Length 57.9 km | ||
South end: G.S. Parkway / US 9 in Toms River North end: I-95 / N.J. Turnpike in South Brunswick Township Counties Ocean County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey | ||
The Driscoll Expressway was a proposed 36-mile (58 km) long tolled limited-access highway in Central Jersey that would have connected the New Jersey Turnpike with the Garden State Parkway in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
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Proposed route description
The Driscoll Expressway, if it had been built, would have passed through the following communities from South to North:
The proposed highway was to have 12-foot (3.7 m) wide lanes and shoulders as well as a wide median with preserved vegetation and a 450-foot (140 m) wide right-of-way area of preserved open space. Engineers decided that the speed limit would have been posted at 60 mph (97 km/h), as opposed to 70 mph (110 km/h) for extra safety. The southern half of the highway would have run through the Pinelands Preserve, an area of sandy soil that prevents most plant species other than pines to grow, hence the name.
History
Originally envisioned as the 45-mile (72 km) long Garden State Thruway, the proposed highway was designated in 1971 for former Governor of New Jersey Alfred E. Driscoll by the New Jersey Highway Authority. However, in the mid 1970s, the plans were scratched. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority then stepped in, drawing up plans for a proposed 36-mile (58 km) long highway. The route would have provided a route to Southern New Jersey for trucks coming from the Trenton area. The highway was now scheduled for completion in 1976.
However, the project was doomed. Citizens opposed the unwanted traffic that the highway would bring, the pollution that it would release, as well as the harm it would do to the Pine Barrens.
Also, voters turned down a $650 million issue for transportation issues. The governor of the time, Brendan Byrne, tried to kill the proposal because of the negative environmental impact it would have. The Authority did not listen, but when Byrne saw that Turnpike tolls would rise by more than 80%, he became more determined. In February 1977, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority dropped plans for the highway. Hopes to revive the highway failed and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority began to sell off the rights-of-way in the late 1980s.