New Jersey Route 139

Route 139
Route 139 in red, Route 139U in blue
Route information
Maintained by NJDOT and PANYNJ
Length	3.32 mi[1][2][3] (5.34 km)
Existed	1988–present
Restrictions	No hazardous goods in Holland Tunnel
Mainline
Length	2.49 mi[1][3] (4.01 km)
West end	US 1-9 / US 1-9 Truck / Route 7 in Jersey City
Major intersections	I-78 / Newark Bay Extension in Jersey City
East end	I-78 at the New York state line
Upper level
Length	0.83 mi[2] (1,340 m)
West end	CR 501 in Jersey City
East end	Route 139 (Mainline) in Jersey City
Location
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
Counties	Hudson
Highway system
New Jersey State Highway Routes Interstate US State Scenic Byways
← Route 138 → Route 140

Route 139 is a state highway in Jersey City, New Jersey in the United States that heads east from the Pulaski Skyway over Tonnele Circle to the state line with New Jersey and New York in the Holland Tunnel, which is under the Hudson River, to New York City. The western portion of the route is a two-level highway that is charted by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) as two separate roadways: The 1.45-mile (2.33 km) lower roadway (Route 139) between U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) over Tonnele Circle and Interstate 78 (I-78) at Jersey Avenue, and the 0.83-mile (1.34 km) upper roadway (Route 139U or Hoboken Avenue) running from County Route 501 (John F. Kennedy Boulevard) and ending where it joins the lower highway as part of the 12th Street Viaduct, which ends at Jersey Avenue. The lower roadway is listed on the federal and NJ state registers of historic places since 2005. The eastern 1.32 miles (2.12 km) of the route includes the Holland Tunnel approach that runs concurrent with Interstate 78 on the one-way pair of 12th Street eastbound and 14th Street westbound. Including the concurrency, the total length of Route 139 is 2.77 miles (4.46 km).

What is now Route 139 was originally the northernmost part of the Route 1 Extension. Route 25 replaced Route 1 in the 1927 renumbering. In 1953 renumbering, Route 25 was changed back to U.S. Route 1, which had been previously rerouted to cross the Hudson River when the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931. Route 25 from the Pulaski Skyway over Tonnele Circle to the Holland Tunnel became U.S. Route 1/9 Business. By the 1990s, U.S. Route 1/9 Business was replaced by Route 139. NJDOT assigned it the number 139 because it appears to look similar to “1&9,” with the ‘3’ looking like an ampersand (&).^{[dubious – discuss]}

NJDOT began a rehabilitation program for the lower and upper levels of the highway in 2005. The renovation work for the 12th Street and 14th Street viaducts was completed in 2010. Renovation of the upper roadway, including the Hoboken Avenue Viaduct, and Conrail Viaduct on the lower roadway was expected to be completed by 2016.