“The other night we had some heavy rain,” reported Mayor Michael Gonnelli at the June 23 Town Council meeting, “and for the first time in 25 years that I know of, maybe longer, [the area in front of] Home Depot did not flood.”
The flood relief didn’t just happen spontaneously. It was due to long and arduous amelioration work by the town and a state project to the tune of about $1 million that cleaned out the clogged drainage pipes in the area.
The state project has now moved on to the center of town, where the drainage system is being cleaned out all the way to the Royal Motel on Route 3.
“It should be a major relief for local businesses and people traveling through,” said Gonnelli. “The flooding by Home Depot has been a constant nuisance and safety issue for as long as I can remember. That whole intersection coming off the turnpike, into Harmon Meadow, the water would be a couple of feet deep. And it continued to get progressively worse. A little further up, the Route 3 service road was starting to flood.”
There was an element of coincidence involved in the cleanup. Gonnelli and other town representatives had been out one day surveying the area in front of Home Depot and working on solutions to the problem when they happened to spot a crew repaving a ramp on the North Bergen side of 495, using an industrial cleaning machine on drainage pipes.
Gonnelli asked State Assemblyman Vincent Prieto, currently the speaker of the assembly and a Secaucus resident, to see if there was any way to extend that project into Secaucus.
“They took out tons and tons of material. The pipe was 100 percent blocked for half a mile.” –Mayor Michael Gonnelli
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“They took out tons and tons of material,” said Gonnelli. “The pipe was 100 percent blocked for half a mile.”
In total the state cleared about 2,400 linear feet of pipe. “They’re all clean as a whistle and they videotaped to make sure the existing pipes are in good shape,” said Rick Arango, the town engineer. “They were there for eight weeks and the DOT absorbed the cost. There was no cost to the town.”
Too big for the town to handle
The town had tried for years to fix the longstanding problem and always ran into roadblocks. For one thing, the project was simply too big. “We could have never done it on our own,” said Gonnelli. “It was too great a scale, too much money for one municipality to handle.”
In addition, the town didn’t have accurate blueprints for where the drainage system ran. “Secaucus was here prior to Route 3, so the pipes ran into the Meadowlands,” said Gonnelli. “Then when the state built Route 3 they tied it into their system which has been really neglected.”
Once the DOT became involved, Gonnelli asked Arango to help coordinate the cleanup. Appointed as town engineer in 2010, his company, Remington, Vernick and Arango Engineers, has offices on Penhorn Avenue in Secaucus.
The drainage system empties into Cromakill Creek and Penhorn Creek – or at least it did before the pipes got clogged. In addition to general debris, salt and sand from snow removal filled the pipes and contributed to the problem.
Going forward, “A lot of the inputs have been retrofitted with new grates and new hoods to keep floatables and solids out of the system,” said Arango.
Cleaning of the drainage system from the center of town is currently underway and should be completed in a few weeks.
Many more flood alleviation projects underway
“Mayor Gonnelli has a very, very aggressive program to address flooding issues,” said Arango.
In addition to cleaning of the drainage pipes, numerous other projects are taking place simultaneously.
A new backup emergency pump and generator is currently being installed at the foot of Farm Road and Acorn Street. “It is a large diameter pump that doesn’t require electricity,” said Gonnelli. “It runs off diesel so if we have a blackout it will still run.”
A second diesel-powered backup pump is being installed at the high school. At the Born Street pump station, engineers are looking at replacing the 60-inch outfall pipe through which water is discharged.
The town has put out a bid to build a flood wall near Valley Court, Gail Place, and Huber Street. Planned for 6,000 feet in total, the first phase will be approximately 1,500 feet. In addition, a project is underway to raise the existing berms by about another two feet to the 100-year flood level. The berm runs from Meadowlands Parkway to Mill Creek Point. That project is expected to be completed in the fall.
Arango is looking at doing work on old tide gates along the Hackensack River. “When working properly, they prevent tide water from coming into the system,” he said. “We are also actively involved in making sure when new developments come into town that we address as much as possible the storm water infrastructure and upgrade it to make sure that it works to the best of its ability.”
Funding for these projects comes from a combination of municipal funds, state funds, and FEMA.
“We are looking at dredging the Coast Guard marina,” said Arango. “That’s all FEMA money.” FEMA is also paying for a new gas-powered emergency generator at the library, the town’s primary shelter during storm events or emergencies.
“A lot of this stuff will be completed this year and then we have a number of other projects that are somewhat in their infancy that will probably get out of concept next year,” said Arango. “We’ve got a good five year program.”
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.