Mariano Vega, in his role as Director of Public Service for Hudson County, drives through the intersection of Secaucus Road and Tonnelle Avenue nearly every day to get to his offices in Secaucus. Until May 20, when federal and state officials unveiled the new overpass there, it was always a gamble: would a freight train be crossing Secaucus Road at that moment?
If so, he could expect to wait as long as a half hour. Sometimes, at rush hour, traffic backed up even without the train there, as commuters tried to navigate the turn from Tonnelle Avenue to gain access to Jersey City In coming to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened the new Secaucus Road bridge that crossed both the railroad tracks and Tonnelle Avenue last week, Vega said many daily commutes would be shortened as a result.
Rep. Steve Rothman, who as a member of the Congressional Appropriations Committee helped find the $45 million necessary to construct the overpass, recalled his days as a young attorney when he also got caught up in the daily commute, never certain whether traffic would allow him to get to work on time.
The cost of construction came from the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund as part of an effort to support NJ Transit’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail System. The plan calls for three bridges to be constructed over Tonnelle Avenue and the freight rail line parallel to it. The bridges will make it possible for freight traffic currently using tracks in Weehawken and Hoboken to use these tracks without holding up vehicular traffic. NJ Transit intends to convert Weekawken and Hoboken tracks to use for a light rail line.
For the second time in a month, state and federal officials got to cut the ribbon opening a bridge crossing the rail tracks and Tonnelle Avenue.
With the snip of a ribbon, Rep. Robert Menendez (D-13th Dist.), Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.) and State Senator and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco joined New Jersey Department of Transportation officials in opening ceremonies.
“This project is one of many transportation initiatives being planned in the most densely populated area of New Jersey,” said Jamie Fox, NJ Transit Board chairman and state transportation commissioner, in a prepared statement. He said the bridges would relieve traffic congestion and encourage the use of mass transit.
“As the senior New Jersey lawmaker on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, ensuring that New Jersey is at the cutting edge of safe and efficient transportation option is one of my top priorities,” Menendez said. “The completion of the Secaucus Road grade separation bridge not only provides a safe route for vehicular and pedestrian traffic; it also continues to pave the way for the new phase of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail – a project that will continue the New Jersey tradition of premier transportation systems.”
The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system opened in April 2000. It currently operates between 34th Street in Bayonne and West Side Avenue in Jersey City to Newport Center Mall in Jersey City. The final phase of what is called the Minimum Operating Segment One between Newport and Hoboken open this fall. MOS2 will open in stages: between 34th Street and 22nd Street in Bayonne in 2003, between Hoboken Terminal and the Weehawken Ferry Terminal in 2004, and between Weehawken and Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen in 2005.
This overpass, as well as the ones at Paterson Plank Road and 69th Street in North Bergen, will allow train traffic to switch from tracks along the Hudson River in Weehawken and Hoboken to tracks along the western slope of the Palisades in Jersey City and North Bergen. The light rail will use the rights of way to continue up the Hudson River corridor.
Sacco’s dream made real
Even before he became state senator, State Senator and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco dreamed of a day when traffic did not snarl up at the intersection of Secaucus Road and Tonnelle Avenue. Although when he served as a commissioner on the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, Sacco was instrumental in focusing attention on several key crossings, it wasn’t until he was elected to the state senate in 1994 that he was able to help forge a union between state and federal officials that allowed the project to move ahead.
His role on the state senate’s Transportation Committee allowed him to push for the building of overpasses that will hopefully unclogged streets connecting eastern and western Hudson County.
“I got together with [former transportation] Commissioner [Frank] Wilson and showed him how we needed three over passes in order to make things better there,” Sacco said during an interview conducted after a ceremony that marked the overpass’s opening on May 20.
“Each time an administration changed, we got together and showed the leadership why these overpasses were needed,” he said.
In 1996, the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority pressed the New Jersey Department of Transportation to include three projects in its five year capital construction program.
The projects include $77 million for the construction of a Paterson Plank Road interchange at the intersection of Routes 1 & 9 and Union Turnpike, a project that was completed in April, and something of a surprise to Sacco.
“They were supposed to work on one overpass at a time,” he said. “But along with that project, they also worked on this project at Secaucus Road. I’m surprised at how quickly we’ve finished this.”
The capital project’s five-year plan included $45 million for the construction of a new overpass carrying Secaucus Road over Routes 1 & 9 and over the Conrail, New York Susquehanna and Western Rail line that crosses over Secaucus Road.
This four-lane facility with left turn lanes and new signalization on the overpass was designed to help improve both north-south and east-west traffic flow. While Secaucus Road had been widened in the mid-1990s to handle increased traffic, this traffic often came to a standstill when cargo trains crossed. This was a particular problem during the morning and evening rush hours when many computers use Secaucus Road to access or exit the Secaucus area.
“For those who live here, they know what it was like every time a train came through the area,” Sacco said. “What that did to the traffic patterns. The half-hour waits. It always seems to happen in rush hour. Now with the help of Bob Menendez, Steve Rothman, New Jersey Transit and other officials, we now have a dream come true.”
A host of dignitaries
The brief ceremony on the bridge featured many of the people who helped shape the project, including Menendez, who was instrumental in steering federal funds to this as well as the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail project.
Menendez called it the continuing development that was envisioned first by several Hudson County mayors and a change in how transportation systems could move people in Hudson County, off roads such as Tonnelle Avenue and into high-speed mass transit.
“But we need to accommodate different modes of transportation,” Menendez said, “and in order to do that, we needed to make sure the commercial aspect of freight lines that roll under this bridge would continue to evolve.
That’s about jobs and economic opportunity. And we needed to make sure that passenger vehicles were still part of the transportation system, and we needed to weave all of this into a seamless web of transportation.”
As a senior transportation member of Congress from New Jersey, Menendez played a critical role in making certain the federal government focused its attention on these bridges and light rail projects.
“We unlocked different areas of our county to new possibilities, and therefore we created better jobs, a greater number of jobs, and also improved the quality of life for our residents,” Menendez said, noting that people will spend less time in traffic and more time at their jobs or with their families.
Menendez credited Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.) – who sits on the Congressional Appropriations Committee – with helping to fund the projects.
“This is one of the great moments for public servants,” Rothman said during the ribbon cutting. “You get to actually improve the quality of life for the people you serve.”
Chris Campos, who is a Hoboken councilman as well as a special assistant to the New Jersey Commissioner to the Department of Transportation, called projects such as these vital to public safety and assuring economic development.
For Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, who was not at the event, the bridge opening helps reduce massive traffic backups along Secaucus Road.
“The town of Secaucus has been the victim of terrible traffic tie-ups along Paterson Plank Road and Secaucus Road,” he said. “Trains crossing a nine in the morning, noon or the dinner hour made it impossible for people to get in or out of town. This has been a serious problem for our ambulance service and fire departments. It is a welcome improvement. But I am currently pushing to have a similar bridge constructed on New County Road to accommodate train traffic there.”