NEWARK, N.J. — Commuters faced heavy delays and multiple road closures across New Jersey on Friday morning, as a series of incidents impacted traffic on major highways and local routes.
A downed tree completely shut down all westbound lanes of US Route 46 east of County Road 609/Ramseyburg Road in Knowlton Township just after 8 a.m., according to traffic reports. Around the same time, a downed utility pole on NJ Route 38 eastbound near the New Jersey Turnpike in Mount Laurel Township also forced a full closure of that highway.
On the Garden State Parkway, two separate crashes caused backups. A southbound collision north of Exit 148 (John F. Kennedy Drive North) in Bloomfield blocked the right shoulder as of 8:16 a.m., while a northbound crash in the local lanes north of Exit 123 (US 9) in Sayreville blocked one right lane.
The Parkway also saw delays from Exit 150 (Hoover Avenue) to north of Exit 148 in Bloomfield, where a two-mile backup developed as a result of the southbound crash. Another delay northbound from north of Exit 144 (CR 510) in Newark to Exit 150 in Bloomfield spanned 30 miles due to volume.
An ongoing outside agency assist at Exit 129 (New Jersey Turnpike/US 9/I-287/NJ 440) in Woodbridge Township kept the ramp to Route 184 East closed to traffic since early Friday morning.
Meanwhile, drivers heading westbound on the George Washington Bridge experienced 15-minute travel times on both the upper and lower levels at the New York side, with congestion stemming from the Cross Bronx Expressway between Jerome Avenue and Interstate 95 at I-80.
The New Jersey Turnpike faced multiple slowdowns as well. A five-mile delay built up southbound on the Eastern Spur from Interchange 17E in Secaucus to north of Interchange 15E in Newark due to an earlier incident. A similar five-mile delay plagued the Western Spur southbound from north of Interchange 16W in East Rutherford to Interchange 15E, due to high volume.
Additional delays included congestion on the Pulaski Skyway northbound from Tonnelle Circle to the NJ Turnpike/NJ 139 Split in Jersey City, as well as both directions of I-280 in Newark. Eastbound delays ran from Exit 12 to Exit 14W, while westbound traffic slowed near Exit 15.
Southbound traffic on US 1&9/Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen Township was also slow from south of NJ 495 to south of Carlton Avenue in Jersey City. The Garden State Parkway saw more volume-related delays southbound at Exit 130 in Woodbridge Township, with a half-mile backup reported.
