Interstate 278

Interstate 278
State	NY/NJ
Route	Interstate 278
Length mi	35.62
Established	1961
Direction a	West
Terminus a	New Jersey Turnpike at Kearny
Direction b	East
Terminus b	Belt Parkway at Queens
Counties	Hudson County; Kings County; Queens County; Bronx County

Interstate 278 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway traversing portions of New Jersey, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It connects major crossings such as the Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge while serving port, industrial, and residential corridors including Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, Red Hook, Long Island City, and Hunts Point. The route functions as a critical link between the New Jersey Turnpike, the Belt Parkway, and arterial highways like FDR Drive, Grand Central Parkway, and Cross Bronx Expressway.

Route description

Beginning at the interchange with the New Jersey Turnpike near Kearny and Jersey City, the highway proceeds east across the Kill Van Kull via the Goethals Bridge onto Staten Island. On Staten Island, it follows the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway and the Staten Island Expressway, paralleling corridors such as Richmond Avenue and providing access to St. George ferry connections and the Staten Island Ferry. Crossing the Arthur Kill on the Bayonne Bridge, the route enters Bay Ridge and ascends the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into Fort Hamilton, cutting through Borough Park, Sunset Park, and connecting to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway alignment that serves Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Long Island City. Traversing the East River crossings via the Kosciuszko Bridge corridor near Maspeth and the Kosciuszko Bridge replaces older connections to Queensboro Bridge approaches, then continues along elevated segments that interface with Queens Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway before reaching the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge complex, which carries traffic into the Bronx and links to the Bruckner Expressway and Cross Bronx Expressway corridors.

History

The route emerged from mid-20th-century planning tied to projects by figures and agencies such as the Robert Moses era parkway expansions and the New York State Department of Transportation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Early components incorporated older toll bridges like the Goethals Bridge (opened 1928) and the Bayonne Bridge (opened 1931) and later modern replacements and retrofits driven by traffic demands from the Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal and containerization linked to the McLean logistics network. Major milestones included completion of the Staten Island segments in the 1950s, the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964 which reconfigured regional traffic, and re-designation work in the 1960s when the Interstate numbering system assigned the current auxiliary route. Subsequent projects involved reconstruction efforts associated with the New York City Department of Transportation, federal funding through the Federal Highway Administration, and responses to events such as Hurricane Sandy that affected coastal infrastructure and port operations.

Major intersections

The highway intersects several nationally significant routes and nodes: the western junction with the New Jersey Turnpike and access to I‑95 near Kearny, connections to U.S. Route 1/9 toward Port Newark, interchange systems serving the Bayonne Bridge with links to New Jersey Route 440, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge interchange feeding Gowanus Expressway and Prospect Expressway, multiple interchanges with FDR Drive and Belt Parkway at the eastern terminus, and the complex junction with the Bruckner Expressway and Cross Bronx Expressway that integrates with I‑95 and I‑295. Local ramps and service roads provide access to Red Hook freight terminals, Gowanus Canal industrial areas, and the Hunts Point Cooperative Market.

Service and facilities

Along the corridor, amenities include park-and-ride and transit transfer points near the Staten Island Ferry terminal, truck rest and staging areas serving the Port of New York and New Jersey, and maintenance facilities operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and the New York City Department of Sanitation for roadside services. The route is adjacent to facilities such as the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and passenger nodes like Atlantic Terminal and Penn Station accessible via connecting routes and mass transit operators including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Port Authority Trans-Hudson.

Traffic, safety, and improvements

Traffic volumes vary, with heavy freight flows linked to container terminals and commuter peaks feeding residential neighborhoods including Bay Ridge and Astoria. Safety campaigns and engineering changes have been influenced by incidents on major spans and by studies from the National Transportation Safety Board and the New York State Department of Transportation into bridge scour, lane merging, and congestion at chokepoints like the Kosciuszko Bridge approaches. Recent improvement programs addressed seismic retrofitting, deck replacement on the Goethals Bridge replacement spans, and lane reconfigurations on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway sections aimed at reducing collisions and bottlenecks.

Future plans and proposals

Planning documents from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and municipal agencies outline proposals for capacity enhancements, emissions-reduction initiatives, and multimodal connections that could include expanded truck-only lanes, upgraded intermodal terminals supporting the ExpressRail Newark network, and active-transportation links to waterfront projects such as redevelopment around Red Hook and South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Proposals also consider resilience investments to protect spans and approaches from storm surge and sea-level rise, coordinated with regional climate plans involving the New York State Climate Action Council and federal resilience funding programs.

Category:Interstate Highways in New York Category:Interstate Highways in New Jersey