With a wintry chill in the air, Jersey City residents this week were treated to a teaser of what warmer weather might bring as a contractor began work on the Jefferson Avenue walkway bridge project inside Reservoir 3.
Once the bridge is fully functional, the city plans to open the long-shut 13-acre historic site to the public for walking tours of the area which, after its de-commissioning in the 1990s, has become home to wildflower meadows, a variety of trees including oak, cherry and birch; along with great blue herons, swallows and peregrine falcons.
Still in the planning stages is restoration of the site’s historic structures whose walls were built in the Egyptian Revival style and Romanesque gatehouses. The site, enclosed with high stone walls, is just south of Pershing Field park.
But for now, the city is focused on expanding access to green space, not only for folks in the Heights – home to the reservoir – but to all residents.
Local lawmakers whose constituents live in the Heights and nearby Journal Square, were quick to praise the city administration for finally getting to this point after more than a year of waiting for something to happen.
Ward C Councilmember Richard Boggiano, who had persistently griped the city was deprive residents of recreational opportunities, said: “I want to give Barkha Patel (city director of Infrastructure) credit for moving the project ahead.” Based on the latest update from the city and the contractor, Boggiano said the bridge structure should be in place within 30 days.
Also thankful to Mayor Steven Fulop, Patel and Boggiano was Ward D member Yousef Saleh, for their “partnership and help for us to get to this point. The bridge construction is absolutely critical to the completion of the walking path and the city’s ability to open up the site and make it ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)-accessible.”
“Even as an able-bodied man,” Saleh said, “(maneuvering) without the bridge would be a treacherous trek and I almost rolled down the steep hill.”
Saleh’s forecast for the bridge opening was within “30 to 60 days, weather permitting.”
Saleh said he was “excited for the residents to see the progress at the site and how we seek to make it an urban oasis, the crown jewel of Jersey City.”
That crown jewel won’t come cheap.
The city began by awarding, under state contract, a $125,550 consulting engineering contract to Suburban Engineering, of Flanders, in June 2022, and earlier this year, the city agreed to raise the fee to a revised total of $143,050.
In a May 2022 memo, Suburban advised the city that the bridge “… will allow for all-terrain vehicles for general maintenance and security of (the) reservoir to have continue access along the upper trail. It will also allow for street-level access to (the) reservoir.”
As part of an explanation for additional fees in a December 2023 memo, Suburban said that after conferring with its then-potential partner, Custom Fabrication, of New York, it concluded that “…changes are required to their bridge design.”
These changes, Suburban said, “include thicker bridge decking, larger baseplates for the bridge columns, and increased anchorage coverage at both the concrete columns and abutment locations.” Suburban called the changes “significant” and “will require (Suburban) to design both the concrete pier foundations and concrete bridge abutments.
“Once signed and sealed drawings are received (from an outside source), Suburban will begin redesign of the column foundations and abutments ….”
Ultimately, the city administration recommended Marturano Recreation Co., of Spring Lake, for “fabrication and delivery” of the pedestrian bridge at a cost of $879,534. Its website describes the company as “one of the leading park and recreation equipment suppliers in nine states.”
According to Saleh, the bridge “would most likely result in a road closure at Jefferson Avenue for one to two days when the bridge arrives (with a police escort).”
Reservoir 3, built in the 1870s, held water pumped from the Passaic River which flowed by gravity from neighboring Reservoir 2, until the river was found to be polluted by salt water and industrial waste. In the 1900s, Jersey City began tapping a new water source at the Boonton Reservoir and pioneered the use of chlorine as a cleansing agent. By the 1990s, the city had shut down Reservoir 2 and then abandoned Reservoir 3.
In 2012, Reservoir 3 was listed on the state and national Register of Historic Places as the Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance crusaded to save the site.