New Jersey Route 29
Route 29 is a state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs from an interchange with Interstate 295 in Hamilton Township in Mercer County, where it continues as I-195, to Route 12 in Frenchtown, Hunterdon County. Between the southern terminus and I-295 in Ewing Township, the route is a mix of freeway and four-lane divided highway that runs along the Delaware River through Trenton. This section includes a truck-restricted tunnel that was built along the river near historic houses and Riverview Cemetery. North of I-295, Route 29 turns into a scenic and mostly two-lane highway. North of the South Trenton Tunnel, it is designated the Delaware River Scenic Byway, a New Jersey Scenic Byway and National Scenic Byway, that follows the Delaware River in mostly rural sections of Mercer County and Hunterdon County. The obsolete Delaware & Raritan Canal usually stands between the river and the highway. Most sections of this portion of Route 29 are completely shaded due to the tree canopy. Route 29 also has a spur, Route 129, which connects Route 29 to U.S. Route 1 in Trenton.
Route 29 was initially designated in 1927 to run from downtown Trenton to Newark, following present-day Route 179 and US 202 between Lambertville and Somerville and US 22 between Somerville and Newark. The route between Lambertville and Frenchtown was originally Route 29A. In 1953, Route 29 was shifted to follow the alignment of Route 29A to avoid the concurrencies with the U.S. Routes. Route 29 between South Warren Street in Trenton and I-95 in Ewing Township was upgraded to a four-lane highway, with a portion of freeway, in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1995, the southern freeway part of Route 29 between I-195/I-295 and Route 129 in Hamilton Township was completed. This freeway section was linked to the rest of Route 29 by a tunnel completed in 2002. A realignment of Route 29 in Lambertville by the 2000s made the route concurrent with the entire length of Route 165.
Route description
Mercer County
Route 29 begins at a modified cloverleaf interchange with Interstate 195 and Interstate 295 in Hamilton Township, and it serves as the western continuation of Interstate 195, heading to the northwest as a six-lane freeway. The route has an interchange with Route 129, a spur of Route 29 which connects to U.S. Route 1, with a northbound exit and southbound entrance. At this interchange, the route passes over NJ Transit's River Line. Route 29 narrows to four lanes past this interchange and crosses into Trenton. The route comes to a southbound exit and entrance for Lamberton Road. At this point, Route 29 becomes the Delaware River Scenic Byway, a state scenic byway that was also designated a National Scenic Byway in 2009. Route 29 runs along the bank of the Delaware River and enters a truck-restricted tunnel that passes by historic houses and Riverview Cemetery. Within this tunnel, Route 29 features a southbound exit and northbound entrance for Lalor Street. The route emerges from the tunnel as the John Fitch Parkway and passes by Arm & Hammer Park, the home ballpark of the Trenton Thunder baseball team. The road comes to a traffic light at Thunder Road/Cass Street where it widens back to six lanes. Route 29 meets South Warren Street at another traffic light. The median widens and it passes under the Morrisville–Trenton Railroad Bridge, which carries Amtrak's Northeast Corridor over the Delaware River.Route 29 passes under the Trenton–Morrisville Toll Bridge, which carries U.S. Route 1 over the Delaware River. Access to U.S. Route 1 southbound is provided by ramps from Route 29 while access to Route 29 from northbound U.S. Route 1 is provided by South Warren Street. Route 29 passes under the Lower Trenton Bridge and the median narrows again. It interchanges with Market Street, which provides access to Route 33, and then features an interchange which provides access to the New Jersey State House with a northbound exit and southbound entrance. Route 29 crosses the Assunpink Creek and features an interchange which provides access to South Warren Street with exits in both directions but only a northbound entrance. Route 29 continues to a cloverleaf interchange with Calhoun Street, which provides access to the Calhoun Street Bridge over the Delaware River. Riverside Avenue exits as a frontage road paralleling the northbound lanes of Route 29 before the road features a northbound exit for Hermitage Avenue. Route 29 comes to a partial interchange with Parkside Avenue, with a northbound exit and southbound entrance, and then features a northbound exit for South Eastfield Avenue.
The freeway portion of Route 29 ends at the intersection with Lee Avenue and it continues northwest along the Delaware River as a four-lane divided highway. The route meets the southern terminus of County Route 579. The median widens again and then narrows as the route meets the southern terminus of Route 175, a former alignment of Route 29 that currently serves as a frontage road. Route 29 crosses into Ewing Township and becomes the Daniel Bray Highway. It passes under the West Trenton Railroad Bridge, which carries CSX's Trenton Subdivision and SEPTA’s West Trenton Line over the Delaware River. Route 29 intersects Route 175 again and then comes to a complex interchange with Interstate 295, with the ramps within the median of Route 29, just to the east of the Scudder Falls Bridge.
Upon crossing the Delaware and Raritan Canal, Route 29 narrows down to a two-lane undivided road called River Road. It continues along the Delaware River, next to the Delaware and Raritan Canal, which runs between Route 29 and the river. The route intersects the northern terminus of Route 175. Farther north, Route 29 enters Hopewell Township and continues into a more rural setting shaded with trees. Route 29 heads to Washington Crossing State Park, where it intersects County Route 546, which heads east on Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, and the approach to the Washington Crossing Bridge, which continues into Pennsylvania and connects to Pennsylvania Route 532. Route 29 continues north along the Delaware River through Titusville, passing by Washington Crossing State Park.
