U.S. Route 130 - History

History

The entire length of US 130 follows a part of the Ocean Highway, a coastal highway that ran from New Brunswick south to Jacksonville, Florida. The current route was designated as portions of three state routes prior to 1927. In 1916, the road between the Camden area and Bordentown was legislated as part of pre-1927 Route 2 while the current US 130 north of Robbinsville was to become a part of pre-1927 Route 1. In addition, pre-1927 Route 17S was legislated to run from Penns Grove northeast to Westville in 1923; the only portion of road built ran from Pennsville south to Salem. When the U.S. Highway System was established in 1926, US 130 was designated to connect US 30 in Camden to US 1 in Trenton, following pre-1927 Route 2. In the 1927 renumbering a year later, the US 130 alignment was designated Route 25 from Camden to Bordentown, Route 39 from Bordentown to White Horse, and Route 37 from White Horse to Trenton.

By 1938, US 130 was extended south along Route 45 and Route 44 to end at US 40 in Pennsville where the connection to Hook Road now hits Route 49. By the 1940s, it was rerouted to follow Route 25 and Route 25M from Bordentown to Route 27 in New Brunswick The former US 130 between Bordentown and Trenton was designated as a part of US 206. During the 1940s, a new alignment for US 130 was built through South Brunswick Township. After the Delaware Memorial Bridge opened in 1951, the south end of US 130 was moved to its current location. Shortly before the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, US 130 was aligned to bypass Yardville with the old route becoming Route 156 in 1953. Also, prior to 1953, US 130 had been aligned to bypass Carneys Point and a stretch of Route 44 between Bridgeport and Westville.

In the 1953 renumbering, US 130 replaced Route 44 and parts of Route 45 and Route 25, as well as the short Route 25M into New Brunswick. With the 1953 renumbering freeing up the Route 44 designation, that number was eventually assigned to the two sections of old road. In the 1960s, I-295 was built through Salem and Gloucester counties, following a portion of the US 130 freeway bypass of Carneys Point as well as the freeway portion of the route from north of Bridgeport to Westville. As a result of this construction, US 130 was moved back to its original alignment in Carneys Point, replacing that portion of Route 44. US 130 was cut back to its current north end at US 1 in 1969, and the continuation into New Brunswick was assigned Route 171.

In the late 1960s, a freeway was proposed by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission to alleviate traffic on US 130 between Camden and Burlington. This freeway was originally planned as a parkway between the two cities in 1932 that never materialized. The proposed freeway, which was to connect the Ben Franklin Bridge to I-295 near the Assicunk Creek, was to cost $53 million and mostly follow a Conrail railroad line between the two cities. However, the NJDOT never followed through with the proposal. In 2009, the Collingswood Circle at the southern terminus of the US 30 concurrency was replaced with an at-grade intersection with jughandles.