 In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering , the state highways running concurrent with US 22 were removed . With the planning of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s , an Interstate Highway connecting the Harrisburg , Pennsylvania area to New York City was planned to run roughly along the US 22 corridor in New Jersey . This interstate was designated as I @-@ 78 in the final plans in 1958 . The new interstate roughly followed the alignment of the unconstructed Route 11 , which had been legislated in 1927 to run from US 22 between White House and <unk> . Between the Alpha area and Annandale , I @-@ 78 was to directly follow US 22 ; the portion between exits 11 and 13 involved the creation of new eastbound lanes for I @-@ 78 and conversion of the eastbound lanes of US 22 into the westbound lanes of I @-@ 78 . The westbound lanes of US 22 were turned into a two @-@ lane frontage road . This construction took place during the 1960s . US 22 was moved to the I @-@ 78 alignment between these two points in 1969 . The former alignment between Alpha and Clinton became Route 173 while the portion east of there became county @-@ maintained Beaver Avenue ( currently designated CR 626 ) . Originally , I @-@ 78 had been planned to use the Easton @-@ Phillipsburg Toll Bridge across the Delaware River and follow US 22 through Phillipsburg and along the Lehigh Valley Thruway west through the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania . However , opposition within Phillipsburg led to the cancellation of this routing , and I @-@ 78 was rerouted to head to the south of the Lehigh Valley . In addition to the construction of I @-@ 78 along the US 22 corridor , US 22 itself evolved into a multilane divided highway from a two @-@ lane road . 
