbound Dyer Avenue and southbound Ninth Avenue merges into the northbound highway.
The Lincoln Tunnel Expressway passes under 37th Street and then curves west. The northbound roadway splits into two ramps: one leading to the normally-bidirectional center tube, the other leading to a short tunnel that connects to the westbound-only northern tube. The bidirectional roadway can be closed to either direction of traffic if the center tube is operating in one direction, although southbound expressway traffic would be completely cut off when the center tube operates westbound to New Jersey. The expressway dips under a ramp to northbound Dyre Avenue, which splits from both the eastbound-only southern tube and the eastbound lane of the center tube just west of this overpass. A ramp from the
Port Authority Bus Terminal
The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving abo ...
merges with the westbound highway at this point. The expressway then connects to the western tube of the tunnel just east of Tenth Avenue.
History
Need
In 1934, a number of buildings in the neighborhood were demolished to construct the
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
of Dyer Avenue, an arterial street providing access to the then-under-construction Lincoln Tunnel. Dyer Avenue was named after General George Rathborne Dyer, who was the chairman of the board of the Port Authority and died while the tunnel was under construction.
The tunnel's first (now center) tube opened in December 1937.
A second tube opened to the north in 1945, but the tunnels only had a combined capacity of 15 million vehicles per year, and by 1949, the tubes were already carrying 11 million annual vehicles.
In March 1951, the Port Authority commissioners gave their approval to preliminary plans for a third tube of the Lincoln Tunnel, to the south of the two existing tubes. The project would also involve extending the Dyer Avenue approach, on the Manhattan side, southward from 34th Street to 30th Street. It included the approach roads in Manhattan and
Hudson County, New Jersey
Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in t ...
, as outlined in the Joint Study of Arterial Facilities which had been commissioned by the agency and the
Triborough Bridge Authority
The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), doing business as MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates seven toll bridges and two tunnels in New York City. In terms of traf ...
.
The tube was completed in May 1957 at a cost of $85 million.
Construction
The Lincoln Tunnel Expressway was first conceived during the planning process for the tunnel's third tube. The city of New York had had concerns that existing streets could not adequately handle the extra traffic from the third tube. After fifteen months of negotiation, the city and the Port Authority came to an agreement in June 1952. The agency agreed to widen 30th Street between 10th Avenue and 12th Avenue, and to provide ramps between the tunnel and the West Side Highway. This included the construction of the Lincoln Tunnel Expressway between 30th Street and the tunnel entrance at 38th Street.
The expressway was opened on February 19, 1957, just before the opening of the third tube, at a cost of $11 million. At the highway's opening, it was described as a "triumph of engineering skill". ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' stated, "In constructing the approach highway, engineers had to build a bridge under an existing bridge, provide two twin tunnels and five viaducts, depress the roadbed in part, elevate it at other places, and develop an intricate network of entrance and exit ramps at intermediate points."
As part of the expressway design, ramps were constructed to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Pamphlets were issued to motorists at the expressway's opening.
Mid-Manhattan Expressway and I-495 designation
The Lincoln Tunnel Expressway is designated the
unsigned
Unsigned can refer to:
* An unsigned artist is a musical artist or group not attached or signed to a record label
** Unsigned Music Awards, ceremony noting achievements of unsigned artists
** Unsigned band web, online community
* Similarly, the c ...
NY 495. The expressway was to be integrated into the unbuilt
Mid-Manhattan Expressway
Interstate 495 (I-495), commonly known as the Long Island Expressway (LIE), is an List of auxiliary Interstate Highways, auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is jointly maintained by the New York State ...
, a crosstown route leading to the
Queens-Midtown Tunnel, now part of
Interstate 495, and be designated I-495.
The I-495 designation was assigned to the New Jersey approach to the tunnel in 1958
[ in anticipation of the Mid-Manhattan Expressway being completed. That crosstown project was later canceled and was officially removed from I-495 on January 1, 1970. The New Jersey stretch of I-495 became ]New Jersey Route 495
Route 495 is a freeway in Hudson County, New Jersey, in the United States that connects the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95, I-95) at exits 16E and 17 in Secaucus to New York State Route 495 (NY 495) inside the Lincoln Tunnel in Weehawk ...
in 1979. The I-495 designation was removed from the Lincoln Tunnel In 1989.
Open space and air rights
The area around the Lincoln Tunnel Expressway-Dyer Avenue corridor has been rezoned for commercial and residential development as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project
Hudson Yards is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, bounded roughly by 30th Street in the south, 41st Street in the north, the West Side Highway in the west, and Eighth Avenue in the east.Chapter 11: Figures The area is the s ...
and the construction of the 7 Subway Extension
The 7 Subway Extension is a subway extension of the New York City Subway's IRT Flushing Line, which is served by the local and express services. The extension stretches southwest from its previous terminus at Times Square, at Seventh Avenu ...
. The 2003 the New York City Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
issued a master plan that calls for the creation of a network of open space between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue to create a park system from West 39th Street to West 34th Street.[
As of 2014, the PANYNJ owned about of property in Midtown West, mostly between 30th and 41st streets and 9th and 10th avenues, much it dedicated to transportation.
In addition to owning the roadways the PANYNJ also owns adjacent parcels along the ]right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
and is actively attempting to divest itself of the property acquired during original construction or for development of the canceled ARC Tunnel
Access to the Region's Core (ARC) was a proposed commuter-rail project to increase passenger service capacity on New Jersey Transit (NJT) between Secaucus Junction in New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City. New infrastructure would have i ...
. Funds would be used for the redevelopment of the Port Authority Bus Terminal
The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving abo ...
and other infrastructure improvements.
In 2011, the city approved construction of two 18 stories building at 9th Avenue between 37th and 38th streets.
In April 2012, the PANYNJ reported that a proposal had been made by developer Larry Silverstein
Larry A. Silverstein (born May 30, 1931) is an American businessman. Among his real estate projects, he is the developer of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City, as well as one of New York's tallest resident ...
, who has a memorandum of understanding to develop this property at 39th Street to construct a bus garage with a residential tower above it. The parcel is not large enough to accommodate bus ramps and would require the use of elevators, a new type of application for bus storage. In September 2014, Extell Development Company
Extell Development Company is an American real estate developer of residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and mixed-use properties. Founded in 1989 by Gary Barnett, the company’s portfolio exceeds 20 million square feet. The company has ...
purchased air rights for $30 million for a parcel between 36-37th streets. A platform or a cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
structure over the expressway could be built. While approved by the PANYNJ the sale of parcels at 30th Street to the McDermont Company for a 500,000-square-foot residential tower the plans were dropped. and the land was put back on the market.
Exit list
See also
*Trans-Manhattan Expressway
Interstate 95 (I-95) is part of the Interstate Highway System and runs from Miami, Florida, to the Canada–United States border near Houlton, Maine. In the U.S. state of New York, I-95 extends from the George Washington Bridge in New Yor ...
* Holland Tunnel Rotary
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Streets of Manhattan
Lincoln Tunnel
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Expressways in New York City
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Chelsea, Manhattan
Hudson Yards, Manhattan