New Jersey Route 208 - History

History

NJ 208 was first plotted in 1929 as Route S4B, a spur off Route 4 that was to run from Fair Lawn northwest through Ringwood, and West Milford to the New York border near Greenwood Lake. This route was to replace what was to be a portion of Route 3 between Paterson and the New York border that was designated in the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering. The road was projected to continue into New York and continue through Sterling Forest and Monroe, New York, where it would join New York's Route 208 at its intersection with New York State Route 17. By 1953, the portion of Route S4B between Route 4 and Maple Avenue in Fair Lawn was completed; that same year, it was renumbered to Route 208 in order to match NY 208. By 1960, the road was extended to a northern terminus at U.S. Route 202 and West Oakland Avenue in Oakland, where traffic could exit and continue over Skyline Drive to Ringwood. When first constructed, this portion of Route 208 was a two-lane undivided road. By 1969, the portion between Maple Avenue and Goffle Road was widened to a divided highway with the entire route built into a multi-lane divided highway by the 1980s.

Meanwhile, plans still existed to build Route 208 past Oakland to the New York border. Passaic County called for a divided highway was called for to bypass Skyline Drive, and in 1967 the New Jersey Department of Transportation proposed a Route 208 freeway through the Ramapo Mountains that would run from Oakland to the New York border in Greenwood Lake, where it would connect to a proposed NY 208 freeway (called the Orange Expressway) that would continue north to Interstate 84 in Maybrook, New York. This freeway, which was to cost $66.3 million, was to improve traffic in the resort areas of the Ramapo Mountains and also connect to the proposed Route 94 freeway leading to Warren County and the proposed Route 178 freeway leading to Morris County. In 1975, this proposed freeway was recommended by the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission to be completed by 2000. However, concerns for the environment of the Ramapo Mountains and Sterling Forest caused the road's extension to be scuttled.

When Interstate 287 was extended from Montville to the New York border in 1993, it took over the alignment of Route 208 between U.S. Route 202 and the current northern terminus of Route 208. In 1997, the last traffic signal along Route 208 at McBride Avenue was removed. In 2002, construction was completed on a $32 million project that improved the interchange with Route 4 in Fair Lawn. This interchange saw improvements of the ramps and bridges, including the Route 208 bridge over Saddle River Road. The Route 208 freeway, like many others in New Jersey, once had solar powered emergency call boxes every 1.0-mile (1.6 km); however with the advent of cell phones the usage of these call boxes became extremely limited. To save on maintenance costs, the NJDOT removed these call boxes in 2005.