With the impending ground breaking for the 100-foot-tall memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority at its July 21 meeting has contracted with Mueser Rutledge and Warren Gorge, Inc. for soil boring to determine how deep pilings will have to go in order to account for the high winds and other factors that might threaten to knock the memorial down.
Nancy Kist, executive director of the BLRA, said that while area borings already exist done by the BLRA and the United States Army, the new borings would be specific to the area where the monument is slated to go.
In July, Bayonne requested $500,000 from the Hudson County Open Trust Fund to cover some of the cost for building the two area park to accommodate the 176-ton bronze monument.
The monument, designed by Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, has been donated to Bayonne by the city of Moscow. Originally designed for the Jersey City waterfront, the Bayonne site at the tip of the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor (formerly the Military Ocean Terminal) poses some special problems, such as high winds that routinely blow off the harbor and the fact that the Peninsula is manmade and will require steel pilings to embed the monument into more solid earth at the base of the harbor.
“These soil samples are to determine how deep the pilings need to go,” Kist said.
Work on the monument is expected to start in September with an official ground breaking to be part of the fourth anniversary of the attack on Sept. 11. The exact date of the ground breaking ceremonies has yet to be determined.
Although the monument – which will depict a giant tear falling through a symbolic split tower – is a gift, the park and monument will be part of a larger project, hopefully funded in part by the county. The monument based will list the names of all those who perished in the 9/11 attack as well as those who died as a result of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
The construction of Harbor View Park is estimated at $3.75 million and would provide those visiting the monument with a clear view of lower Manhattan where the original Twin Towers stood. Funds may also be obtained from Royal Caribbean, as well as local donations.
At the same meeting, the BLRA agreed to delay introducing its annual budget. Kist said the BLRA needed to tie up a few revenue issues first, and that the budget would likely be introduced at its August meeting.