New Jersey Route 10

Route description

The route then forms the border between Parsippany to the north and Morris Plains to the south, passing over NJ Transit's Morristown Line before coming to an interchange with Route 53 and crossing the intersection of US 202. The route fully enters Parsippany again before crossing into Hanover, coming to an interchange with Dryden Way, where the route widens to eight lanes. Past Dryden Way, Route 10 features an interchange of I-287 and narrows to four lanes. The road heads through the Whippany section of Hanover, where it has an interchange of Parsippany Road (CR 511) and crosses the Morristown & Erie Railway's Whippany Line west of the Whippany Railway Museum. Route 10 enters East Hanover at the bridge over Whippany Brook. Along Route 10 in East Hanover, the road passes several businesses.

History

Route 10 roughly follows a portion of an old Lenape Trail from the Passaic River to Whippany. The Newark and Mount Pleasant Turnpike was established along the present-day alignment of Route 10 east of Dover on March 12, 1806, existing as a turnpike until before 1833.

Route 10 was designated in 1927 to run from Jersey City west to Route 6 (now US 46) west of Dover, passing through Newark. This routing of Route 10 followed its current alignment and ran east along present-day CR 577, Mt Pleasant Avenue, and Park Avenue to Newark, where it followed CR 508 and Route 7 to US 1/9 at the Tonnele Circle in Jersey City. By 1930, the road's western terminus had been moved to bypass Dover to terminate at Ledgewood. The earliest completed sections of an upgraded highway were completed from Livingston Circle to Whippany, with the bridge over the Passaic River completed in 1930. From there the road was extended to Route 53 and finished at Ledgewood. In Essex County, the route that the highway would be constructed along was contentious from the start. In 1930 and 1931, three proposals for arteries were presented, all paralleling existing railroads. Though demands to decide a route and begin construction extended to at least 1937, no highway was ever constructed, and the road terminated at West Orange.

To solve this issue, a new route for Route 10 was designated in 1952 to run along a new, never-built alignment farther to the north, running through Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair, West Orange, and along the Livingston/Roseland border, roughly along much of the routing of present-day CR 611 (Eagle Rock Avenue), and following its current alignment through Morris County to Ledgewood. A spur of the route was also planned in 1952 to run from Montclair south to Orange. A year later, in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 10 was defined onto its current alignment, with its eastern terminus moved to Prospect Avenue in West Orange. In 1998, the Ledgewood Circle at the western terminus of the route was replaced with a signalized T-intersection. In the mid-2000s, an $11.5 million project was undertaken to improve safety on the portion of Route 10 in Hanover and East Hanover Townships by widening existing lanes and adding turning lanes to the road.

Joint Resolution No. 3, page 844, of the 160th Legislature (1936) designated Route 10 as the American Legion Memorial Highway in honor of the services of the members of the American Legion in World War I.

Major intersections

References

References

1. "New Jersey Route 10 straight line diagram". [[New Jersey Department of Transportation]].
2. "overview of New Jersey Route 10".
3. Snyder, John (1969). "[https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries 1606-1968]"
4. "CHAPTER XI. Travel And Transportation—Turnpikes—The Morris Canal—Railroads.". [[RootsWeb.com]].
5. State of New Jersey, Laws of 1927, Chapter 319.{{dead link. (April 2017)
6. "1927 New Jersey Road Map". State of New Jersey.
7. (1932-01-31). "WORK PROGRESSING ON ROUTE 10". The New York Times.
8. (1937-10-03). "URGES DECISION ON JERSEY HIGHWAY; Orange Realty Board Criticizes Long Delay for Extension to Route 10". The New York Times.
9. State of New Jersey, Laws of 1952, Chapter 289.
10. "1953 renumbering". New Jersey Department of Highways.
11. (1952-12-16). "New Road Signs Ready in New Jersey". [[The New York Times]].
12. Balston, Mottel. "A Short History Of Roxbury Township, Morris County, New Jersey". RoxburyNewJersey.com.
13. (November 26, 2003). "Lettiere cuts ribbon on Route 10 congestion relief program in Morris County". [[New Jersey Department of Transportation]].
14. State of New Jersey; ''Laws of 1936, Joint Resolution No. 3''