U.S. Route 1/9 Truck (US 1/9 Truck) is a U.S. Route in the northern part of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

that stretches from the eastern edge of Newark to the Tonnele Circle in Jersey City. It is the alternate road for US 1/9 that trucks must use because they are prohibited from using the

Pulaski Skyway The Pulaski Skyway is a four-lane bridge-causeway in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, carrying an expressway designated U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) for most of its length. The structure has a total length of . Its ...

, which carries the main routes of US 1/9. It also serves traffic accessing the New Jersey Turnpike, Route 440, and Route 7. The route is a four- to six-lane road its entire length, with portions of it being a

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

that runs through urban areas. From its south end to about halfway through Kearny, US 1/9 Truck is

freeway 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 ...

-standard, with access to other roads controlled by interchanges. While the US 1/9 Truck designation was first used in 1953, the roadway comprising the route was originally designated as an extension of Route 1 in 1922, a route that in its full length stretched from Trenton to Jersey City. US 1/9 was designated along the road in 1926, and, one year later, in 1927, this portion of Route 1 was replaced with Route 25 as well as with a portion of Route 1 north of the Communipaw Avenue intersection. Following the opening of the Pulaski Skyway in 1932, US 1/9 and Route 25 were realigned to the new skyway. After trucks were banned from the skyway in 1934, the portion of Route 25 between Newark and Route 1 was designated as Route 25T. In 1953, US 1/9 Truck was designated in favor of Route 25T and Route 1 along this segment of road. The portion of the truck route north of Route 7 was rebuilt as part of a $271.9-million (equivalent to $ in ) project to construct new approach roads to connect US 1/9 Truck, Route 7, the Pulaski Skyway, Route 139, and US 1/9 north of Tonnele Circle and local streets in Jersey City. Construction, which started in late 2008, was completed in late 2012. The highway is posted on

reassurance shield A reassurance marker or confirming marker is a type of traffic sign that confirms the identity of the route being traveled on. It does not provide information found on other types of road signs, such as distances traveled, distances to other locat ...

s as a north–south route. However, the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transporta ...

(NJDOT) Straight Line Diagram lists it as an east–west route, and recently updated mileposts depict this, with west direction signed for southbound traffic and east for northbound traffic.

Route description

US 1/9 Truck begins at an interchange with access to and from the southbound direction US 1/9, the Pulaski Skyway, in

the Ironbound The Ironbound is a neighborhood in the city of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a large working-class multi-ethnic community, covering approximately of well maintained streets and homes. Historically, the area was cal ...

section of the city of Newark in Essex County. The truck route is meant to bypass the portion of US 1/9 along the Pulaski Skyway, which trucks are restricted from. It merges onto

Raymond Boulevard Raymond Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in Newark, New Jersey. The eastern portion of the road acts as the westbound member of a one-way pair; eastbound traffic uses Market Street and Ferry Street. Raymond Boulevard carries eastbound and westb ...

, which continues west from the US 1/9 and US 1/9 Truck interchange into

Downtown Newark Downtown Newark is the Central Business District of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Downtown is the site of the original Puritan settlement of Newark located at a bend in the Passaic River. The first settlers, led by Robert ...

. The truck restriction on US 1/9 is for the "safety and welfare of the public" according to NJDOT, not a specific bridge defect. At this point, the truck route becomes a four-lane

, heading to the east. A short distance later, the road comes to an interchange with the New Jersey Turnpike ( Interstate 95 -95 and Doremus Avenue before crossing over the Passaic River on a

vertical lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and sw ...

. Here, the route enters Kearny in

Hudson County 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 ...

and continues east into industrial areas as the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

. The road has a

right-in/right-out Right-in/right-out (RIRO) and left-in/left-out (LILO) refer to a type of three-way road intersection where turning movements of vehicles are restricted. A RIRO permits only right turns and a LILO permits only left turns. "Right-in" and "left-in" r ...

in both directions that provides access to Jacobus Avenue before it comes to an interchange with County Route 659 (CR 659). From here, US 1/9 Truck passes under a

Conrail Shared Assets Operations Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail ( reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Area ...

(CSAO) railroad line and becomes a six-lane divided highway, coming to an at-grade intersection with Hackensack Avenue. Past this intersection, the road crosses the

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The drainage basin, watershed of the ri ...

on a

and enters Jersey City. Upon entering Jersey City, the road becomes Communipaw Avenue and intersects the northern terminus of Route 440 near the Hudson Mall. At this intersection, Communipaw Avenue continues to the east toward

Communipaw Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its nam ...

and US 1/9 Truck turns to the north, becoming an unnamed four-lane undivided road and bisecting Lincoln Park before coming to an intersection with CR 605. Here, the road becomes a four-lane divided highway again, passing some urban business areas before running between wetlands to the west and Holy Name Cemetery to the east. The route heads into more commercial areas again before passing urban residences, coming to an intersection that provides access to the Pulaski Skyway. Here, US 1/9 Truck turns east on Broadway, running through a business district. A short distance later, it turns north onto an unnamed road with CR 642 continuing east on Broadway. The route passes under

PATH A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desire p ...

