Hoboken's 'Most Dangerous Corridor': Design Meeting For Washington Street Scheduled

Hoboken, NJ – Want to find out what’s in store for Washington Street, Hoboken?

City administrators announced that the municipality will hold a special meeting on Monday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers to discuss the final design for the Washington Street plan.

According to a news release, the meeting will include a presentation by T&M Associates, the engineering firm developing the final design.

A resolution to approve the final design will be on the Council agenda for Wednesday, February 17. Once a final design is approved, final engineering drawings and bid specifications will be completed, and the project will be bid out for construction, Hoboken officials stated.

“Washington Street is Hoboken’s most dangerous corridor, with more than 300 crashes between 2013 and 2015, including a pedestrian fatality,” city administrators stated. “The final design incorporates complete streets principles and builds upon the conceptual design developed in 2014 through an extensive community planning process.”

According to city officials, the plan will also modernize all elements of infrastructure along Washington Street. For example, the 100-year-old water main will be replaced, green infrastructure will be incorporated to capture stormwater runoff and alleviate flooding as part of the Rebuild by Design strategy, and conduit for the backbone of a microgrid will be installed to improve energy resiliency for critical infrastructure.

In addition to the complete repaving of the roadway, key highlights of the plan include:

• Complete streets design provides safe access for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.
• Pedestrian countdown timers, curb extensions, ADA ramps, and new brighter street lights improve pedestrian safety.
• Corridor travel times and emergency response times are expected to improve 12% to 15% through new optimized traffic signals and an emergency vehicle preemption system.
• Protected bicycle lanes take bikes off sidewalks by providing safe access for all skill levels. Retail sales have been shown to increase after adding protected bike lanes to retail corridors.
• The addition of loading zones, short-term parking spaces, and other policy changes increase parking availability for commercial activity and reduce the amount of double parking by delivery vehicles and those running quick errands
• Parking capacity is preserved by increasing the angle of parking on the east side of the street (uptown) and relocating fire hydrants to corners as part of the water main replacement.

Typical cross section and plan views for the downtown and uptown segments of the road can be viewed at: www.hobokennj.org/docs/transportation/Washington-Street-Plan.pdf.

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