New Jersey Route 120 - History

History

In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 3 was legislated to run along the Paterson Plank Road portion of today’s Route 120 as part of its route between Secaucus and Greenwood Lake. By 1947, Route 3 had been designated along the entire alignment of current Route 120. When New Jersey renumbered its state highways in 1953, Route 3 was moved to a new freeway alignment that was Route S3. As a result of this realignment, the portion of the route between modern Route 3 and Paterson Plank Road became a portion of Route 20 while the section along Paterson Plank Road was removed from the state highway system. Paterson Plank Road between County Route 503 and Route 17 joined the state highway system again as an extension of this portion of Route 20 in 1972 when the Meadowlands Sports Complex was slated to be built. At this point, Route 20 had consisted of three disconnected segments. Since none of these segments were connected, this portion of road was redesignated Route 120 by the 1990s.

With the construction of American Dream Meadowlands, several improvements are taking place to Route 120. The interchange with Route 3 is being reconstructed with an overpass between eastbound Route 3 and northbound Route 120 that was completed in May 2009 at a cost of $38.1 million. Also, a flyover from southbound Route 120 to eastbound Route 3 is planned to be completed in early 2010 at a cost of $13 million.