Newark–World Trade Center Newark–World Trade Center is a rapid transit service operated by the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). It is colored red on the PATH service map and trains on this service display red marker lights. This service operates from Pennsylvania S ...

line and CSAO's

Northern Branch The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch te ...

line before crossing under the Pulaski Skyway. Immediately after, US 1/9 Truck intersects the eastern terminus of Route 7 and turns to the east, with CR 645 continuing north at this intersection. The truck route becomes a four-lane divided highway called the St. Paul's Viaduct that runs to the north of the Pulaski Skyway and passes through industrial sectors, crossing over the Northern Branch line and CR 646. A short distance later, US 1/9 Truck comes to the Tonnele Circle with US 1/9 and Route 139, where it ends. The

East Coast Greenway The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. In 2020, the Greenway received over 50 million visits. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991. ...

runs along the north side of the highway.

History

What is now US 1/9 Truck between Newark and Jersey City was originally chartered as part of Ferry Road by the New Jersey Colonial legislature in 1765. The road stretched from Newark to Jersey City along Ferry Street, US 1/9 Truck, Communipaw Avenue, and Grand Street. The Passaic and Hackensack Ferry and Road Company took over maintenance in 1828, followed by the Newark Plank Road and Ferry in 1849 (not to be confused with the similarly named

Newark Plank Road The Newark Plank Road was a major artery between Hudson Waterfront at Paulus Hook (in today's Jersey City) and city of Newark further inland across the New Jersey Meadows. As its name suggests, a plank road was constructed of wooden planks laid ...

). Though the company's contract was to be extended for 50 years in 1900, this was overturned by the

Supreme Court of New Jersey The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...

. In 1913 the road west of Lincoln Park became the first segment of the

. The current route of US 1/9 Truck was designated to be an extension of Route 1 in 1922, a route that was to run from Trenton to Jersey City.State of New Jersey, Laws of 1922, Chapter 253. When the

U.S. Highway System The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

was established in 1926, the current truck route became a part of the US 1/9 concurrency. A year later, in the

1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering In 1927, New Jersey's state highways were renumbered. The old system, which had been defined in sequence by the legislature since 1916, was growing badly, as several routes shared the same number, and many unnumbered state highways had been d ...

, Route 25 was designated to run along the entire length of the route along with US 1/9 as part of its journey from the

Benjamin Franklin Bridge The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge and known locally as the Ben Franklin Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and ...

in Camden to the

Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects the New York City neighborhood of Hudson Square in Lower Manhattan to the east with Jersey City in New Jersey to the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Author ...

in Jersey City, while Route 1 was also designated along the portion north of Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City as a part of its routing from Bayonne to Rockleigh.State of New Jersey, Laws of 1927, Chapter 319. Following the opening of the Pulaski Skyway in 1932, US 1/9 and Route 25 were moved to the new bridge. After trucks were banned from the Pulaski Skyway in 1934, the portion of Route 25 between Newark and Route 1 was designated as Route 25T. In the

1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering On January 1, 1953, the New Jersey Highway Department renumbered many of the State Routes. This renumbering was first proposed in 1951 in order to reduce confusion to motorists. A few rules were followed in deciding what to renumber: *No state ro ...

, US 1/9 Truck was designated to replace all of Route 25T as well as the portion of Route 1 between Route 25T and the Tonnele Circle. Beginning in 2009,

NJDOT The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...

replaced the viaduct that carries the route over St. Paul's Avenue and a CSAO line. The St. Paul's Viaduct was built in 1928 and determined structurally deficient. The $271.9-million (equivalent to $ in ) replacement was completed in September 2011. In addition to replacing the St. Paul's Avenue viaduct, the approaches to US 1/9 Truck between Route 7 and the Tonnele Circle were improved. Studies are being conducted to make the intersection with Route 440 a multilevel

traffic circle A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford Eng ...

and to make the northern and southern (Route 440) approaches into a multiuse urban boulevard that includes grade separations and additional medians. The studies are in anticipation of a general increase of activity in

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the system of navigable water ...

, as well as new development on Jersey City's West Side and

Hackensack RiverWalk Hackensack RiverWalk, also known as the Hackensack River Greenway, a is partially constructed greenway along the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The linear park, which closely follows the contour ...

Major intersections

Notes

References

External links