NJ Transit said two weeks ago that it plans to place a 25-foot-high noise barrier on West 18th Street near the Hoboken/Weehawken border in order to shield residents from the emergency shaft for a train tunnel that is being built.
The Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project is an $8 billion rail tunnel extending from the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station in Secaucus to midtown Manhattan. It will be under construction until 2017. When finished, it will greatly expand the number of trains traveling between New Jersey and Manhattan.
The wall will be 25 feet high and made of wooden planks left in their natural color.
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NJ Transit does not really need residents’ agreement to build, and they don’t have to appear before local planning or zoning boards because they are a state agency. However, they held a meeting with Weehawken residents two weeks ago and will hold a meeting with Hoboken residents this Tuesday to explain the project and build support.
At the Weehawken meeting two weeks ago, residents expressed agreement about certain specifications: the wall will be 25 feet high, and it will made of wooden planks approximately three feet thick. The wall will remain unpainted natural wood.
Serving as a barrier to noise from the vent shaft and conforming to the aesthetics of the area, the wall is expected to take three to four months to build and is slated for completion by the end of the summer or early fall in 2010.
The wall begins at the corner of West 18th and Grand streets, a block or two north of the extreme northwest corner of Hoboken. The existing light rail train runs along 17th Street between the two towns.
The land that will be behind the wall is in Hoboken and is currently a combination of jitney bus parking and wild landscape. NJ Transit will acquire the property and also build a road parallel to the light rail tracks that will go along, beneath, and parallel to the Willow Avenue and Park Avenue underpasses. Construction vehicles will use the road to circumvent the Shades residential area of Weehawken on their way to the emergency vent site.
“The project for the wall will be paid by New Jersey Transit,” said Chief of the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel Project Arthur Silber, who said he did not know how much it will cost.
Bob Drasheff, Weehawken’s planning consultant, who used to serve as Hoboken’s director of human services, said that estimates placed the distance between the future wall and the emergency vent shafts at 175 feet.
“The vent will only be used in emergency situations, like a fire in the tunnel, and it is set to vent toward the south, away from Weehawken residents,” said Drasheff. “It will be tested once a month for 15 minutes to make sure it’s properly working.”
The Hoboken hearing will be held this Tuesday, Dec. 8, starting at 7 p.m. Mayor Dawn Zimmer will attend. The meeting will take place at the Elks Lodge, 1005 Washington St., Hoboken.
Melissa Rappaport may be reached at mrappaport@hudsonreporter.com