NJDOT authorizes bid on construction
of upland improvements to forthcoming Carteret ferry terminal
CARTERET, NJ – Mayor Daniel J. Reiman has announced that the Borough issued a request for bid has gone out to bid on the next phase of the ferry terminal and Carteret Intermodal Transportation Building on a remediated seven-acre site formerly operated by DuPont Chemical.
In the wake of state Department of Transportation design approvals and Department of Environmental Protection wetlands approvals, construction of a parking lot with about 700 parking spaces will include lighting, utilities, and to mitigate storm water runoff, inlets, porous pavement, and high density polyethylene and reinforced concrete pipes.
“We expect to be in the ground on the land side by early summer, and in the ground on the water side by fall,” Mayor Reiman said. “If all goes well, we’re looking at a spring ’25 opening for the ferry terminal followed by the Carteret Intermodal Transportation Building, which will be about 40,000 square feet.”
The upland phase is expected to be completed by next April, according to bid documents.
Bidders must be qualified in drainage, earthwork, grading, bituminous paving, curbs and sidewalks. A contract is expected to be awarded by the end of June.
“We’re exploring the possibility of utilizing our existing Veterans Pier for temporary service,” Mayor Reiman said. “We’re looking at the regulatory agencies — what’s permitted, what’s not permitted – because that’s a Green Acres pier.”
Water side improvements are expected to go out to by summer’s end, the Mayor said. They will include construction of an in-water fixed pier, floating docks for passenger loading and unloading, connecting gangways, timber ramps, a timber staircase connecting the floating docisk with the ferry boat, a wave screen, steel piles, and two parallel aluminum gangways to connect the fixed pier to the floating dock.
The fixed pier will be 25-feet long by 16-feet wide. The floating dock will be 40-feet long by 40-feet wide. The gangways will be 65-feet long by 5-feet wide. A design is in the works, Mayor Reiman said.
“Once the waterside improvements are done, we could operate a ticket booth out of a kiosk and an app on a smart phone until the Carteret Intermodal Transportation Building is built,” the Mayor said.
The Reiman administration has secured $48 million from various funding sources for the ferry project, including a Federal Transit Administration grant and a 2023 Congressional appropriation.
“This will allow the NJ TRANSIT buses, municipal jitneys, and NJ Rideshare to drop passengers off at this building, and then they’ll hop onto the ferry to Manhattan,” the Mayor said. “There will be two to three stops in Manhattan leaving about four times a day and arriving back to Carteret four times a day. Four times in the morning and four times in the evening. That’s the initial projection. We’ll increase that as ridership demands.”
Pending FTA review, finals designs will begin for the Intermodal Transportation Building, which will include a bar, lounge, restaurant, restrooms, ticketing area, office space, banquet hall, training center, and bed & breakfast, Mayor Reiman said. The project is scheduled for a fall bid with construction expected to start by next spring.
“Once the Intermodal Transportation Building is built, you’re talking about something that is unheard of for the tristate area in terms of a terminal building,” Mayor Reiman said. “Think Grand Central Station. This a 40,000-square-foot building. You’ve got a bar, lounge, restaurant, restrooms, and ticketing area on the first floor. Second floor would be leasable office space. You’d have two stories of office space. Then you’d have a banquet hall and training center. You’d also have a bed & breakfast with 20 suites overlooking the ferry for those who are coming in and staying overnight.”
The Reiman Administration began to study the feasibility of a ferry project about 15 years ago.
The bulkhead for the ferry terminal was completed in October. NJDOT Office Maritime Resources completed the dredging in the second week in January.
More than a century ago, Carteret’s waterfront was residential and public space, but in the 1890s, chemical companies acquired the properties, took down the colonial mansions along the waterfront and created a “chemical coastline,” Mayor Reiman said.
Throughout its 21-year tenure, the Reiman administration has been taking back these properties.
“We’ve gone after DuPont Chemical, U.S. Metals,” Mayor Reiman said. “We’ve sued and won natural resource damages cases against all of these polluters requiring that they provide public space, open space, access to the waterfront. Taking back these properties, requiring them to clean up the properties, to pay civil penalties to the Borough that we’re using to provide these public amenities.
“We’re taking an older urban community with a lot of brownfield sites, and we’re revitalizing to a younger, growing community,” the Mayor continued. “I like to compare us to Hoboken or where Hoboken was 30 years ago. And you see that with the investment.”
The forthcoming ferry has triggered interest in two hotel groups to operate full-scale hotels within the waterfront redevelopment area. One is part of Carteret Stages, a designated and approved $1 billion waterfront redevelopment project that also includes 500,000 square feet of studio soundstage and film production facilities, as well as commercial and office space, restaurants, retail, and a 1,200-car parking garage.
Updates about the Carteret ferry project and waterfront will be available at Carteret.net or by following @MyCarteret on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
PHOTO COURTESY THE BOROUGH OF CARTERET
Site plan for 700-space parking lot and other upland improvements of Carteret Intermodal Transportation Building.
