Officials toured the deteriorating Meadowlands Parkway Bridge Friday to address a situation that has literally reached its breaking point.
Mayor Dennis Elwell called a meeting that included statewide and national representatives because he saw the need to begin lobbying to replace the bridge, with preliminary costs guessed to be $7 to $10 million.
Engineers from the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) and private engineering firms such as the PMK Group of Cranford and Edwards and Kelcey of Morristown were in attendance, as well as members of U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and Rep. Steve Rothman’s staffs. State Assemblyman and Secaucus Construction Official Vincent Prieto and Secaucus Town Engineer Gerald Perricone also attended.
“The diagnosis was the same for everyone,” said Elwell. “The bridge is going to need to be replaced eventually, and right now, a temporary solution needs to be implemented.”
Perricone, who is also employed by PMK, is awaiting word from a county-hired firm that is doing a study on the bridge. Once that report comes in, the township may have to take immediate action, depending on its conclusions.
“The report may give us no choice but to close the bridge immediately, or at the very least, limit the bridge to weight-class traffic only,” said Elwell during a Town Council meeting Tuesday night.
According to Elwell, because the bridge spans active railroad tracks, there is a real danger that if the bridge should collapse while a rail car is underneath, the town could face a considerable lawsuit, not to mention people can be severely injured.
Currently, Norfolk Southern utilizes the tracks. Increasing the seriousness of the issue, NS commonly runs tanks filled with chlorine-based chemicals that could have “catastrophic” repercussions for the town if there was an accident.
Elwell said that a temporary solution of patching, paving and sealing could cost as much as $2 million. “This is all predicated, however, on a review from a state-issued bridge inspector,” continued Elwell. “But Edwards and Kelcey had serious doubts about the integrity of the bridge.”
The bridge inspector is a newly designated position on the state level, and according to Elwell, it’s good to have the state involved in the process as much as possible.
“It’s a very rare thing to have a township that is responsible for a bridge or tunnel,” said Elwell. “Usually this kind of infrastructure is administered on the county or state level. I think there is maybe one other municipality in the state that has a bridge under its jurisdiction.”
There’s actually a reason that the town is in charge of the bridge.
Why it’s Secaucus’ bridge
Built in 1977, the Meadowlands Parkway Bridge was originally constructed by Hartz Mountain as part of the Meadowlands Parkway, a privately-maintained roadway. Back then, the area was largely industrial, and the bridge was used largely by Hartz Mountain employees. However, it was open to the public.
Hartz argued in a 1998 lawsuit that under an obscure provision of state law, the responsibility for maintaining private roads that take on a public use could be shifted to a municipality after 20 years.
Unfortunately, because the roads that traverse the Harmon Cove Towers and retail outlet sections of town were built as private roadways, a different standard was used in their construction. Those roads were not subject to the same state regulations that public roads would have been.
As part of the settlement reached with Hartz Mountain, the Secaucus-based real estate company gave the township $240,000 toward repairs for the bridge after their engineers deemed parts of it in disrepair. Then in 2000, the first bid that came back for the work was for $1.2 million dollars. With a deficit of funds, the town put out a second RFP, hoping for a better quote. The next bid that came in was for $1.7 million.
In 2002, the town came close to closing the bridge entirely because of the eroding and falling of concrete chunks from the bridge’s underbelly onto the platform of the Harmon Cove train station.
But instead, repairs began to temporarily fix the problems while a long-term solution could be planned. Closing the bride would essentially have closed of the back end of Secaucus, where the bridge allows the Meadowlands Parkway to cross over railroad tracks that accommodate the Bergen Line that runs to Hoboken.
Traffic would still be able to make its way through to the southwestern side of town, but would have to utilize Castle Road and New County Avenue.
Oddly, Secaucus does own a second bridge on the same roadway. That unnamed bridge spans the Jersey City water main just south of the Meadowlands Parkway Bridge but is in considerably better condition.
Cause and effect
Now, 25 years after the bridge was built, tests show that problems with the sub-base materials are causing sinkholes to form and the highway to crack. Moreover, the bridge has been deteriorating for years due to winter salting to keep it from freezing over.
Large gashes in the concrete have exposed the steel rebar inside of the bridge that is also slowly rusting, according to photos supplied by the engineering firms.
The actual concrete deck of the bridge has endured tons of patchwork surgery and the deck joints are crumbling along with the bridge’s concrete abutments and peers.
With major problems on the deck, it was noticed also that drainage, or the lack thereof, was a major cause of some of the problems. Additionally, a wooden walkway and railing had all but disintegrated.
In 2000, Secaucus officials had approached the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission (HMDC) seeking to be included in an infrastructure improvement grant, asking for $260,000. In the end, the HMDC, a state agency, granted Secaucus $215,800.
Needing more, the town even applied for a bikeway grant to use for the walkway of the bridge. “Any way we can get money raised for the repairs, we’ll try,” said Elwell.
But today, the situation has reached its limit. With official reports from engineers tending towards the extremely negative, and with a looming report on its way that’s expected to say the same, the town needs money to address the problem.
Currently, the road is undergoing some paving and sealing, trying to “shore up” the bridge for the short-term. But as for the long-term replacement of the bridge, funding is still uncertain. These improvements have been ongoing for two months.
According to Elwell, a letter was sent from the head of the New Jersey DOT, Jack Lettiere, to Rep. Rothman, requesting that he reconsider authorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, a federal transportation program known as TFA-21, and that he insert the Meadowlands Parkway Bridge into it to provide funding for a new bridge altogether.
Elwell did note that some good news for the area had been received, though. The nearby New Jersey Turnpike interchange, 15X, currently under construction, is slated to open in November 2005. Improvements to the adjacent Seaview Drive should open as soon as this summer. With any luck, the town might be able to couple the momentum from these improvements with an upgrade of the bridge.