Route 23 is a state highway in the northern part of New Jersey, United States. The route runs from Bloomfield Avenue (County Route 506, CR 506) and Prospect Avenue (CR 577) in Verona, Essex County, northwest to the border with New York at Montague Township in Sussex County, where the road continues to Port Jervis, New York, as CR 15. Route 23 heads through Essex and Passaic counties as a two- to four-lane surface road and becomes a six-lane freeway at a complex interchange with U.S. Route 46 (US 46) and Interstate 80 (I-80) in Wayne. The freeway carries Route 23 north to run concurrently with US 202. Past the freeway portion, the route heads northwest along the border of Morris and Passaic counties as a four- to six-lane arterial road with a wide median at places, winding through mountainous areas and crossing the interchange with I-287 in Riverdale. The route continues northwest through Sussex County as a mostly two-lane surface road that passes through farmland and woodland as well as the communities of Franklin, Hamburg, and Sussex before reaching the New York state line, just south of an interchange with I-84 and US 6 in Port Jervis, in Montague Township near High Point State Park.
Route 23 was established in 1927 to run from Verona to the New York state line near Port Jervis, replacing pre-1927 Route 8 between Verona and Sussex. The route followed two turnpikes that were created in the early 19th century: the Newark–Pompton Turnpike and the Paterson–Hamburg Turnpike. In the mid-1950s, there were plans to build an Interstate Highway along Route 23 between I-80 and I-287, but it was never built. In the 1960s, the route was planned to be upgraded to a freeway all the way up to Port Jervis and south to Piscataway, Middlesex County; however, both freeway proposals were cancelled in the early 1970s. In the mid-1980s, the portion of Route 23 from north of US 46 in Wayne to I-287 in Riverdale was improved, with the road upgraded to a six-lane freeway south of the interchange with Alps Road and to a six-lane arterial road north of Alps Road.
Route description
Essex and Passaic counties
thumb|left|View north along Route 23 at Highland Road in Cedar Grove
Route 23 begins at an intersection with Bloomfield Avenue (CR 506) and Prospect Avenue (CR 577) in Verona, heading to the north through residences and some businesses along four-lane, undivided Pompton Avenue. After a short distance, the road forms the border between Cedar Grove to the west and Verona to the east before fully entering Cedar Grove. In Cedar Grove, the route narrows to two lanes at the intersection of West Bradford Avenue/East Bradford Avenue (CR 640) before widening to four lanes again at the intersection of Grove Avenue (CR 639). Shortly before leaving Cedar Grove, Route 23 crosses the intersection of Lindsley Road (CR 604), which also heads to the west as CR 527.
North of I-80, the road rejoins the route unnamed, and features a cloverleaf interchange with West Belt Road that provides access to the Wayne Route 23 Transit Center along the Montclair-Boonton Line. Route 23 continues north with frontage roads serving businesses, coming to an interchange with US 202 and CR 511 Alternate (CR 511 Alt.), forming a concurrency with US 202. Northbound US 202 splits from Route 23, where the cut-off intersection with CR 504 is located. At this point, the westbound direction of CR 504 and the southbound direction of US 202 follow southbound Route 23 until an intersection.
History
thumb|right|1955 [[Yellow Book (Interstate system)|Yellow Book map of New York City, showing a planned Interstate Highway along part of the Route 23 corridor]]
Route 23 follows the course of the Pompton Trail, and old Lenape trail connecting what is now Glen Ridge, New Jersey to the Minisink Village in what is now Montague. In the 19th century, two turnpikes were incorporated that would later become parts of Route 23: the Newark–Pompton Turnpike, which was built between 1806 and 1811; and the Paterson–Hamburg Turnpike, which was incorporated in 1806, and was built from Paterson to a landing in Montague Township, where the Owego and Milford Turnpike continued its route west. Parts of the Paterson–Hamburg Turnpike are now CR 650 in Sussex County, the Hamburg Turnpike from Butler to Wayne (signed CR 694, CR 689, and CR 504), Central Avenue through Haledon, and into Paterson as Broadway. Due to realignments, the current alignment of Route 23 bypasses the intersection of these two turnpikes.
In the original system of New Jersey highways, the Newark–Pompton Turnpike and Paterson–Hamburg Turnpike were combined to form pre-1927 Route 8, which ran from Montclair to the New York state line near Unionville, New York, running along the alignment of current Route 23 north to Sussex and following present-day Route 284 north of Sussex. In the 1927 New Jersey State Highway renumbering, Route 23 was designated to run from Route 9 (now CR 506) in Verona north to the New York state line near Port Jervis, replacing pre-1927 Route 8 from Verona to Sussex. In the 1930s, communities in Passaic and Morris counties were bypassed by four-lane roads, with Bloomingdale and Butler bypassed in 1933, and Pequannock by 1936.
thumb|left|Route 23 northbound at West Belt Road in Wayne
In the 1955 plan for the Interstate Highway System, an Interstate Highway was planned along the Route 23 corridor between I-80 in Wayne and I-287 in Riverdale, also connecting to a proposed Interstate along the Route 3 corridor. However, this proposed Interstate was never built. Plans were made in the early 1960s for a Route 23 freeway running from I-80 north to I-84 in Port Jervis, New York, providing improved freeway access to northwestern New Jersey. This proposed freeway, which was to cost $120 million, was cancelled in the early 1970s due to financial troubles and feared environmental issues. A 1966 proposal called for Route 23 to be extended south as a freeway to I-287 in Piscataway in Middlesex County, running parallel to the Garden State Parkway. This $300 million freeway was added to planning maps in 1969 as Route 807 but was also cancelled in the early 1970s.
In the late 1970s, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) made plans to rebuild the section of Route 23, at the time a four-lane undivided road, between I-80 and I-287 to a six-lane freeway between I-80 and Alps Road and a six-lane surface road north of Alps Road. Construction on these improvements began in 1983 and were completed in 1986. With these improvements to the route, many traffic circles were removed, including one at US 46 that was replaced with a complex interchange. In 2008, the Spaghetti Bowl interchange with I-80 and US 46 was improved, costing $70 million. The project lasted from July 2012 to November 2014.