The North Bergen Board of Commissioners made it a point to speed up the process for roadway improvements on 6th Street and Columbia Avenue at yesterday’s special meeting.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
The North Bergen Board of Commissioners voted unanimously (5-0) to approve a resolution awarding a New Jersey Infrastructure Bank contract for Columbia Avenue and 6th Street road improvements.
Department of Public Works (DPW) Commissioner Anthony Vainieri thanked Mayor Nick Sacco, his fellow commissioners, and the administration for holding the special meeting at his request in order to approve funding for the project.
“I just want to thank the for holding this special meeting at my request,” Vainieri began.
“What this does, this special meeting, is it expedites our construction down on 6th Street and Columbia Avenue by at least three, four weeks, which we can’t afford going into the winter months already.”
He also said it was important to prioritize the road construction to reach completion prior to the winter.
“Thinking about the winter months, sometimes October and November get cold, we can’t lay concrete and pave and get good asphalt, so this expedites our construction,” Vainieri added.
The renovations include new sidewalks on both sides of 6th Street, all the way down to Columbia Avenue and into the nearby dead end street.
In addition, the street will be milled and paved starting in the coming weeks.
“Construction is ready to start in about two weeks, and we’re looking at an end date of the end of October,” Vainieri remarked.
“If we didn’t do this special meeting for this, we’d be back into November, maybe December months and we couldn’t afford to do that. We wanted to get this done by the end of the year.”
In addition to that project, Vainieri touted another project on 9th Street and 10th Street, which he said the township would be opening bids on next week to redo the roads down there.
“9th Street and 10th Street would be milled and paved. I think one of those streets includes the sidewalk, because there’s some money there that we can afford to do,” he expressed.
On top of that, Vainieri said another roadway project would begin soon on 83rd Street and Tonnelle Avenue near West Side Avenue. He said that construction on that project would being on August 3rd.
Meanwhile, roadway construction on 85th Street is starting in the coming days.
“That’s going to get all new milled and paved, with new sidewalks. 85th Street by the Junior High School,” Vainieri indicated.
Additionally, he said that plans for roadway renovations to Bergenline Avenue advanced at the previous commissioners meeting earlier in July.
He said that is for Phase 2 of upgrades to the major thoroughfare, from 79th Street all the way to the township limits by the White Castle including new sidewalks, lampposts, garbage cans, and benches, as well as milling and paving of the street.
In conclusion on the topic of roadway improvements, Vainieri said the township has installed yield signs for pedestrian safety on 90th Street, 85th Street, and 61st Street from John F. Kennedy Boulevard to Tonnelle Avenue.
“We’re getting our job done, mayor,” Vainieri concluded.
The special public meeting still took care of some government business as allies of both Sacco and Assemblyman Larry Wainstein (D-33) went to war over a proposed $38 million lease with the municipal utilities authority (MUA), as only HCV reported.
68th kennedy blvd down to Columbia ave to senior bldgs needs major paving. Thank you Mr. Vanieri.