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The rescheduled Portal Bridge Capacity Enhancement Project Meeting will be on Wednesday, March 24, from 6:00 PM until 8:30 PM at the Secaucus Town Hall. This event had been postponed due to snow last month.
Be there and lend your support for a the establishment of two miles of East Coast Greenway trail in Hudson County. The meeting will be held in the Secaucus Public Library (1379 Paterson Plank Rd)
Background: The East Coast Greenway is a developing 3000-mile network connecting cities from Maine to Florida. It has been called an Appalachian trail for bicycles. For a long time, crossing the Meadowlands in New Jersey has been seen as one of the most difficult stretches to complete on the entire route.
However, for the first time, there may be a way to achieve this. New Jersey Transit plans to build two new rail bridges across the Hackensack River (a north and south span, each adjacent to the current Portal Bridge, which will be de-commissioned after the completion of the replacement bridge project). In order to build these bridges, NJ Transit needs to take 2.5 acres of parkland from Hudson County to build a new rail facility.
By law, they must give back to the County. State law mandates that this "give back" to Hudson County take one of the following forms:
- Double the acreage being taken,
- double the dollar value of the taken land, or
- a combination of replacement land and financial compensation
The East Coast Greenway Alliance's preference is that the mitigation be acreage, in the form of two miles of East Coast Greenway trail in Hudson County, including a bicycle and pedestrian path on the new southern Hackensack River Bridge. This would bring the Greenway off-road from Belleville Turnpike in Kearny to West Side Avenue in Jersey city, adjacent to the Hudson Generating Station. Two miles of trail, in a 20' wide corridor, equates to five acres. This is double the area of the land being taken, and meets the letter and intent of the law.
Your help is needed to accomplish this goal. On Wednesday, March 24, from 6:00 PM until 8:30 PM, there will be a critical public hearing at the Secaucus Public Library and we urge your attendance. If there is a strong show of support for a bike/ped facility, the ECGA can get the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Hudson County on side, creating pressure on New Jersey Transit to accede to this. Public support is imperative to the success of this goal -- without it, success is unlikely.
In 18 years, this is the best opportunity for the East Coast Greenway to cross the Meadowlands. Can we count on your support?
Please contact Mike Oliva of the East Coast Greenway if you have any questions. Please come out for this meeting, and show that cyclists can respond, en masse, to an issue vital to their interests. |
