Hoboken Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla announced on Wednesday his decision to allow SUEZ Water to resume their work in southwest Hoboken of updating an underground water meter.
“The first weekend of their scheduled work was a disaster,” said Bhalla. “They were not prepared to hold everyone accountable on their traffic control responsibilities, making everything fall on Hoboken’s shoulders and causing traffic problems far worse than anyone anticipated. I suspended their project. I’m cautiously optimistic their revised plan will be better, but I will be keeping a close eye on its impact. I am prepared to suspend their project again if need be.”
The plan involves a contractual obligation from New Jersey State Police to have 12 traffic control officers on the scene at all times with six directing traffic from the Hoboken side and six directing traffic from the Jersey City side. As part of the contract, if, at any time, there are not 12 officers working, the City of Hoboken intends to suspend the project.
Due to construction work being done to upgrade the underground water meter facility, the following roads in southwest Hoboken will be closed this weekend beginning 8 p.m. Friday and reopening 5 a.m. Monday:
- Harrison Street will be closed at Paterson Avenue not allowing southbound traffic from Paterson Avenue to Observer
- Harrison Street will be closed at Observer not allowing southbound traffic from Observer to Newark Street
- Newark Street from Monroe to Harrison Street will be closed to both east and west bound traffic
A visual representation can be seen here. Additionally, westbound lane of Newark (between Madison and Monroe) will be tapered with traffic cones to left turn only lanes onto Grove Street. NJ Transit buses will be allowed to travel to Jackson Street to complete their route.
Please plan ahead and give yourself extra time when traveling. Thank you for your patience.
