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The Garden State Parkway is a 172.4-mile (277-km) limited-access toll Parkway that stretches the length of New Jersey from the New York state line at Montvale , New Jersey , to Cape May at the southern tip of the state. Its name refers to the state nickname, the "Garden State". Most New Jersey residents know it as simply "The Parkway". Within New Jersey, the official (unsigned) designation is '''Route 444'''. The highway connects to a short segment of the New York State Thruway known as the "Parkway Extension" and which is officially designated (but unsigned) as ''' New York State Reference Route 982L'''. That 2.4 mile segment connects to the Thruway mainline. ROUTE DESCRIPTION The Garden State Parkway begins in Lower Township at a traffic light with U.S. Route 9 . For the first three and a half miles, the Parkway crosses over streams. At 3.48 miles, the Parkway crosses over Taylor Creek and enters Middle Township . At 3.69 miles, the first exit, Exit 4, leaves to the right. Exit 4 is for Route 47 to Wildwood . At 6.54 miles, Parkway Exit 6, which is for Route 147 and Wildwood, leaves to the right. The first traffic light exit, Exit 8, is for Shellbay Avenue. The second traffic light intersection, Exit 10, is for County Route 657 . Exit 12 is for U.S. Route 9. Exit 13 is for Avalon Boulevard. At 14.85 miles, the Parkway enters Dennis Township after crossing Uncle Aaron's Creek. At 17.5 miles, Exit 17 leaves to the right for County Route 625 . At milepost 19.38, the Parkway enters its first toll, the Cape May Toll Plaza. A little more than 20 miles in, Exit 20 leaves for Route 50 . In Upper Township , Exit 25 leaves for County Route 623. At 27.77 miles, the Parkway enters Atlantic County . Just before Exit 29 for U.S. Route 9, the Parkway enters the Great Egg Toll Plaza. Exit 30 leaves to the right at milepost 30 for Laurel Road in Somers Point which leads to Ocean City via a circle and, past that, the Route 52 causeway. Now in Egg Harbor Township , Exit 36 opens onto local roads. Exit 37 is the Parkway's interchange with the Black Horse Pike (US 40/322). Exit 38 is for the Atlantic City Expressway . Now entering Galloway Township , U.S. Route 30 interchanges with the Parkway at Exit 40. Exit 44 is next, leading to County Route 561's alternate route. Just after Exit 48 for U.S. Route 9 near the Mullica River and Bass River State Forest , the Parkway enters Burlington County . Exit 50 is for Route 9 as well, while Exit 52 is for Burlington County Route 654. Now in Ocean County , Exit 58 is for a county road, Exit 63 is for Route 72 , and Exit 67 is for County Route 554. Exit 69 leaves to the right in both directions at milepost 70.45. Exit 74 leaves to the right, which is to take you to Forked River . Exits 80 and 81 are for county roads and U.S. Route 9. Route 9 then merges in for a few miles. ]] Between Exits 80 and 83, the Parkway has a Concurrency with U.S. Route 9 just south of the Toms River Toll Plaza. It was from here that the Driscoll Expressway was to start (south of Exit 83) and run to the New Jersey Turnpike . Route 37 interchanges with the Parkway at exits 82 and 82A in Toms River . At Exit 83, U.S. Route 9 leaves the Parkway and heads north. Exit 88 comes at 89.4 miles for Route 70 . In Brick Township, Exit 90 (northbound) and Exit 91 (southbound), leave for County Route 549. Exit 98 leads to Interstate 195 , Route 34 and Route 138 . Exit 100 leaves southbound for Route 33 . Route 66 also exits northbound. Exit 102, a southbound only exit leaves for Neptune Township . At this point, you are in Monmouth County . Exit 105 for Route 18 is the point at which all trucks are forced to leave the Parkway. The Parkway has become local and express lanes are now provided. The express lanes have no direct access to any exits, except for Exit 105 in Tinton Falls , and Exit 117 in Hazlet . Exits 109 and 114 are for Holmdel . The next exit, Exit 116, is for the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. Exit 117 is for Routes 35 and 36 . Exit 117A, the exit after, is for Lloyd Road in Aberdeen . Exit 120 is for Laurence Harbor Road and Cheesequake State Park . At this point, you have entered Middlesex County , and are currently in Old Bridge Township . Southbound Exits 123 and 124 leave to the right, but only on the Local lanes. The Express and Local lanes merge and become one highway again shortly after. Northbound Exit 125 makes a sudden exit for Route 35. Afterwards, you cross the Driscoll Bridge over the Raritan River . After the bridge, Exit 127 leaves for Routes 9, 440 and 287. At milepost 129.5, the New Jersey Turnpike leaves to the right at Exit 129. Southbound Exits 127 and 129 are merged into one exit, which is marked as Exit 129. A southbound only exit, Exit 130 is for U.S. Route 1 . The next three exits are marked 131, 131A and 131B. The lettered ones are for Metropark , while Exit 131 is for Route 