INTERSTATE 287

'Interstate 287' (abbreviated 'I-287') is a major interstate highway in New Jersey and New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving the northern half of New Jersey as well as the counties of Rockland and Westchester in New York. I-287 follows a roughly horseshoe-shaped route. The route through New Jersey is sometimes referred to as the ''Middlesex Freeway''.
Similar to what still exists today with the New Jersey portion of Interstate 95, Interstate 287 was long disjointed due to community opposition. The New York stretch effectively ended at Suffern, and the New Jersey portion at U.S. Route 202 in Montville, with a large gap between. Finally, by the late 1980s, construction commenced, with this missing section opening in November, 1993.

Contents

Major cities

Route description

New York

New Jersey

Exit list

New Jersey

New York

Length

Spur routes

Notes

Past plans

Missing link

Tappan Zee Improvement

References

Sources

External links

Major cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

★ 'Staten Island, New York' (via I-278

★ 'Perth Amboy, New Jersey' (via Route 440)

★ 'Somerville, New Jersey'

★ 'Morristown, New Jersey'

★ Boonton, New Jersey

★ 'Mahwah, New Jersey'

★ 'Suffern, New York'

★ 'Tappan Zee Bridge, New York'

★ 'White Plains, New York'

★ 'Rye, New York'

Route description

Although Interstate 287 is an auxiliary route of Interstate 87, both of its termini are located at Interstate 95. It is the only three-digit interstate which goes through more states than its parent route — I-87 is an ''intrastate'' interstate.

New York

Working counter-clockwise, I-287 begins in Port Chester, New York at the New England Thruway (Interstate 95) with an East/West designation until the New Jersey State Line. It is also called the Cross-Westchester Expressway until the New York State Thruway merge. Once merged with the northbound Thruway (and northbound Interstate 87), it crosses the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River between Tarrytown and Nyack, and continues west to Suffern. It then leaves the Thruway (and Interstate 87) and crosses the New Jersey border.
'Legal Definition'
The New York section of I-287 is defined as Interstate Route Connections 520 and 525 in New York Highway Law § 340-a.

New Jersey

Beginning at the New York-New Jersey state line in Mahwah Township, it receives a North/South designation like its parent Interstate 87 and begins its run south, cutting through hills and mountains. Between Mahwah Township and the Boro of Oakland/Boro of Franklin Lakes, the freeway has 2 lanes in each direction. South of Exit 59, the freeway has 3 lanes in each direction, and goes through a steep valley (over a bridge). Due to the high elevations, the freeway (at some points) has an extra 4th lane to accommodate for slower automobile traffic.

The freeway then intersects Interstate 80 (''Bergen-Passaic Expressway'') in Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, and then accommodates up to at least 5 lanes in each direction. It continues further south, through Morristown (where the lanes are 3-4 in each direction) and eventually to Bedminster Township, where it intersects Interstate 78. At this point, I-287 then splits into an interesting dualized roadway configuration. The roadway splits for about 2-3 miles, continuing into Bridgewater Township. At the interchange for US 202-206, both roadways have exit ramps towards 202/206, and then it become a 4-lane freeway. The highway then curves southeast, heading towards Perth Amboy. Once I-287 crosses the Raritan River between Exits 10 and 9 (heading south) it becomes the Middlesex Freeway. However, the I-287 signage ends at the interchange for the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) in Edison Township, New Jersey; however, the roadway continues as Route 440 towards Staten Island.
One of the most heavily traveled sections of the freeway is between South Plainfield and Edison. This segment has not been repaved in years, and is in need of dire repair (since about 150,000 vehicles use this segment everyday). The NJDOT is addressing this problem, and has started the ''Interstate 287 (Middlesex Freeway) Rehabilitation Project'', in which the DOT will resurface the terrible pavement between between Exit 5 in the Boro of South Plainfield and (Exit 0) Interstate 95/New Jersey Turnpike in Edison Township. In addition, the NJDOT stated that some of the bridges/overpasses have deteriorated to such a state that they need to be replaced completely. The project started in August 2007 and is supposed to end in November 2008.

