One year later, the state highway department proposed that the Hoboken Freeway be included in the Interstate highway system. Despite pleas from state highway officials that the road would serve commercial, industrial and defense interests, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads denied Interstate funding for the Hoboken Freeway. Beginning at the Holland Tunnel approach roads, the NJ 85 Freeway will extend north through Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken to the Lincoln Tunnel.
Alignment is in the planning stage.
When completed, it will provide a needed controlled-access route along the Hudson, and an alternate route to the West Side Highway. This will allow better distribution of traffic to the river crossings. Finally, this route will relieve local arterials of congestion. Most likely, the NJ 85 Freeway would have run north-south along the Palisade Avenue alignment between Jersey City and Weehawken. In the late 1960's, two separate planning agencies, the Regional Plan Association and the Tri-State Transportation Commission, recommended not only construction of the NJ 85 Freeway, but also an extension of the freeway north to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.