27 . Exit 135 is for Clark Township in Union County . Exits 136 and 137 are for Cranford Township and Route 28 . Exit 138 is in Kenilworth Borough for County Route 509. Exits 139A and 139B are northbound exits only for a local road and U.S. Route 22. Exit 140 and 140A are for U.S. Route 22 and NJ Route 82. Exit 141 is for Vaux Hall Road and Exit 142 is for Interstate 78 . The 143s are for Lyons Avenue, Exit 144 is for Irvington and 145 is for Interstate 280 . Exit 147 is for Renshaw Avenue in East Orange , and Exit 148 is for Bloomfield Avenue in Bloomfield . Exits 149, 150, and 151 are for Essex County roads. Exits 153A and 153B are for Route 3 and U.S. Route 46 in Passaic County . Exit 159 is for Interstate 80 in Bergen County . Exits 161 and 163 are for State roads 4 and 17. Exit 165 provides access to Paramus Park and other shopping malls. Northbound motorists exiting there must pay a toll. The final four exits, 166, 168, 171 and 172 are for Bergen County roads. At milepost 172.4, the Parkway ends at New York . From the New York state line, the Parkway Extension continues for about two miles in the town of Chestnut Ridge, New York , where the highway ends at the New York State Thruway , 174 miles from Lower Township. Two short spurs are given numbers by the New Jersey Department Of Transportation . Route 444R is the connector at Exit 117 (in Hazlet ) to Route 35 at the north end of Route 36 in Keyport . '''Route 444S''' is the connector at Exit 105 to the south end of Route 36 at Hope Road ( CR 51 ) near Eatontown . HISTORY heading southbound. Notice the white center line (instead of yellow).]] The Parkway was originally designated as the Route 4 Parkway when it was started in 1947 in Union County, but, due to lack of funds, only 22 miles were completed by 1950. The solution was for the state to establish the '''New Jersey Highway Authority''' in 1952 to oversee construction and operation as a self-liquidating toll road.1 Much of the original section, between exits 129 and 140, was long administered by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and has always been untolled. The Parkway was constructed between 1946 and 1957 to connect suburban northern New Jersey with resort areas along the Atlantic coast and to alleviate traffic on traditional north-south routes running through each town center, such as and the "shore section" between the Raritan River and Cape May. Only 18 miles had been constructed by 1950, but taking a cue from the successful New York State Thruway , on April 14 , 1952 , the New Jersey Legislature created the New Jersey Highway Authority, empowered to construct, operate, and maintain a self-sufficient toll parkway from Paramus to Cape May. The landscape architect and engineer in charge of the newly-named "Garden State Parkway" was Gilmore David Clarke , of the architectual firm of Parsons, Brinkerhof, Hall And MacDonald , who had worked with Robert Moses on the parkway systems around New York City . Clarke's design prototypes for the Parkway combined the example of the Pennsylvania Turnpike , a model of efficiency with parallels in the German Autobahn routes of the 1930s, with the Merritt Parkway model that stressed a planted "green belt" for beauty. Both design models featured wide planted medians to prevent head-on collisions and mask the glare of on-coming headlights. The Parkway, especially the "shore section", was designed to have a natural feel. Many trees were planted, and the only signs were those for exits--there were no distracting billboards. Most of the signs were constructed from wood, or a dark-brown metal, instead of the chrome bars used in the "metropolitan section". The guardrails were also made from wood and dark metal. Most early overpasses were stone, but then changed to concrete, with green rails and retro etchings, popular around the 50's and 60's. These are now in decay and being replaced by sleek, new bridges. The Parkway was designed to gently curve throughout its length, so that drivers would remain alert and not fall asleep at the wheel. Most of the metropolitan section is like any expressway built in the 1950s through heavily populated areas. The shore section parallels U.S. Route 9 and runs through unspoiled wilderness in the New Jersey Pine Barrens . In Cape May County , the Parkway has three traffic lights (at exits 8, 10, and 11 respectively), but these will be eliminated in the future, with construction of an overpass at Exit 10 in Cape May Court House, New Jersey and Stone Harbor, New Jersey scheduled to begin in 2009. The Parkway had an old alignment before the Great Egg Harbor Bridge was completed. It was detoured onto U.S. Route 9 and over the Beesley's Point Bridge . This old alignment still exists today and is slowly being consumed by nature. On July 9 , 2003 , Governor Of New Jersey Jim McGreevey's plan to merge the operating organizations of the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike