Full Notification

Below is an update from Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla to Hoboken residents regarding various resiliency initiatives:

As residents may know, the City of Hoboken has undertaken a number of resiliency initiatives over the past several years to help mitigate flooding and reduce the damaging effects of severe weather events that continue to increase in intensity due to climate change.

We continue to prioritize these resiliency initiatives, which are especially critical as a coastal community right next door to the Hudson River. Below are various updates on our progress.

Protecting homes through the Resilient Building Design Guidelines

As many in our community experienced, Hurricane Ida inundated our City with over 6.5 inches of rain in a very short amount of time, causing flooding in basements and homes; some of which had never experienced flooding before. Unfortunately, these types of severe storms are only projected to occur more frequently in the years to come.

Nonetheless, after months of work engaging with stakeholders, experts, and the community at large, I’m pleased share a comprehensive resource of strategies to guide property owners as they prepare their buildings to better mitigate flooding, on their properties, caused by severe rain events. This resource is a supplement to the Hoboken Resilient Building Design Guidelines, and I encourage residents to read more about how to better protect from these types of storms.   

This addendum outlines strategies to reduce your property’s flood risk, guides you through the City’s permitting and approval process, and provides you with key contacts and flood preparation tools to know before a storm event strikes.    

You can find the guidance online here: www.hobokennj.gov/resources/resilient-buildings-design-guidelines-addendum.    

Expanding the Southwest Resiliency Park

As we have shared in various updates over the past several months, we are continuing to engage in a community design process, to double the size of the current Southwest Resiliency Park at Block 10 (Observer Highway/Harrison Street). Thank you to all the residents who provided input on the park's expansion proposed design options, as we are near finalizing a final proposed concept design on the above-ground active recreation, and below-ground stormwater infrastructure to mitigate area flooding.

We anticipate the final proposed concept design to be presented to members of the public by the fall. I’m glad to share a few of these features include pickleball courts, a playground area and basketball court, which will provide active recreation areas to complement the passive open space on the adjacent park across the street at Block 12.

Once we have a final design on both the above and below ground features, we will be applying for permitting to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and anticipate construction starting in 2024. Various alternative funding sources will help pay for the cost of construction and acquisition, including Green Acres, and Hudson County and Hoboken's dedicated Open Space Trust Fund, as well as low-interest loans with principal forgiveness from the NJ Infrastructure Bank. 

I thank Councilman Ruben Ramos for his local advocacy for this project, as well as the County and State of New Jersey for providing these various funding sources to help move this project forward.   

Northwest Resiliency Park construction continues

Hoboken’s Northwest Resiliency Park, currently under construction, will become New Jersey’s largest resiliency park and will be able to withhold up to two million gallons of water during severe weather events, through above and below-ground infrastructure. Once completed, the park will include including a multi-sport athletic field, basketball court, playground equipment for children of all ages, a seasonal ice rink and spray area, as well as open space areas.   

While crews continue to make substantial progress, due to a variety of factors, construction has fallen slightly behind, and we anticipate substantial completion by the spring of 2023. Additional, required remediation in 13th Street for the adjacent sewer-system upgrades have contributed to longer than anticipated construction schedules, in addition to other on-site conditions. The City, North Hudson Sewerage Authority, and our teams are continuing to work as expeditiously as possible to complete this project.

As shared in previous updates, the sewer upgrades in the areas surrounding the park, currently under construction, will substantially add to underground sewer capacity, to separate stormwater from sewerage and further mitigate the impact of heavy rain events. A third flood pump will soon be under construction to help pump the water from the Northwest region into the Hudson River.

The construction costs for the park continue to utilize a variety of funding sources, including the City and County's Open Space Trust Funds, as well as low-interest loans with principal forgiveness from the NJ Infrastructure Bank, that allows the park to be constructed without any impact to the current municipal budget.

I look forward to cutting the ribbon on this innovative, multi-faceted park that will provide needed open space for all residents to enjoy, while also providing comprehensive significant rainfall storm protection.  

Plans to expand green infrastructure

While our historic Rebuild by Design project contains various strategies to resist water from breaching our City from storm surge from the Hudson River, it also contains a number of recommendations to help mitigate rainfall flooding as well.

We have installed 26 green infrastructure sites in the public right-of-way in the past four years, including rain gardens, bioswales, and green/grey tanks, each of which can withhold thousands of gallons of rainwater during storms. We are continuing to implement the Rebuild by Design recommendations whenever possible in public infrastructure projects, and have 19 green infrastructure sites planned over the next three years.

To learn more about Hoboken’s right-of-way green infrastructure, go to https://arcg.is/15PPfz.   

Implementing the $230 million Rebuild by Design project

Through our continued partnership with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, we are making substantial progress on the Rebuild by Design flood protection project. We have met a major milestone in completing the storm sewer upgrades in downtown areas including River Street by the PATH, as well as portions of 14^th and Hudson Streets uptown. These storm sewer upgrades will complement the above ground “resist” portions of the flood protection project, so water is not breached below-ground during storm surge events once the above ground “resist” amenities are built out.

Now that the below-ground storm sewer upgrades as a part of the Rebuild by Design project are complete, crews will focus on building-out the above-ground “resist” features to fit in with the urban landscape of our community, such as through a park at Harborside Cove. This park’s features will be designed to help push back water from the Hudson River during storm surge. The construction on the above-ground “resist” features are anticipated to begin by the end of this year.

I thank Governor Murphy, and his entire team at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for their continued partnership on this critical project.  

Flood barricades to help address flooding events

While we continue to mitigate flooding caused by storm surge and severe rain events, we also recognize the reality that we cannot completely halt flooding from occurring in every instance. To help protect the community and deter unadvised vehicular travel during severe storm events,  the City will be installing automated flood barricades at some of the most flood-prone intersections in western Hoboken, which will help prevent vehicles from driving through floodwaters. The automated barricades and associated warning signage will be solar-powered and activated by real-time flood monitoring sensors, and will also reduce the City’s resources and costs associated with flooding events.

Finally, for anyone who would like to learn more about our resiliency and sustainability efforts, please feel free to visit our project webpage: https://www.hobokennj.gov/resources/sustainability.

Thank you,

Ravi S. Bhalla
Mayor