Take a Joyride to Nowhere on New Jersey’s Most Useless Highway

Say what you will, but New Jersey's highway system is pretty darn good.

I mean, forget about all of the stupid red lights and the traffic jams and the potholes. I'm talking about if you need to get from A to B, there's probably a pretty good road you can travel on.

And travel is what we do best here in New Jersey. Just consider the fact that over 200 million vehicles use the Turnpike every year.

On top of that, we have the Garden State Parkway, the Atlantic City Expressway, and Interstates 78, 287, 80, 195, 295... all of these roads make getting around pretty easy.

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And then there's Route 167.

Now, Route 166 is in Toms River and that road is rather busy. Route 168 runs through Gloucester and Camden Counties, which is another busy road. But Route 167 is quite the opposite.

Not only is it a state highway that your tax dollars support, but it's a highway (and I use that term loosely) that quite literally goes nowhere.

Well, that's not exactly true. It'll take you face-first into a brick wall. I'm not joking.

Where to Find It: Between Exits 48 and 50

Our travels today take us to the Mullica River, right on the Atlantic-Burlington County line, between Parkway Exit 48 for Smithville/Port Republic and Exit 50 for Bass River.

Back before the Garden State Parkway was built, if you wanted to get between those two points, you would hop on Route 167 and drive across a little bridge over the river. Years later when the Parkway came through, it cut Route 167 in half, leaving dead ends on both sides of the river.

Those dead ends are still, for some reason, official state highways. Little ol' Route 167 has never been decommissioned.

So, over on the Bass River side, if you're on Route 167 (Old New York Road), you'll drive right into a fence after 800 feet...

And if you're on the Port Republic side, Route 167, which is locally known as Chestnut Neck Road, will take you right into a retaining wall for the Parkway.

The Road to Nowhere Got Repaved!

And here's the funny part: that side of 167 was fully repaved in the summer of 2023 as part of a $7.2 million state-funded project to improve various roads in South Jersey.

Sure, the handful of people who live on that road deserve a smooth ride, but there are certainly other roads around here that could use the attention.

Mile Marker 0 — and That’s About It

As for how you would ever find Route 167, the state put up two mile marker 0 signs a couple of years ago on the Atlantic County side. That's it.

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As for the "little bridge" that you used to drive on before the Parkway was built, that was disassembled in 1962 and moved to a park in Virginia.