Flood project begins in New Jersey
Construction plans include new tide barriers
Meadowlands pursues scaled-down resiliency
Rebuild by Design-Meadowlands got the remaining $45.6 million, which went to a contract with Union Paving & Construction. Its team will improve drainage in the Losen Slote Creek watershed by installing a second pump station and force main in Little Ferry. Wednesday’s event marked the start of construction on the pump. Union will also remove a decommissioned tide gate foundation that blocks flow within the creek.
Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc in the Meadowlands region, where a massive storm surge pushed a deluge of water from the Hackensack River into streets and homes. Thousands of people were evacuated, and houses, businesses and cars were severely damaged. About a year after Sandy, leaders of the Meadowlands communities affected by the storm began to lobby for more funds to build up the region’s defenses against similar storms.
Little Ferry Mayor Mauro Raguseo said that since the Rebuild by Design project was announced there have been 50 to 60 meetings and community input sessions hashing out the details.
The initial cost estimate for the project, which would have involved surrounding 14 towns with earthen walls called berms, adding a transportation system and building millions of square feet of commercial and industrial space, was well over $1 billion. The project was eventually scaled back considerably.
Construction in Little Ferry will get underway within the next couple of weeks and will likely take about two years to complete.
“There will be detours, there will be inconveniences, there will be noise, but at end of the day, the final completed project will have a big impact on flood control in Little Ferry,” Raguseo said. “We are thrilled that after all these years of meetings and lobbying and planning we are finally going to see the start of the project.”