Editing New Jersey Route 64 (section)

=== Route 31A and the original freeway ===
{{infobox road small
|state=NJ
|type=NJ 1926
|county=
|route=31A
|location= [[West Windsor, New Jersey|West Windsor]]
|length_mi=
|length_round=
|length_ref=
|formed=1938<ref name="1938law" />
|deleted=1953<ref name="nj1953" />
}}
In the late-1920s, the state proposed a bypass along the alignment.
In 1938, the [[New Jersey State Highway Department]] and [[New Jersey General Assembly]] put forth a proposal detailing that a highway from [[U.S. Route 206|State Highway Route 31]] (co-signed with U.S. Route 206) in the city of [[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]] eastward through Mercer County onto current-day County Route 571. From there, it would follow an alignment of highway to the intersection with [[New Jersey Route 33|State Highway Route 33]] in the community of [[Hightstown, New Jersey|Hightstown]]. The original proposal for the highway was to turn the road into a limited-access freeway along its entirety. The route was designated as State Highway Route 31A, a suffixed spur of State Highway Route 31 that year.<ref name="1938law">{{Cite book|title=ROUTE NO. 31A. Beginning in State highway route No. 31 in or near Princeton, and thence to a point at or near Hightstown and connecting there with State highway route No. 33 eastwardly of Hightstown. |year=1938|publisher=New Jersey State Assembly}}</ref> A portion of the highway was constructed in 1939, when a bridge over the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] was constructed from Washington Road's former alignment to the current intersection with Route 615.<ref name="nbi">{{cite journal|year=2009|title=Structure Number: ++++++++1117150 |publisher=United States Department of Transportation}}</ref> This new, {{convert|104.00|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} bridge replaced the at-grade crossing on Washington Road,<ref name="1909topo">{{cite map|title=Southeastern portion of the Princeton, New Jersey quadrangle|publisher=United States Geological Survey|year=1909}}</ref> which is now a dead-end.<ref name="map">{{google maps|title=Overview of old Route 31A|url=https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mr&ie=UTF8&ll=40.318189,-74.621437&spn=0.002646,0.006866&z=18|access-date=August 27, 2009}}</ref> The state highway law was amended just three years later, with the freeway option removed and the extensions remaining.<ref name="1941law">{{Cite book|title=ROUTE NO. 31A. Beginning in State highway route No. 31 in or near Princeton, and thence to a point at or near Hightstown and connecting there with State highway route No. 33 eastwardly of Hightstown. |year=1941|publisher=New Jersey State Assembly}}</ref>

The new bridge remained in place along Route&nbsp;31A, however, no new portions of the freeway were constructed in terms of creating the Route&nbsp;31A Freeway, as proposed in&nbsp;1938.<ref name="1938law" /> In&nbsp;1950, then-governor of New Jersey, [[Alfred E. Driscoll]], cited the need for the expressway as an important truck and passenger car highway from Trenton to the [[Jersey Shore]].<ref name="driscoll">{{Cite book|quote=My studies have very definitely indicated that it is unwise to expect city streets to bear the brunt of through, truck and passenger traffic. A continuous line of trucks, or, for that matter, passenger cars, bound from the Trenton area to the seashore, or desiring to get on the (New Jersey) Turnpike after it is completed, may constitute a (brick wall) "Chinese Wall" just as effectively as an underpass or overpass.|author=Alfred E. Driscoll|publisher=State of New Jersey|year=1950}}</ref> Route&nbsp;31A itself was decommissioned in the [[1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering]], and replaced by the designation of Route&nbsp;64.<ref name="nj1953">{{Cite book|title=1953 renumbering|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1953_New_Jersey_state_highway_renumbering|publisher=New Jersey Department of Highways|access-date=July 31, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628183145/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1953_New_Jersey_state_highway_renumbering|archive-date=June 28, 2011}}</ref> The route was truncated from both ends toward Princeton and Hightstown, leaving just the bridge in West Windsor.<ref name=nj1953ii>State of New Jersey, Laws of 1953, Chapter 112, Page 1298, Section 1.</ref> Route&nbsp;31A remained in the state highway statutes for several decades after decommissioning, with a bill in&nbsp;1991 being proposed. The bill passed, and Route&nbsp;31A was stripped from the statutes on January&nbsp;18,&nbsp;1992.<ref name=nj1991ii>State of New Jersey, Laws of 1991, Page 1298, Section 2.</ref>