New Jersey Route 10

Route 10 eastbound past its western terminus at US 46 in Roxbury Township

Route 10 begins at US 46 in the Ledgewood section of Roxbury Township, Morris County at the former Ledgewood Circle, heading to the southeast on a four-lane divided highway with some jughandles.[1] The road passes by The Shops at Ledgewood Commons, the Roxbury Mall, and many other businesses, also crossing the Dover and Rockaway River Railroad's High Bridge Branch.[2] The route crosses the Dover and Rockaway River Railroad's Chester Branch before it enters Randolph Township, where the road becomes less commercial in nature and passes Randolph Lake, reaching an interchange with CR 617. Past this interchange, Route 10 crosses over forested Mine Hill.[1][2] The route crosses CR 513 and passes north of the County College of Morris past that intersection, with suburban development becoming more frequent again. Route 10 widens to six lanes and then runs through the southwestern corner of Denville before heading into the Mt. Tabor section of Parsippany-Troy Hills.[1]

Route 10 meeting CR 527 in downtown Livingston

The route then forms the border between Parsippany-Troy Hills to the north and Morris Plains to the south, passing over NJ Transit's Morristown Line before coming to an interchange with Route 53 and crossing US 202. The route fully enters Parsippany-Troy Hills again before crossing into Hanover Township, coming to an interchange with Dryden Way, where the route widens to eight lanes. Past Dryden Way, Route 10 features an interchange with I-287 and narrows to four lanes.[1] The road heads through the Whippany section of Hanover Township, where it has an interchange with CR 511 and crosses the Morristown and Erie Railway's Whippany Line west of the Whippany Railway Museum.[1][2] Route 10 enters East Hanover Township at the bridge over Whippany Brook.[1] Along Route 10 in East Hanover, the road passes several businesses.[2]

Start of westbound Route 10 at CR 577 and CR 677 in West Orange

Route 10 crosses the Passaic River into Livingston, Essex County, where it becomes Mt. Pleasant Avenue. The route comes to the Livingston Circle, a realigned traffic circle, in the community of Morehousetown,[2] with CR 508 and CR 609 (Eisenhower Parkway).[1][2] Past this traffic circle, the divided highway becomes a four-lane undivided road with some businesses and homes along the road. The route crosses CR 527 and narrows to two lanes a short distance past that intersection. The route enters West Orange at the point it crosses Nance Road.[1] In West Orange, Route 10 ends at the Prospect Avenue intersection where radio station 1560 WFME's studios and 94.7 WXBK's transmitter facilities are located. At this intersection, CR 577 heads east on Mt. Pleasant Avenue and north on Prospect Avenue while CR 677 (signed as CR 577 Spur) heads south on Prospect Avenue.[1][2]

Route 10 westbound at the I-287 interchange in Hanover Township

Route 10 roughly follows a portion of an old Lenape trail from the Passaic River to Whippany.[3] The Newark and Mount Pleasant Turnpike was established along the present-day alignment of Route 10 east of Dover on March 12, 1806, existing as a turnpike until before 1833.[4]

View eastbound along Route 10 from CR 665 in Randolph Township

Route 10 was designated in 1927 to run from Jersey City west to Route 6 (now US 46) west of Dover, passing through Newark. This routing of Route 10 followed its current alignment and ran east along present-day CR 577, Mt. Pleasant Avenue, and Park Avenue to Newark, where it followed CR 508 and Route 7 to US 1/9 at the Tonnele Circle in Jersey City.[5][6] By 1930, the road's western terminus had been moved to bypass Dover to terminate at Ledgewood. The earliest completed sections of an upgraded highway were completed from Livingston Circle to Whippany, with the bridge over the Passaic River completed in 1930. From there the road was extended to the Mount Tabor Road (Route 53),[7] and finished at Ledgewood. In Essex County, the route that the highway would be constructed along was contentious from the start. In 1930 and 1931, three proposals for arteries were presented, all paralleling existing railroads. Though demands to decide a route and begin construction extended to at least 1937,[8] no highway was ever constructed, and the road terminated at West Orange.

To solve this issue, a new route for Route 10 was designated in 1952 to run along a new, never-built alignment farther to the north, running through Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair, West Orange, and along the Livingston/Roseland border, roughly along much of the routing of present-day CR 611 (Eagle Rock Avenue), and following its current alignment through Morris County to Ledgewood. A spur of the route was also planned in 1952 to run from Montclair south to Orange.[9] A year later, in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 10 was defined onto its current alignment, with its eastern terminus moved to Prospect Avenue in West Orange.[10][11] In 1998, the Ledgewood Circle at the western terminus of the route was replaced with a signalized T-intersection.[12] In the mid-2000s, an $11.5 million project was undertaken to improve safety on the portion of Route 10 in Hanover and East Hanover Townships by widening existing lanes and adding turning lanes to the road.[13]

Joint Resolution No. 3, page 844, of the 160th Legislature (1936) designated Route 10 as the American Legion Memorial Highway in honor of the services of the members of the American Legion in World War I.[14]

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to New Jersey Route 10.

• New Jersey Roads: Route 10
• New Jersey Highway Ends: 10
• Speed Limits for Route 10