Exit list

New Jersey

County	Municipality	#	Mile	Destinations	Notes
Southern terminus of Interstate 287 Interstate 287 southbound becomes Route 440 northbound
Middlesex	Edison Township		0.00	I-95 New Jersey Turnpike – Trenton, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City
		1A-B	0.93	US 1/CR 531 – Trenton, Newark
		2A-B	2.24	NJ 27, Lincoln Highway – Metuchen, New Brunswick	Northbound exit, southbound entrance
		3	3.09	CR 501, New Durham Road – Edison, Metuchen	Southbound exit, northbound entrance
	South Plainfield Boro	4	4.62	Durham Avenue – South Plainfield	Northbound exit, southbound entrance
	South Plainfield Boro/Piscataway Township	5	5.88	CR 529, Stelton Road – Dunellen, Edison
	Piscataway Township	6	6.41	Washington Avenue – Piscataway, Dunellen	Northbound exit and entrance, southbound exit only
		7	7.27	South Randolphville Road – Piscataway, Middlesex
		8	8.47	Possumtown Road – Middlesex, Highland Park	Northbound exit and entrance
		8	8.47	Centennial Avenue - Middlesex, Highland Park	Southbound exit and entrance
		9	9.95	CR 622, River Road – Middlesex, New Brunswick
Somerset	Franklin Township	10	10.27	CR 527, Easton Avenue – New Brunswick, Somerset, South Bound Brook
		12	12.30	Weston Canal Road
	Bridgewater Township	13	13.50	NJ 28, Union Avenue – Somerville, Middlesex	Split into 13A/B northbound
		14A	14.24	US 22 east – New York City
		14B	14.35	US 22 west to US 202/US 206 south – Bridgewater	Northbound exit and entrance, southbound entrance only
		17	17.86	US 202/US 206 south to US 22 west – Somerville, Flemington	Southbound exit, northbound entrance
	Bedminster Township	21A-B	21.17	Interstate 78 – Easton, PA, New York City
		22A-B	22.21	US 202/US 206 – Pluckemin, Bedminster, Netcong
	Bernards Township	26A-B	26.48	CR 525, Mt. Airy Road – Basking Ridge, Liberty Corner, Bernardsville
		30A	29.94	North Maple Avenue – Basking Ridge
		30B		US 202
Morris	Morris Township	33	34.02	Harter Road – Jockey Hollow
	Town of Morristown	35	35.77 35.89	NJ 124, South Street, Madison Avenue – Morristown
		36	36.39 36.60	CR 510, Morris Avenue, Lafayette Avenue – Morristown	Split into 36A/B northbound
	Hanover Township	37	37.92 38.00	NJ 24 east – Springfield
		39	39.55	NJ 10 – Dover, Whippany
	Parsippany-Troy Hills Township	40	40.94	CR 511 – Parsippany
		41	42.02	Interstate 80 – Delaware Water Gap, New York City
		42	42.74	US 46, US 202 – Dover
		43	44.06	Intervale Road – Mountain Lakes
	Town of Boonton	44	44.95	Main Street – Boonton
		45	45.68	Woonton Street – Boonton
	Montville Township	47	47.11	US 202, Main Road – Montville, Lincoln Park
	Boro of Riverdale	52	53.14	NJ 23 – Butler, Wayne
		53	53.83	CR 511 ALT, Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike
Passaic	Boro of Wanaque	55	55.31	CR 511, CR 511 ALT, Ringwood Avenue
Bergen	Boro of Oakland	57	58.13	Skyline Drive, West Oakland Avenue
		58	58.86	US 202, Ramapo Valley Road – Oakland
	Boro of Oakland/Boro of Franklin Lakes	59	59.94	NJ 208 south – Franklin Lakes
	Mahwah Township	66	66.94	NJ 17 south – Mahwah	I-287/NJ 17 concurrency begins northbound, ends southbound
Interstate 287 and Route 17 continue north into New York. Route 17 becomes New York State Route 17.

New York

County	Location	Mile[1]	#	Destinations	Notes
Rockland	Suffern	0.00	New Jersey state line. Southern terminus of NY 17. Northern terminus of NJ 17. NY 17 forms a 0.65 mile concurrency with I-287.
		0.65		I-87/Thruway north/ NY 17 north
		Western terminus of I-87/Thruway/ I-287 concurrency.
	Montebello	3.47	14B	Airmont Road - Suffern, Montebello
	Spring Valley	6.78	Spring Valley toll barrier (commercial vehicles only). Westbound only.
		7.56	14A	Garden State Parkway Connector - New Jersey	No trucks across the state line.
	Clarkstown	8.29	14	NY 59 - Spring Valley, Nanuet
		10.15	13	Palisades Interstate Parkway - George Washington Bridge, Bear Mountain Bridge	No trucks.
		12.33	12	NY 303 - Congers, West Nyack
	Nyack	13.49	11	US 9W/ NY 59 - Nyack, West Nyack
	South Nyack	14.34	10	US 9W - Nyack, South Nyack	Southbound: no exit.
Rockland-Westchester county line		16.42	Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River. $4.00 toll eastbound.
Westchester	Tarrytown	18.24	9	US 9 - Tarrytown	Originally planned to include Interstate 487.
	Greenburgh	Eastern terminus of I-87/Thruway/ I-287 concurrency.
		Eastbound traffic defaults onto The Cross-Westchester Expressway

