Interchange Index
I-95, US 1, US 9, US 46, US 9W, NJ 4, NJ 67, and Palisades Parkway
Fort Lee, NJ
Overhead Picture from terraserver-usa.com
Overview: I-95 is the main east-west highway through this interchange; I-95 "south," towards Philadelphia, actually exits the northwest corner, while I-95 "north," to New York and Boston, enters on the George Washington Bridge at the southeast corner. To minimize this confusion, on this page, I will refer to I-95 WB and I-95 EB, not NB and SB. Hopefully, this will alleviate a little bit of inevitable confusion. US 46 enters at lower left, and ends where it merges with I-95. The limited access highway at far right is the Palisades Interstate Parkway, which ends here at the beginning of the George Washington Bridge. US 9W enters at the top, on the major local street, turns onto a connector road at the parclo-ish interchange, and ends at the US 46/I-95 junction. NJ 67 is the southward continuation of US 9W after it turns onto the Parkway/I-95 connector; it runs southward, crosses I-95 on a fairly wide and long bridge, and ends about 1.4 miles south of the photo. NJ 4 enters at top left, just east of I-95; it ends as it merges into I-95. US 1 and US 9 multiplex through the entire interchange as well; they enter on the George Washington Bridge, and leave on US 46 WB. From I-95, NJ 67, US 9W, and US 46 are Exit 73 and NJ 4 is Exit 72; no other highways have exit numbers here.
Interchange Description: This interchange's layout is complicated by the fact that there are actually two sets of I-95 mainline lanes, becuase of the George Washington Bridge's double-deck structure. Some exits and entrances access both mainlines, creating a need for lots of bridges to avoid weaving. Some of the ramps mentioned are kind of hard to see on the overhead view - I'm going by the NJDOT diagram of this interchange as I write, which shows everything in much greater clarity.
The easiest way to look at this interchange is probably to look at each direction on I-95, as most ramps connect to I-95 somewhere. This approach, however, is confused by the fact that each direction on I-95 has two carriageways; the outer carriageways connect to the lower level of the George Washington Bridge, and the inner carriageways connect to the upper level.
I-95 Westbound, Outer Carriageway: The outer carriageway has very few connections between the George Washington Bridge and US 9W; it mostly passes under ramps to and from the inner carriageways. The first exit is a right exit to US 9W, which joins a service road before meeting US 9W at a signalized intersection. The counterpart to this ramp is a cloverleaf loop just inside it, which merges into the right side of I-95 WB shortly afterwards. (Note the small U-turn ramp just east of US 9W; this ramp allows traffic from the WB service road to enter I-95 WB without making a U-turn across US 9W.) The next exit from I-95 WB is a left exit to US 46 WB, which leaves the mainline just before the US 9W bridge. Another left exit follows just after the US 9W overpass; this leads to NJ 4. As this left exit crosses back over the outer I-95 mainline, a third left exit leaves the outer mainline and joins the inner mainline. Finally, a ramp joins the outer mainline from the right, carrying traffic from the inner mainline.
I-95 Westbound, Inner Carriageway: The inner carriageway actually has more exits and entrances than the outer, which results in a lot more bridges than are really necessary. The first exit leaves as I-95 is barely touching the ground after crossing the Washington Bridge; this short, tightly curved ramp leads to the Palisades Parkway. After the mainline passes the EB tollbooth, a pair of ramps on the right cross over the outer mainline and provide access to and from the northern service road. The mainline then crosses under NJ 67, after which a right exit climbs to meet Center Avenue (the next overpass). The next exit is for US 46; it exits right and joins the ramp from the outer WB mainline before crossing over I-95. Another exit then leads to NJ 4; this also meets a ramp from the outer WB mainline. This ramp also provides a connection from the inner to the outer mainline via a left exit from NJ 4. Finally, the ramp from the outer mainline joins the right side of the inner mainline.