Hunterdon County
Route 29 crosses into West Amwell Township in Hunterdon County. It enters Lambertville, where Route 29 becomes a four-lane divided highway. At the intersection of South Main Street, Route 29 becomes concurrent with Route 165. The route becomes an undivided highway again and meets the western terminus of County Route 518. It meets Route 179, where Route 165 ends and Route 29 turns west for a one-block wrong-way concurrency with the two-lane, undivided Route 179, lasting to the intersection of Main Street, where Route 29 turns north on Main Street.Route 29 follows Main Street north through Lambertville, crossing into Delaware Township. It comes to an interchange with U.S. Route 202 just east of the New Hope–Lambertville Toll Bridge, with access to northbound U.S. Route 202 and from southbound U.S. Route 202 provided by way of Alexauken Creek Road. Route 29 continues along the Delaware River and enters Stockton. The route intersects Bridge Street, which crosses the Delaware River on the Centre Bridge–Stockton Bridge and continues into Pennsylvania as Pennsylvania Route 263. Shortly after that intersection, Route 29 intersects the southern terminus of County Route 523. Route 29 crosses back into Delaware Township, where it meets the southern terminus of County Route 519.
Route 29 makes a sharp left turn and heads west along the river as a rural road, crossing into Kingwood Township, where the name of the road changes from Main Street to Daniel Bray Highway. Here, it intersects with County Route 651. The route bends to the north and continues along the Delaware River for several miles, crossing into Frenchtown, where the route becomes Trenton Road. Upon entering Frenchtown, an end shield for northbound Route 29 is posted to mark the end of state maintenance, which officially ends at the Washington Street intersection, where maintenance is transferred to the county. Despite this, Route 29 officially continues farther north along Trenton Road to its northern terminus at Route 12, a short distance east of Route 12’s western terminus at the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge. The southern terminus of County Route 513 is located a block north of the northern terminus of Route 29 along Route 12.
History
The current route was originally legislated in 1911 as part of the Delaware River Drive, a named state highway that was proposed to run from along the Delaware River from Trenton to the New York border in Montague Township. Route 29 was originally defined in 1927 to run from Trenton to Newark. The original route ran from downtown Trenton along State Street and Sanhican Drive. From there, it followed its current alignment to Lambertville, where it followed present-day Route 179 to Ringoes to present-day County Route 514, which it followed to Woods Tavern. The route turned north on U.S. Route 206 and followed that route to Somerville, where it followed U.S. Route 22 to Newark. The current alignment of Route 29 from Lambertville to Route 12 in Frenchtown was designated Route 29A in 1927.The alignment of Route 29 between Ringoes and Somerville was eventually shifted to follow present-day U.S. Route 202, which was also Route 30 between Ringoes and Flemington and Route 12 between Flemington and Somerville. In 1938, Route 29B was planned as an extension of Route 29A from Frenchtown to Route 28 in Alpha. While this road was never built, much of the alignment north of Milford is served by County Route 519. In 1948, a spur route, Route S29, was created, running along U.S. Route 202 in Lambertville to the New Hope–Lambertville Bridge.
In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 29 was redefined to continue north from Lambertville to Frenchtown on Route 29A, and the Route 29 designation between Lambertville and Newark was removed in favor of U.S. Route 202 between Lambertville and Somerville and U.S. Route 22 between Somerville and Newark. The section of former Route 29 between Route 29A and Route S29 became Route 165.
Plans for a limited-access route along the Route 29 corridor go back to 1932, when a parkway was proposed along the Delaware River between Trenton and Lambertville; this proposal never materialized. Plans for a freeway were resurrected in the early 1950s to construct a road, the John Fitch Parkway, that was to run from Hamilton Township to Interstate 95 in Ewing Township. This road was built between 1954 and 1957 from South Warren Street in Trenton to present-day I-295 in Ewing Township. Construction of this portion of the John Fitch Parkway took up much of Trenton’s available waterfront along the Delaware River. The former alignment of Route 29 in the northern part of Trenton and in Ewing Township became Route 175.
Between 1990 and 1995, the Route 29 freeway was built between the I-195/I-295 interchange and Route 129 in Hamilton Township. A two-lane street, Lamberton Road, connected the two freeway sections. Plans were then made to fill the gap between the two freeway sections in Trenton. Construction began in 1997 on the Route 29 freeway between Route 129 and the Morrisville–Trenton Railroad Bridge. The road was to include two traffic lights at Cass Street and South Warren Street and a tunnel which was to be built as a covered roadway on the bank of the Delaware River. The tunnel was originally scheduled to be complete by 2001 but was delayed after the Army Corps of Engineers discovered many environmental violations that occurred with construction of the tunnel. The roof was put in place in October 2001 and the tunnel officially opened to traffic on March 2, 2002. A restriction to trucks over 13 tons was put in place and made permanent in November 2002.
By the 2000s, the state gave the part of Route 29 between Route 165 and Route 179 in Lambertville to the city, and Route 29 was rerouted to use all of Route 165 and one block of Route 179. Prior to this, South Main Street had been turned one-way southbound. Route 165, which is only signed on overhead street signs, still exists, though it is fully concurrent with Route 29.