What caused terrible traffic problems on the New Jersey Turnpike recently?
THE NEED FOR A MODERN LINK IN THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR: From colonial times, the corridor between New York and Philadelphia – indeed, the corridor along the entire eastern seaboard – has been heavily traveled first by stagecoach, and later by motor vehicles. This corridor placed New Jersey as the key link in the East Coast travel chain. With the introduction of automobiles, this corridor took on even greater importance. By the 1930’s, US 1 (and south of New Brunswick, US 130), which passed through small towns and large cities alike, had been so choked with traffic that the state of New Jersey considered the construction of a superhighway along this corridor. In response, proposals were developed to construct a 12-lane superhighway from Boston to Washington. The sketches showed a road with six carriageways, each carrying two lanes for express, local and service (frontage) traffic. The restricted budgets of the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II delayed the superhighway, ori
Traffic was moving smoothly Thursday night on the New Jersey Turnpike and most other major area highways, with few problems reported. By 6:30 p.m., the New Jersey DOT Web site reported an earlier 9-mile northbound delay between Exits 7 and 8 in the Mercer County area had cleared, and no major accidents were reported. Some small areas of congestion were still being reported along the Atlantic City Expressway, but no problems were reported on the Garden State Parkway and other major roadways, including I-287, I-78 and Route 17. Minor delays were reported at Newark Liberty International Airport and other major airports in the region. AAA says nearly 800,000 New Jerseyans will travel more than 50 miles over the holiday weekend , down nearly 5 percent from last year. Sources: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20091126_ap_holidayt
WESTAMPTON, N.J. – State police said yesterday a tractor-trailer accident on the New Jersey Turnpike has caused traffic backups of several miles for much of the day in the southern part of the state. State Police Sgt. Julian Castellanos says a southbound tractor-trailer carrying paper products caught fire after hitting an embankment near an overpass in Westampton around 12:45 p.m. Truck driver William Ivy, 56, of Bowling Green, Ky. was taken to a hospital. Castellanos said Ivy’s injuries were not life-threatening. Castellanos said traffic had to be detoured for several hours in both directions as engineers inspected the overpass for damage. – AP Sources: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/20091129_Accident_snarls_traffic_on_N_J__Turnpike.
