nj.com
By Ron Zeitlinger
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Hoboken will receive $14 million in federal funding to improve its infrastructure and complete construction of a park in the northwest section of the city to mitigate flooding, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and Hoboken Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla announced at a news conference Monday.
The funding is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the form of a $10 million grant to construct resiliency features in Northwest Resiliency Park and a $4 million grant for the North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA) to complete stormwater infrastructure upgrades in areas adjacent to the park.
This ambitious, innovative project will improve the lives of Hoboken families, children, and seniors by better protecting this community from flooding that is occurring more and more frequently,” Menendez said. “Sandy taught us that it’s a heck of a lot more expensive to rebuild in the aftermath of destructive storms than it is prevent costly floods in the first place.”
Historically, the city has been prone to flooding, and the issue was exacerbated during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, when the city was devastated by flooding.
Once completed, the new, five-acre park at 12th and Adams streets will become the country’s largest known resiliency park with above ground green infrastructure and an underground water detention system that together can withhold nearly two million gallons of rainwater and runoff. It will reduce the number of combined sewer overflow events in Northwest Hoboken by more than 90%, from four a month to four a year.
“The Northwest Resiliency Park ... represents the type of innovative infrastructure needed to mitigate the impacts of sea-level rise and global warming,” Gov. Phil Murphy said.
Resiliency features of the park include a 1 million-gallon underground storage tank to collect rainwater during storms, a 50,000-gallon underground cistern to collect and reuse rainwater to irrigate the lawn and plants in the park, above-ground green infrastructure to store up to 750,000 gallons of surface stormwater and eight drainage areas to collect rainwater.
The park will also include playground equipment, a multi-purpose athletic field, basketball court, ice-skating rink, fountain, play valley and fitness loop.
This is an historic day for the City of Hoboken,” Bhalla said. “Hoboken’s Northwest Resiliency Park ... will become an innovative model for the rest of the country. The grant we are receiving will play a critical role in funding our five-acre resiliency park that will finally provide relief to the chronic flooding that too often impacts residents in Northwest Hoboken.”
As chair of the Sandy Task Force and the ranking member of the Senate’s housing subcommittee, Menendez helped secure $230 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for a flood resiliency project in Hoboken, Weehawken and the surrounding neighborhoods known as Hudson River Rebuild by Design (RBD).
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