Governor Cuts Ribbon for Route 4 and 17 Interchange

"What a terrific way to start the holiday season at one of the busiest interchanges in the country," Governor Christie Whitman said. "The people who live, work and raise families in this area of our state depend upon this interchange every day, and we made certain that not a day was lost in delivering this critical project. For everyone who has followed the progress of this project, today`s ribbon cutting is the final laurel for a tremendous project. "

"From the very beginning, this project made outstanding progress," Commissioner Weinstein said. "The complexity of the project was matched by the importance of the interchange to the metropolitan area. Bergen County has an employment base of 550,000 people and 19 major malls and shopping centers. Clearly, the center of that universe is the convergence of routes 4 and 17. "

Built in 1932 as a state of the art cloverleaf, the Route 4 and 17 interchange is a main transportation connector for one of the most densely populated regions in the Northeast. The interchange carries 285,000 vehicles each day and offers access to routes 208 and 46, I-287 and I-80, the Garden State Parkway, the New Jersey Turnpike and the George Washington Bridge.

The key components of the interchange were the construction of two new flyover ramps that provide for three levels of traffic. One flyover connects Route 17 south to Route 4 east, and the second connects Route 17 north to Route 4 west. In addition, an auxiliary interchange was constructed west of the main interchange to draw traffic for local destinations.

The $120 million, federally funded overhaul of the interchange began in October of 1998 by the consortium of Bishop- Sanzari-Fletcher Creamer, Inc., working for the New Jersey Department of Transportation.