Length

★ New Jersey: 67.54 miles (108.7 km)

★ New York: 31.11 miles (50.06 km)

★
★ Overlap with Route 17: 0.65 miles

★
★ New York State Thruway mainline: 19.13 miles

★
★ Cross Westchester Expressway: 11.33 miles

Spur routes

Notes

I-287 is known, even after rush hour, to have congestion problems (in New Jersey), namely the portion that traverses through Bedminster and Bridgewater. In due time, the freeway is expected to see some improvements in the Bridgewater area. The exit for US 202-206 is expected to be upgraded in the future.
The entire New York section is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority, although only the section shared with I-87 is part of the mainline Thruway. The rest of the NY section is called the Cross-Westchester Expressway. No tolls exist on this portion, and signs mentioning the Thruway Authority are rare along its length. This arrangement was similar to that of Interstate 84 in New York, prior to October 30, 2006.

In New York, Thruway exits 8 and 8A and Cross-Westchester Expressway exit 1 are now combined in one interchange. Formerly, there were two separate interchanges: Thruway interchange 8, to the Cross-Westchester, and Cross-Westchester exit 1 (Saw Mill River Parkway to/from north only (use Thruway interchange 7A for to/from south), with access only to/from west (use interchange 3 for access to/from the east)). Due to the recent rebuilding of interchange 8, all traffic from I-287 east must remain on the Thruway beyond point where I-287 leaves it and exit at 8A, which leads to what appears to be a service road for the CWX, but ends up leading to the Saw Mill. However, to reach I-287 west from the Saw Mill south, one must merge with I-287 before merging with the Thruway (no 8A).
In New Jersey, 287 is an important interstate that links Mahwah Township, New Jersey to the New Jersey Turnpike in Edison Township. Plus the freeway is one of the most heavily traveled freeways to be utilized by tractor-trailers (in the state of New Jersey), as it connects Interstate 87/New York State Thruway in Suffern, New York to Interstate 95/New Jersey Turnpike in Edison Township, New Jersey. This is all due in part to the tractor-trailer restrictions on the Garden State Parkway.

Past plans

I-287 was to continue past I-95 in Port Chester and was to cross Long Island Sound via the (unbuilt) Oyster Bay-Rye Bridge and absorb the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway (NY 135). Then, I-287 was again to be extended into Jones Beach by merging with the Wantagh State Parkway in Merrick. These plans were dropped as a result of community opposition and environmental concerns. Evidence of this exists at the northern end of NY 135 at exit 14 (NY 25) where there is an incomplete cloverleaf interchange and the southern end at exit 1 where there is a non-conventional interchange with Merrick Road.^[2]

Missing link

I-287's uncompleted section between Mahwah and Montville was the source of a great deal of controversy dating back at least to 1965, and continuing on through its opening in 1993. Property owners along the proposed route fought its completion as part of the freeway revolts of the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually, a route was agreed upon and permits allowing construction to begin were issued in 1988. However, officials in Rockland County, New York, filed a lawsuit on November 19, 1993, hours before the highway's official ribbon-cutting, seeking to block its opening, claiming the incompete interchange with the New York State Thruway was inadequate to handle the additional traffic. That interchange was not completed until late the following year, but the highway nevertheless opened as planned.
It was widely speculated in New Jersey at the time that then-Governor James Florio sought the highway's premature unveiling to bolster his ultimately unsuccessful re-election campaign. Ultimately, however, the opening did not occur until over two weeks following the gubernatorial election, negating any impact it may have had.

Tappan Zee Improvement

Due to the congestion along I-287 and the aging and decay of the over fifty-year old Tappan Zee Bridge, talks have begun regarding the possibility of replacing the bridge. A variety of transportation improvements are currently being considered, including a commuter rail system that would link the western shore of the Hudson River with Westchester County and New York City. Several alternatives are being considered to replace the bridge.^[3] Currently, the favored alternative is a cable-stayed span.

References

1. New York Routes - Interstate 287 Junction List
2. Oyster-Bay Rye Bridge, accessed July 30, 2006
3. I-287 Proposed Alternatives, accessed July 12, 2006

Sources

★ 2005 Rand McNally Road Atlas

★ "Missing Link of Interstate Opens, Despite Lawsuit." ''The New York Times,'' November 20, 1993. Metropolitan Desk, p. 26.

External links

★ Interstate 287 in New Jersey Straight Line Diagram from the New Jersey Department of Transportation

★ Highway Heaven