into one agency was completed. Literature from the time of the Parkway's construction indicates that the Parkway would become toll-free once bonds used for its construction were paid off. However, additional construction projects, plus the expectation that the Parkway will pay for its own maintenance and policing (and the massive E-ZPass project) make it unlikely it will become toll-free in the foreseeable future. Later construction On cost $21.67 million to complete. Garden State Parkway Interchange 100 USAGE The speed limit on the Parkway is 65 mph (100 km/h) from mileposts 0 to 123 and 163 to the New York border, and it is 55 mph (90 km/h) on the rest of the roadway, with some minor exceptions. The speed limit is 50 mph (80 km/h) between Milepost 8.0 to Milepost 11.5 in Middle Township , and is 45 mph (70 km/h) between Milepost 27 to Milepost 29, approaching and traversing the Great Egg Harbor Bridge , and between Milepost 126.7 and 127.7, approaching and traversing the Driscoll Bridge ., accessed July 5 , 2006 Commercial trucks with a registered weight of over 7,000 pounds (3.18 tons) are not allowed to use the northern parts of the Parkway. All trucks must exit at Exit 105, just past the Asbury Park toll barrier. From Tinton Falls to the southern end of the Parkway at Cape May, trucks are allowed, but must pay additional tolls. Buses are allowed for the entire length of the Parkway. TOLL COLLECTION Whereas the New Jersey Turnpike uses a system of long-distance tickets, obtained once by a motorist upon entering and surrendered upon exiting at toll gates (a "closed" system), the Garden State Parkway uses no tickets but collects tolls at toll plazas at semi-regular intervals along its length and at certain exits (an "open" system). The standard car toll is 35 cents on the main road at two-way toll plazas and 70 cents at one-way toll plazas. Some individual exits require a toll of either 25 cents, 35 cents, or 70 cents. Both the Turnpike and the Parkway now allow for payment with the E-ZPass system, which replaced the old token system. Tokens originally cost $10 for a roll of 40 tokens (the toll, when tokens were introduced, was 25 cents), but when the toll was increased to 35 cents, rolls were 30 tokens for $10. Tokens are still valid at any toll plaza, but they can no longer be purchased. The NJHA has stated that they will continue to accept the tokens indefinitely, as the coin baskets will recognize them and there are no plans to modify them to reject tokens. As time passes and the supply of tokens in public hands diminishes (tokens taken in are melted down by a contractor) they will become less common. Tokens were originally brass, but were changed to a bimetallic composition, with an outer silver-colored ring and a brass core. There also exist larger bus tokens in each composition, primarily for the use of Atlantic City bound buses. These were sold in rolls of 20 for $20. To reduce congestion, some toll plazas on the roadway were converted into one-way plazas between 2004 and 2007, dubbed "one-way tolling". Under this program, a 70-cent toll (or two tokens) is collected in one direction, and the other direction is toll-free. As of March 10 , 2007 , the Cape May (in Upper Township ), Great Egg (in Somers Point ), New Gretna (in Bass River Township ), Barnegat (in Barnegat Township ), Asbury Park (in Tinton Falls ), Raritan (in Sayreville ), Union (in Hillside Township ), Essex (in Bloomfield Township ), and Bergen (in Saddle Brook Township ) Plazas had been converted to one-way toll plazas. Most toll plazas have dedicated lanes of three varieties: E-ZPass only (at some in addition to Express E-ZPass), Exact Change (coins or tokens are deposited in a basket which mechanically counts the deposit), or manned lanes at which change is available. The manned lanes will also take E-ZPass, the exact change lanes will not. Tolls at entrances or exits may not have all three varieties, depending upon the number of lanes available. The location of similarly-marked lanes is not identical at each plaza. To assist drivers in seeking the proper lanes, the lanes are numbered both on the booth and on the pavement leading up to them. Some lanes leading up to plazas are dedicated for E-ZPass holders only. Signs on many of the toll baskets warn against throwing paper currency into them, which jam them. This is done by drivers not wishing to wait in the lines for the manned toll booths. Toll Plazas
The Cape May, Toms River, Asbury Park, Raritan, and Pascack Valley plazas also feature Express E-ZPass lanes, a form of , 2006 FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
EXIT LIST ''Note: Mileposts in New York increase southbound from the New York State Thruway mainline junction. The New Jersey-New York state line is milepost 172.40 in New Jersey and milepost 2.40 in New York. SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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