EXTENDING THE TEN-MILE-LOOP INTO NEW JERSEY: During the late 1960's, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) proposed an extension of the Ten-Mile-Loop Expressway, a northern circumferential bypass that was to be constructed ten miles from Philadelphia City Hall, into Burlington County. Beginning at the proposed Torresdale-Riverside Bridge across the Delaware River, the Riverside-Moorestown Freeway was to extend 5.6 miles east to I-295 (at EXIT 40) in Moorestown. Additional connections to the New Jersey shore may have been provided for the (unbuilt) NJ 38 Freeway.

Brian Doreste, contributor to phillyroads.com, commented on the route of the unbuilt Riverside-Moorestown Freeway as follows:

I have no clue as to where this freeway would have carved through Riverside, but I am guessing that it would have cut thru Delran and Moorestown somewhere between Westfield Road, Hartford Road and Creek Road, the three roughly parallel roads that run northwest-southeast between I-295 and US 130.

The area between those roads was mainly undeveloped until recently, since a large, upscale housing boom has taken place in all of the old orchards in this once rural area of Moorestown. I have no doubt that the political clout and old money in Moorestown killed this project, much like the NJ 90 extension to I-295, which will also never be built.

This is probably not clearly delineated on the map, but Riverside does not have a border with Cinnaminson; rather that is the Delran-Cinnaminson border. Since the Tenby Chase development that I live in - the one that shares the Delran-Cinnaminson border on the south side of US 130 - was built since 1969 (it was constructed between 1971 and 1975), I am guessing that open space for right-of-way acquisition was available at the time. However, they still would have had to route the freeway between the Moorestown Field Club and the Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) property in order to reach I-295.

The DVRPC estimated that the $17 million Riverside-Moorestown Freeway, which did not have a known route designation, would be completed by 1985. However, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) neither made specific plans for the Riverside-Moorestown Freeway, nor approved the DVRPC proposal.

SOURCES: "Philadelphia's Comprehensive Plan for Expressways," Philadelphia City Planning Commission (1966); 1985 Regional Transportation Plan, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (1969); Brian Doreste; Len Pundt.

RIVERSIDE-MOORESTOWN FREEWAY LINK:

• Expressway Plans (1974 map) (Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission)
  

• Torresdale-Riverside Bridge (unbuilt)
  

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