Hudson County will spend $2,962,647.94 resurface and improve the bike lane on River Road located in the West New York, Guttenberg, and North Bergen following approval from the board of commissioners last week.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The Hudson County Vision Zero Action Plan is a critical focal point of my administration, and I’m excited to see this project take Hudson County one step closer to establishing safer roads for all motorists and cyclists,” Hudson County Executive Craig Guy said in a statement.
“I am proud and thrilled that the County Board of Commissioners accepted a bid to resurface River Road and improve the existing bike lane to make River Road safer for all residents of West New York, Guttenberg, and North Bergen.
Included in the project are a number of Proven Safety Countermeasures as set forth by the Federal Highway Administration and will align with the goals of the forthcoming Hudson County Vision Zero Action Plan.
These include bike lanes, high friction surfaces at curves, reflective backplates on traffic signals, high visibility crosswalks, centerline rumble stripes, as well as dedicated left and right turn lanes.
River Road will be milled and resurfaced from Anthony M. DeFino Way to South of Churchill Road. The northbound right lane and southbound right lane will be shared bike lanes from Anthony M. DeFino Way to Palisades Medical Center.
From Palisades Medical Center to Bulls Ferry Road, the existing lanes and turn lanes will remain with striping shifted to the west. This will allow for a northbound and southbound bicycle lane alongside the northbound vehicular lanes.
A two-foot-wide concrete island will be constructed to separate vehicular lanes from the bicycle lanes. The concrete islands will be 20 feet in length with a 12-foot gap in between. Delineators will fill the 12-foot gap.
The project will consist of two-inch roadway milling and two-inch pavement resurfacing. Provisions are included for full depth pavement reconstruction where required. Curb ramps will be reconstructed at each intersection.
Utility work includes resetting inlets, manholes, various valves, inlet grates, and curb pieces where required.
The funding for the bicycle lane part of the project will include funds from the 2023 New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) Bikeway Grant ($637,000). The remainder of the funding will be from NJDOT County Aid, and County funding.
The construction cost estimated for the project is $2,962,647.94. It is anticipated that the work will take place between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and at least one lane will be open in each direction except during construction hours.
It is anticipated that traffic will be shifted and reduced to one lane in each direction during construction hours. Access to properties along River Road will not be impeded during construction and the duration for construction will be approximately 180 days.
Thank you (not really) for making our commute back home 10 times longer. Can’t really take a bike ride all the way to Newark, right? Did you even bother asking the community about this? Isn’t traffic on river road bad enough anyways? I hope you will come to your senses and cancel this ridiculous project and get our second lane back.
Taking your bike to Port Imperial/HBLR and then PATH to Newark from EXCH PLC is a viable, low-cost solution. Might be roughly the same time and cheaper. Why sit in traffic on River Road, 495 and 95 when you can sit and relax on mass transit? We’re way too car oriented. The bike lane isn’t the problem, it’s all the development on the water that brought more cars!
This is awesome. Badly need a safe route between JC and North Hudson / GWB. Lot of car trips in Hudson County can be done by (e)bike, reducing congestion and increasing everyone’s health + wealth.
As a driver, cyclist, and transit rider I can easily say – our roads are too crowded with cars, we’re out of room. We need desperately to invest in alternatives. Bike lanes, light rail, trains, buses and more. I applaud the County for investing in new modes of travel. I hope this pattern continues. We do need better ways to get to Newark – the light rail should be a no brainer for the state to connect Hudson, Essex, and Bergen. We are being underserved by our state agencies.
Huge thanks to Hudson County leadership, more please!
Very excited about this. Protected lanes like these make it possible to check out new areas of Hudson County without being stuck looking for (or paying for) parking.
Without lanes like these, I can’t take
rides with my partner, as she’s not as experienced on a bike as me. Truthfully, I don’t think I’d ride River Rd without this kind of infrastructure, either.
This project is deeply misguided. River Road is already congested, and this plan ignores the needs of the residents who depend on it daily. Prioritizing a 1-mile stretch for visiting cyclists—while disrupting local traffic—is not only impractical, it’s dismissive of the community that lives here. Did anyone seriously take residents into account?
This provides easier access to HBLR at Port Imperial and also the Ferry for you and your bike to get wherever you want. Leave your car at home. Save money, get some exercise and de-stress. It’s the development that brought all the cars without giving any thought to viable mass transit solutions north of Weehawken.
Very grateful for this forthcoming lane — it is only of the only ways to cycle between Hudson County and New York City, and this will be a lifeline for the many people who use bikes to travel here. Please encourage your colleagues in Bergen County to extend the lane northward.
Thank you very much for this lane. This road is one of the only ways for people in Hudson County to access New York City by bicycle via the George Washington Bridge, and the bike lane will be a lifeline for them. Please encourage your colleagues in Bergen County to extend this lane north.
Thank you so much for this bike lane! may it extend all the way to Fort Lee!
Thank you Hudson County! The shoulder painted bike lane was completely faded and mostly used for debris to pile. This upgraded protected cycle track will get more people to use bikes who want to safely ride to places and it’s hopefully the start of a larger bike network in Hudson County. While the waterfront is a great recreational route, it is not direct and there are gaps that leave people having to ride on the sidewalk on River Road. Now for WNY, Weehawken and Bergen County to complete the rest of the south/north portions!
