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Politics & Government

Remediation Under Way At Site of 1600 Park

Early stages of park construction are underway at 1600 Park and bidding opens today for the Hoboken Cove remediation job.

Residents who use the Park Avenue and Willow Avenue access bridges to drive into and out of the north end of Hoboken have undoubtedly noticed the recent flurry of activity taking place on a swath of land known as "1600 Park." Bulldozers, backhoes and dump trucks have been moving the earth around there for roughly two months. But what exactly is going on at 1600 Park?

Site remediation to neutralize the contaminated soil on that piece of land is underway, Hoboken Director of Community Development Brandy Forbes told Patch in a telephone interview Monday. It's the first stage of the city's ongoing effort to transform the perpetually unused space into a new public park. Later this summer, the city plans to begin looking at design proposals submitted by contractors, Forbes said. 

The site at 1600 Park has long sat idle as a barren eyesore, an unwelcoming first glimpse of the Mile Square that has also persisted as a place seen as having terrific potential by real estate developers, who imagined building luxury high-rise condos on the space, and by residents, who envision it as an uptown recreation oasis in a city deprived of adequate open space.

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Dave Backman, a senior project manager for Birdsall Services Group, the Eatontown-based engineering firm that planned the remediation, said that the action was necessary because of contamination from chemicals and wastes associated with industrial and commercial operations. 

Backman said it's difficult to know precisely what materials are contaminating the land at 1600 Park, but given the findings of a preliminary assessment that studied the land going back about 70 years and taking into account Hoboken's industrial history during the last century, he said it's probably coal slag, the residue left over after coal is burned.

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In addition, Backman said five varieties of metals were discovered in the soil. Arsenic, beryllium, chromium, lead and thallium are present in amounts that exceed NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) criteria.

Thus far, the remediation has entailed workers first laying down a filter fabric, said Birdsall Services Group senior engineer Paul Calabrese. The filter fabric is a black sheet that delineates where the safe, uncontaminated soil ends and where the contaminated soil begins—essentially an indicator that danger lurks beneath for anyone that might attempt to dig at the site in the future.

On top of the filter fabric, workers have been installing a two-foot deep soil cap. The soil cap is composed of 18 inches of certified clean fill, which is already in place, and workers are in the process of placing a six-inch layer of topsoil over the clean fill. When the topsoil layer is completed, workers will then seed the soil and grass will begin to grow.

Calabrese and Backman said the soil cap would seal off the contaminated portion of the land and leave a surface area safe for use as park space. Backman said the main threat posed by the contaminants in the soil could only be realized "if people actually came in physical contact with the contaminants or breathed them in." He added, "What we're doing is separating the human element from the contaminants."

After the remediation is completed, Birdsall Services Group will submit a remedial action progress report to the NJDEP and wait for approval from the department that the work was completed according to state mandated standards before further construction can continue.

In 1998, a group of concerned citizens under the name "Hoboken Parks," thwarted a series of developers from obtaining a variance for 1600 Park that would have allowed for the construction of a high-rise apartment building, said Leah Healey, one of the group's founding members.

Healey, 52, who's lived in Hoboken for 23 years, said that stopping that plan in its tracks was a result of the neighborhood's residents mobilizing to oppose any such development. Moreover, she said, the Masterplan adopted by Hoboken in 2004 specifically identified 1600 Park as prime parkland real estate.

With the city stalling to acquire the land due to fiscal troubles, Hoboken Parks recruited The Trust For Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit that helps municipalities and private organizations acquire land for parks by, among other things, identifying all public funding that can be used toward the purchase of particular real estate. With TPL's help, Hoboken acquired 1600 Park in 2006.

Healey said the contentious dialogue over parkland in Hoboken underscores the magnitude of the city's open space shortage. "You can tell there's a problem when people are arguing over the same space," she said. "Overall, it demonstrates that we don't have enough space."

One thing that residents might take consolation in is that the new park is being built at relatively little cost to Hoboken taxpayers. The $484,500 total cost of the engineering and remediation portion of the 1600 Park project has been financed through two grants, said Forbes. Hoboken received a $323,250 grant from the NJDEP's Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund and another $161,250 grant from Hudson County. These grants have to be used for this project. 

The design and construction portion of the project will be financed through $1.7 million in funds obtained though NJDEP's Green Acres Program, said Forbes, noting that Hoboken received a $1 million loan and a $700,000 grant from Green Acres.

Just to the east, across Park Avenue from 1600 Park, lies another swath of contaminated land bordering the Hudson River that has become known as Hoboken Cove and will also be transformed into a park. Forbes said the city is allowing contractors to begin bidding for the remediation work on that site today. "Our hope is that we can go ahead and put that contract up for award at the July city council meeting," Forbes said, adding that the city plans for the two parks to complement one another when they're completed. Another much anticipated park project in Hoboken, Pier C Park, will not open by July 1, which had been mentioned by the Administration as the opening date.

According to Forbes, Hudson County has the Weehawken Cove Walkway Project in the works, which will eventually connect to the Hoboken waterfront walkway, and she said the city will coordinate the remediation and construction of the Hoboken Cove park with the walkway project.

Healey said she plans to take a vocal role in the public meetings going forward and already has an idea for the park's design. "It's an ideal place to put an active recreational field," she said.

The design and construction of the parks won't begin until the public has had a chance to weigh in on the issue. Forbes said residents should be on the lookout for notices announcing public meetings starting in September, at which there will likely be a host of contrasting ideas volleyed about.

"It's our intent that this is going to be a positive amenity and a waterfront beautification project," said Forbes, who expects the two parks will be completed in about twelve to eighteen months.

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