I-95 Eastbound, Outer Carriageway: As the outer carriageway enters the interchange, a slip ramp to the left provides access to the inner carriageway and the upper level of the Washington Bridge. Another left exit shortly afterwards is a ramp fo US 9W and the southern service road. A ramp joins the right side from NJ 4 EB; before crossing under US 9W, the mainline simultaneously crosses over the ramp to US 9W and the ramp from US 46. This ramp soon joins the left side of the carriageway, just as a ramp from the right brings in traffic from US 9W. A right exit then provides access to the southern service road; lastly, a left exit leads to the inner carriageway and another pair of ramps for the souther service road. The outer mainline then passes through the toll booths, and passes under a number of streets and ramps (not to mention going directly under the center of the Palisades Parkway onramp cloverleaf) before becoming the lower level of the George Washington Bridge.
I-95 Eastbound, Inner Carriageway: The first ramp to join I-95's inner carrriageway is an onramp from NJ 4 EB; it is followed by a slip ramp from the outer half of the mainline. A third ramp from US 46 joins the inner roadway aft erthe US 9W bridge. The only exit available from the inner mainline comes after these entrances; traffic can exit right onto a small collector/distributor road, and then exit again onto a short ramp which crosses over the outer mainline and ends at the southern service road. (This ramp is the western side of the white triangle visible in the overhead view.) Two more onramps join here; one goes from Center Avenue into the left side of the aforementioned collector/distributor road, and the second runs from the southern service road into the right side of the inner mainline. After passing through the bridge toll booths, the EB lanes are joined by one more cloverleaf ramp from the Palisades Parkway before crossing the Hudson Bridge.
NJ 4 EB: Eastbound on NJ 4, entering the interchange, the first ramp is a left exit to the inner I-95 EB. The remainder of the traffic splits between the outer half of I-95 EB and a right exit to US 9W.
US 46 EB: A ramp splits off of the right side of US 46 as it enters the interchange, which leads to US 9W. US 46 then crosses the outer half of I-95 EB, and the traffic splits between the two halves of I-95 EB.
The Palisades Parkway: The Palisades Parkway deserves a little special attention here, at its southern terminus. As it enters the photo from the northeast, it splits in a semi-directional T. Note the pair of ramps on the west side of this split, connecting the Parkway SB with Hudson Terrace. The eastern leg of the T leads through a set of toll booths for the George Washington Bridge, and then joins the upper level of the bridge only. The western half leads to US 9W and NJ 67 via a rather unusual interchange. It is, in effect, a cloverleaf without reverse movements (that is, only offering NB-NB and SB-SB movements); the one major difference is the EB-NB ramp. This ramp, which actually carries the US 9W NB designation, is a left exit from US 9W, crosses over the SB lanes of NJ 67, and then abruptly joins the NB lanes of NJ 67 at a T-intersection in the median of the ramps to the Palisades Parkway. US 9W then crosses a few other local roads at at-grade intersections before intersecting I-95 and US 46.
Advantages: To say the least, this interchange (if one can call it that) handles a lot of traffic. The commuter traffic from northern New Jersey to Manhattan has incredible volume, and most of it passes through these ramps and over the George Washington Bridge. This is apparent from the fact that most of the ramps are only connections to and from the bridge, especially NJ 4 and US 46. The interchange really couldn't have done its job without being this massive. To the designers' credit, I can't rightfully complain about weaving; there's only a little bit, and none of it is between the major highways (I-95, Palisades, US 46, and NJ 4.)
Disadvantages: For starters, cost. The George Washington aside, look at all of the other bridges that were constructed. The interchange takes up a 2-by-13 block area of Fort Lee - that's a lot of real estate that had to be seized by eminent domain. Then there's the issue of left exits and entrances, which are rampant on the outer carriageways.
Links
Corrections? Suggestions? More information is always welcome.
Suggestions for more interchanges to cover on this site are great too.
Contact the author, Dan (known as DanTheMan on misc.transport.road):
twowheel@email.com
