A realignment that took place in 1969 between US 9 and the Manahawkin Bay Bridge resulted in the designation of Route 180 on the former alignment; this road is now CR 50.

[1] The route passes through heavily wooded areas of the Pine Barrens that are a part of the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest.

[1][3] The highway enters Stafford Township and passes to the southwest of the residential Ocean Acres community.

[1][3] The route heads to the southwest of Hackensack Meridian Health Southern Ocean Medical Center before it comes to the intersection of Nautilus Drive (CR 111).

[4] As such, the portion of the route east of the Garden State Parkway interchange sees congestion during the summer months.

[11][12] This route was eventually removed from the state highway system and is now CR 50, although more commonly known as "Bay Avenue".

The Route 72 freeway was planned to run from the Four Mile Circle to the New Jersey Turnpike in Westampton, where it would connect to the proposed I-895 that would continue to I-95 near Bristol, Pennsylvania.

[14] Both I-895 and Route 72 were intended to connect Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the Willingboro area with the Jersey Shore.

[15] However, construction costs and the desire to use money for mass transit led to cancellation of both I-895 and the Route 72 freeway by the 1980s.

This project, completed in May 2010, cost $4 million and received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.