New Jersey Route 139

New Jersey Route 139

Route 139 is a state highway in Jersey City, New Jersey, extending the Pulaski Skyway east to the Holland Tunnel. The western portion of the route is a two level highway that is charted by the New Jersey Department of Transportation as two separate roadways: The 1.45-mile (2.33 km) lower roadway between U.S. Route 1/9 at the Tonnele Circle and Interstate 78, and the 0.83-mile (1.34 km) upper roadway running from County Route 501 (Kennedy Boulevard) to Interstate 78. The eastern 1.32 mi (2.12 km) of the route, the Holland Tunnel approach, runs concurrent with Interstate 78 on the one-way pair of 12th Street eastbound and 14th Street westbound. Including the concurrency, the total length of Route 139 is 2.77 mi (4.46 km).

What is now the upper level of Route 139 became an extension of pre-1927 Route 1 in 1922. U.S. Route 1 was also designated along the road in 1926 and a year later Route 25 replaced pre-1927 Route 1. After U.S. Route 1 was rerouted to cross the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge, the former routing to the Holland Tunnel along Route 25 became U.S. Route 1/9 Business. In 1953, Route 25 was removed from the road in favor of the business route. By the 1990s, U.S. Route 1/9 Business was replaced by Route 139. A new freeway for Route 139 called the Bergen Arches Expressway was proposed in 1989 to connect the Jersey City Waterfront with the Meadowlands Sports Complex. This four-lane freeway, which was to follow an abandoned railroad line known as the Bergen Arches, was strongly supported by Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler and received funding from the federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. However, the highway plan was dropped by 2002 after Schundler left office and his successors in the city government felt a mass transit proposal would work better. The 12th and 14th Street Viaducts connecting Route 139 and Interstate 78 are currently being reconstructed at a cost of $225 million; this project is expected to be complete in 2010.