Wow, transformational and greatly needed, Thank you Hudson County! I’ve seen preliminary photos of the concrete buffers and this will make riding on River Road feel safe and truly be safe. I hope the protected lane continues to be extended further north.
FINALLY! River Road is huge—it’s not just driving once a day to get to work, but being able to use it safely at all times, now even more often biking/walking
This is so unnecessary. I do gig work and drive through river road all the time, which is usually very congested except during afternoon hours. This traffic during the construction and the shrinking of the roads is really ruining my ability to work as it’s taking so much longer to do every single order. Also, cyclists will enter the lane that they feel like going to regardless of a bike lane.
Spending $3 million on a project that makes work and commuting more difficult for everyone who drives (which is way more than those who bike) is upsetting to say the least. Not happy.
I’m starting to think the positive comments are fake. I have not spoken to a single person who is in favor of shrinking river road. Where they are building, they have alternative (and safer!) paths. Not only are we seeing more congestion on River Road but it has gotten much more dangerous as cars do not have protected turning lanes now. We need to elect someone who actually lives in the neighborhood. This has been terrible and it will stay this way once construction is complete. What a waste of $3 mil. Hopefully there is future budget to remove the concrete islands. Before making these bad decisions, please come to the neighborhood first.
Actually not. The stretch in question has always been hazardous to cyclists. South of there is relatively safe passage to Port Imperial for ferry and HBLR. I regularly take my bike on HBLR to get to JC and access the PATH. Bike to mass transit is so much faster than driving. The real problem is the towns let development occur that just brought in cars and little thought was given to rapid mass transit (bus or rail) from Port Imperial up to Ft Lee. You should thank the towns for the traffic and maybe consider using an eBike to get places faster and save money.
Do you work for the government? Its interesting that you continue to reply to any negative comments. This project seems to have failed to consider the residents that live here. Its incredibly inconvenient and will make congestion on River Rd worse. Take a right turn into properties and business while crossing past the bike lane is also going to be dangerous. Not to mention that we lost our turn lane – which means anytime a left turn is taken – it will hold up all traffic.
Poor use of taxpayer money.
I would love to know who approved this – so I make sure not to vote for them.
What an absolutely brain dead idea. This road cannot handle the congestion as is, and is far less safe now that it has been narrowed and protected turning lanes have been removed. The positive comments here are absolutely fakes or the losers on the board who decided in disguise, I’ve never met a single person who actually lives here and is pleased. “Just get an ebike” is an equally numb-skulled idea. Put a baby on an e-bike, ride it thru torrential rain, get a car load of groceries, pick up your kid from soccer practice… I can keep going… maybe we should all take up cross country skiing to go places?
Everyone should make their voices heard, call your community reps and make sure heads roll for this. (Btw, I’m typing this during my normally 25min bus commute that has now taken me over an hour).
I will echo Alex B’s sentiments. My family lives here in Port Imperial. We have children. We drive up and down River Rd (with diaper bag in tow) to buy groceries, to do shopping, to take our children to school and extra-curriculars. Bicycling is not a viable option for us. Maybe this is good for those who are just passing through on their way to work but for the families that live here the crippling traffic caused by this work is a nightmare.
And for what it’s worth, my wife and I both take public transportation to work. But the buses sit in stand-still traffic just like everyone else.
What are folks in wheelchairs supposed to do? They better let buses ride in the bike lane so they can pull up to the shelters, otherwise I don’t think that follows ADA laws for disabled folks – having to roll off a curb and over another one, all whilst crossing an active bike lane… and we know how polite bikers are, I’ve been hit by couriers in NYC at least twice while they broke road rules and blew red lights.
The only logical reason that this project when through is corruption. It caused nothing but congested traffic, disruption to neighborhood, etc.
The addition of bike lanes to River Road, at the cost and expense of taking away car lanes, is insane. This is not only the main transportation artery in the area but the only one! How do you prioritize recreational transport over required and needed transportation? The already crowded and congested traffic WILL ONLY GET WORSE! How do you de-prioritize everyday transportation and ignore the fact that this already congested area is only going to become more densely populated with the many residential/apt building developments in progress? First responders will now be arriving at emergencies later and lives will be lost, no doubt! Will it be of any consolation when emergency service vehicles are stuck in traffic, but the biker is breezing down the road? How about when the weather isn’t conducive to bike riding, which here in North Jersey is only what, eight months a year! What a shameful waste of taxpayer money that will only damage the quality of life for every resident in the area! You sir, have lost my confidence and vote.
I live where this is taking place. I commute from the Port Imperial neighborhood on River Road in West New York to Bergen County while my wife takes the bus into the city. The bike lane has created an extra hazard for those getting on and off the bus, and snarled traffic to a standstill. My block has a group chat and literally everyone on it is upset by this project. Even a couple of local realtors who said that it killed traffic to their open houses and will likely depress property values (I’m a property owner, not just a tenant). Will we still have two through lanes plus turning lanes when it is done? If so, please share with us residents. We are all upset! Every turning car now completely stops traffic on River Road. My commute went from 40 minutes to over an hour. We can’t even order Door Dash or Uber Eats anymore because the traffic is so bad that everything is cold before it arrives. This is absolutely terrible. Who can I vote against to tear this abomination out? It’s little consolation that all of the visiting bicyclists passing through are so pleased.
Please come down and do a follow up article for the new bike lane on River Road in North Bergen. Especially now when the snow and ice has made it not visible to drivers on River Road. The bike lane was built to reduce fatalities? I beg to differ people.