New Jersey Department of Transportation officials announced today that they have decided to rename the stretch of I-95 in Mercer County. In early 2018, the highway between the Scudders Falls Bridge and Route 1 will be redesignated part of I-295.

This change is part of a larger project. A new interchange is being built to connect I-95 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bristol Township, Pa. The Pennsylvania Turnpike connects to the New Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 6 via the New Jersey Turnpike Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension in Florence, New Jersey. When the new I-95/Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange is completed in Bristol, the highways will be redesignated as I-95, which will create a continuous I-95 from Pennsylvania through New Jersey.

Currently, I-95 runs from Philadelphia north across the Delaware River at the Scudders Fall Bridge into New Jersey and ends at the Route 1 Interchange, where the roadway becomes I-295. This creates a gap in I-95, which picks up again as part of the New Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 7A in Robbinsville.

The section of what is now I-95 in New Jersey will become I-295 by extending the existing I-295 from the Route 1 Interchange to the Delaware River. The I-95 section in Pennsylvania, from the Delaware River south to the new interchange, will be redesignated as I-295.

Seven interchanges in New Jersey and four interchanges in Pennsylvania will be renumbered as part of the project. Four exits on I-195 in Hamilton will be renumbered to match the I-195 milepost numbering.

Beginning in January, highway signs and mile markers will be replaced on the mainline and approaches of I-95 and I-295 in New Jersey to reflect the renaming of the interstate and exit numbers. The new exit numbers will correspond to new mile markers as a continuation of the existing I-295. The former exit numbers will be displayed along with the new exit numbers.

The redesignation program to replace signs will take part in three phases. During phase 1 signs in New Jersey will be replaced between January 2018 and March 2018, starting with existing I-95 Interchange 8/Princeton Pike and moving west toward the Delaware River.

Phase 2, which will start in the spring of 2018, will replace signs on both sides of the Delaware River that are part of the Scudders Fall Bridge project (former I-95 Exit 1 in New Jersey and Exits 51 and 49 in Pennsylvania).

Phase 3 will begin in late spring 2018, and signs at the remaining interchanges in Pennsylvania through the new interchange in Bristol will be replaced.