Representatives from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) told the Hudson County Board of Freeholders last week to expect significant detours at the south end of Jersey City Heights during the next phase of work on Route 139.
The work, which has been ongoing since late 2013, is expected to impact Central and Baldwin avenues during its next phase, and then Oakland and Palisades avenues. This will detour buses and other traffic onto narrow streets, and will cause significant delays for several months starting in late summer and lasting until late fall.
Work on Route 139 started in December 2013 to rebuild infrastructure on both the upper and lower roadways. Replacement of deck areas and columns on the two layer highway between Summit and Central Avenues is nearly complete.
The next phase will cause the closure of Route 139 between Baldwin and Central Avenues. Officials from the DOT said bus traffic and other vehicles will be diverted off two very busy roadways and onto local streets.
This will be followed by closing the highway between Oakland and Palisades Avenue.
Freeholder Chairman Junior Maldonado said he had concerns about these detours because buses, trucks, and wider vehicles will be traversing very narrow streets. This will also impact emergency traffic since Christ Hospital is located on Palisades Avenue.
DOT officials have met with the management of Christ Hospital and the Jersey City Police Department to help work out the detour issues. Maldonado said he had concerns about impact on the neighborhood. He asked the DOT to establish public information meetings for residents of the area to keep them fully informed.
“Traffic is a nightmare now, and I can only imagine what will happen when Palisades Avenue is closed.” – Junior Maldonado
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Freeholder Anthony Romano suggested the DOT have monthly meetings to keep the public informed.
Freeholders balk at tourist pilot program
“Build it and they will come,” is a classic line from the movie “Field of Dreams.”
Unfortunately, drawing tourists from abroad is a bit more complicated. The freeholders balked at approving a $34,000 grant that would establish a one-year pilot program to help direct tourism to Hudson County.
Julie Armstrong of Brand USA said the program would create a website designed to draw international tourists to Hudson County, highlighting some of the attractions as well as resources the county has. This would allow tourist agencies elsewhere to help lure potential tourists to Hudson County rather than New York.
“New York City is the main gateway for us,” she said. “There are more than 12 million international tourists going to New York each year out of a told of 56 million for the rest of the United States. This accounts for about 20 percent of all spending.”
She told the freeholders that Hudson County could draw some of these tourists by savvy marketing through this global network.
“Hudson County is only minutes away,” she said.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea said the marketing was too narrow, and that North Jersey should be marketed as a whole to avoid having one section competing against other.
“Hudson County, Newark, Liberty International Airport should be marketed as an area,” he said. “We want to become complementary, not competitive.”
Hotel rates are cheaper on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, but he said more hotel rooms need to be built.
“I’m also concerned that a grant covers the cost of this only for the first year,” he said. “After the first year, we have pay for it, and if we don’t keep it up, we’ve just wasted the initial outlay.”
A change of use for HCIA program
Norman Guerra, executive director of the Hudson County Improvement Authority (HCIA), wants to expand its little-used economic development function.
The HCIA is more or less the environmental branch of county government, in charge of recycling and a number of other related programs. It has also become a kind of bank for municipalities, using its resources to offer loans.
But its economic development portion has been somewhat limited.
“It’s not been very active,” Guerra said. “We’ve given out a few loans. We have talked about disbanding it. It has a 501c3 not for profit status.”
He said the HCIA could expand the program to include more economic and community development. In the past, the HCIA has used its revenue to help municipal and other governments with loans, often allowing governments to use municipal buildings as kind of collateral to help bridge short time revenue issues. Bayonne balanced one budget using its Central Garage for such a loan. Union City in the late 1990s did something similar with its city hall.
The HCIA helped finance the construction of a parking lot for a professional soccer stadium in Harrison. But the proposed change would go beyond just helping municipalities, and delve into housing and other fields of development.
“This could include the development of affordable housing, including veterans’ housing, as well as other types of projects,” he said. “We could provide financial assistance that would not otherwise be available.”
O’Dea volunteered to chair a freeholder committee to oversee this project.
“This is my area of expertise,” he said. “But a change of mission would mean a change of structure. We would need to seek someone to run it, someone with skill sets in that area.”
New school to start construction fall
The new Hudson County Schools of Technology (HCST) complex is expected to break ground in September, said Sal Vega, HCST representative to the freeholders.
The $160 million project will take an estimated three years to build. The current school building in North Bergen will be sold, except for the parking lot area, which will be used to accommodate the school fleet.
The new school is slated for county-owned property in Secaucus near Laurel Hill Park.
This will replace the 100 year-old building on 85th Street in North Bergen, which has operated as the county high school since 1988.
The county will retain a branch of HCST in Jersey City and has already made plans to relocate some of its industrial arts programs to Bayonne.
State aid is expected to pay for almost 60 percent of the construction costs on the new building.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.