Although it is a mainly north-south route, I-295 runs generally east-west through here, I-76 (a generally east-west route) comes in from the north and NJ 42 goes out to the south.
This in one of those interchanges that just sort of 'happened'. The 'North-South Freeway' coming in from the north as I-76 (from Philadelphia and Camden) heading south as NJ 42 was here first. NJ 42 continues south about 2 km where it splits with NJ 42 continuing on the Atlantic City as the 'Atlantic City Expressway' and NJ 55 going to the Millville/Vineland area (south Jersey). Later on, I-295 was built to the southwest, and a few years later to the northeast. The unusual arrangement of this interchange is due to the expense of acquiring right of way through the neighborhoods surrounding the interchange.
Traffic going northeastward on I-295 'splits' before reaching I-76/NJ 42, with those vehicles bound for I-76 taking the left fork and those wishing to continue on I-295 taking the right. This is reversed in the opposite direction. These ramps are also very tight, with slow speed restrictions. ALL of these lanes (I-295 is a 6 lane freeway both ways from here, NJ 42 is also 6 lanes, while I-76 has 10 lanes) are side-by-side as the combined ROW passes under Browning Lane (a local street). There is *NO* access between NJ 42 and I-295 to/from the southwest.
NJDOT is about to begin a major project that will hopefully work to unclog this artery, and none too soon.
BTW, That is the New Jersey Turnpike (interchange 3) at the lower right corner. There are no immediate plans that I know of to add a Turnpike interchange at NJ 42, as the area around where the two highways cross is very swampy with no real place to economically put one. However, there are preliminary discussions in progress to that end.
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