Carteret, NJ – Mayor Dan Reiman has been joined by Councilman and Parks Commissioner Vinny Bellino to announce that the Borough has begun the bidding process for the construction of an extension to the pier at Waterfront Park.
The 700’ pier extension will be built southward from Waterfront Park’s Veterans’ Memorial Fishing Pier. The project will serve both as an additional resource for passive recreation and a breakwater for the park’s future marina, which will represent Phase III of the Waterfront Park development.
Having recently obtained federal permits, the Borough has also submitted an application to the NJDEP for the construction of the marina. Once completed the project will host up to 276 slips and various amenities for regional boaters, as well as additional recreational resources and local Port Authority facilities.
To date over $10 million in state and county appropriations have been expended on the development of Waterfront Park, the single largest parks development project in Carteret’s history. As the site of the town’s now annual 4th of July Celebration and its “Concerts by the Bay” series, Waterfront Park has become a regional attraction. Currently the 17 acre park hosts nature trails, exercise stations, a children’s play area, a gazebo/bandstand, miniature golf, a boat launch, putting green, and sensory garden.
Other plans for the town’s formerly abandoned waterfront properties include the establishment of a transit village. The mixed-use community, still early in its planning stages, will include luxury condominiums and a boardwalk with restaurants and retail shops. The development will lie adjacent to a public transit ferry, offering traffic-free commuter access to Manhattan.
The pending pier extension project has been designed to allow for greater usage of the Borough’s waterfront property resource, also providing for mooring bollards to be constructed along the existing promenade, allowing larger recreational boats and cruise lines to pick up and drop off passengers.
Through the planning and design phases of the project, the Borough has received input from local public interest groups including the Carteret Port Authority and regional boating and fishing clubs to determine the needs of the marina and associated pier extension and mooring bollards. The project has received approval from numerous permitting agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, NJDEP Land Use Regulation Program and the United States Coast Guard.
“Waterfront Park is an ever-evolving success story,” Mayor Reiman commented, “in which 17 acres of former Brownfields have been redeveloped and put to use in ways that directly benefit our residents and help redefine our quality of life standards in Carteret. A major part of our vision for the Waterfront’s future is to tie it into the greater region through the provision of accommodations for commercial and recreational boaters, and ultimately as a terminal for commuters heading to or from Manhattan. This pier extension will serve both as a new recreational resource and the welcome mat for the marina that is to come, paving the way for some considerable improvements to this formerly abandoned area.”
Bids for construction of the pier are due August 24th, at 10:00 a.m.. Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year with the pier opening to the public by the spring of 2011.
