The nearly $300 million Rebuild by Design project will proceed in Jersey City after receiving assurances about the impact on a potential new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“I appreciate your concerns regarding the potential impacts of the project on the proposed, future elevated Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) station at 18th Street within the Holland Park redevelopment area,” Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla wrote in a June 25th letter to Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.
“I understand your concerns to be the feasibility of installing a future HBLR station at this site once the Rebuild by Design project has been completed, the potential increased costs of the project, and if the State is committed to making up these potential, increased costs.”
While Hoboken officials were all smiles when they broke ground on the $297.6 million endeavor just under a year ago, the situation subsequently caused mostly headaches.
11 months ago, former Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said that Fulop was holding the project “hostage” with Bhalla complicit in hopes for support in a bid for higher office (he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in June and Fulop didn’t endorse in the race).
A week later, she asked the Hoboken City Council to put up and approve a resolution urging the state to obtain RBD easements in Jersey City, where 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos and 6th Ward Councilwoman Jen Giattino obliged.
During Fulop’s February 7th appearance on HCV Live & Uncut, he noted that he wanted a feasibility study done to ensure the easements would not impact a new light rail station.
He also took the position that Jersey City should not have to pay for such a study.
And while the Hoboken council initially balked at it, they eventually unanimously approved a $75,000 engineering contract to perform the aforementioned study.
“In an effort to work collaboratively to address these potential issues, and to avoid a conflict where the State may have to consider condemning the property surrounding the HBLR in order to move forward with the project, the City of Hoboken – at Jersey City’s request – retained the engineering firm Greenman Penderson Inc. (GPI) to analyze any potential impacts,” Bhalla said in his letter to Fulop.
“I’m glad to share that GPI’s comprehensive report recommends a feasible, and cost- effective solution to mitigate the potential impacts of the RBD-HR project on the future HBLR station. The report recommends modifying the scope of work for the RBD-HR construction to incorporate a mitigation strategy that would resolve this potential impact by constructing a micropile foundation adjacent to the flood protection structure for the proposed future elevated HBLR station.”
He continues that these would be installed by the state at a preliminary cost of $997,500, less than half of one percent (0.5) of the total cost of the RBD project.
With that in mind, Bhalla respectfully asked Fulop to sign off on the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for municipal right-of-way (ROW) easements that are part of the RBD project.
In a July 30th letter to Fulop, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) reiterated some of the points Bhalla made before asking the mayor, also a Democratic candidate to governor, to move the easements forward.
“We appreciate and understand Jersey City’s concerns that the flood wall’s construction could conflict with a planned future light rail station. Accordingly, DEP has committed to include the GPI-suggested foundation elements in the flood wall construction to accommodate the future light rail station in Jersey City,” he wrote.
“Given the critical public flood safety protections provided by the project, along with DEP’s commitment to accommodate the light rail station, I request that you immediately approve all remaining public easements needed in the Jersey City areas of the project.”
Both letters were obtained by a confidential source who was not authorized to speak on the matter after Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests for the documents did not yield any results after several weeks.
Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said that they said back in November that they were only seeking to have any additional costs covered and that the project is moving forward now that everything has been put in black and white.
“As we have said all along, our only condition was getting their assurances to protect Jersey City concerning any additional costs incurred, as we could not responsibly support building a wall to protect Hoboken that could wind up costing Jersey City taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” she told HCV.
“Now that we have those assurances written into the conditional permits, the prep work is scheduled to start in the upcoming weeks.”
New RBD construction in Hoboken, specifically on portions of 15th Street, began last month.