(The following story by Ronald Leir appeared on the Jersey Journal website on April 24.)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — NJ Transit’s plans to extend the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System south to Eighth Street in Bayonne are already causing some headaches for the city.
An underground PSE&G natural gas pipeline that services a single industrial customer must be rerouted because it sits in the way of future supports for an elevated rail viaduct.
And officials predict that during the two months it’s going to take to do the job, Bayonne residents and businesses in the area – Avenue E and West Eighth Street between Avenue C and East 12th Street – can expect periodic traffic rerouting and parking disruption.
Representatives of NJ Transit were expected to brief the Bayonne City Council on the plans at last night’s caucus and promised to repeat the presentation at next week’s meeting. Both presentations will be televised by Cablevision, as part of its regular city government coverage, to help get out the word to the public.
City spokesman Joseph Ryan said the city will post periodic updates on its Web site and will additionally alert the public with signs and other appropriate notices in the affected areas in advance.
Work is scheduled to start next Wednesday. J. Fletcher Creamer & Son, of Linden, has been hired to install 1,350 feet of 12-inch-diameter steel pipe for $1.8 million, PSE&G spokeswoman Karen Johnson said. NJ Transit will pay for the work.
Johnson said the line being moved serves only one customer, Bayonne Plant Holdings, formerly known as Cogen Technologies, at the foot of East 23rd Street, and that when the line is being used, it accommodates 1,800 cubic feet of gas per hour.
“There’ll be no interruption of service,” Johnson said. “The old line will remain in service up to the point in time where we’re ready to shift to the new line and then we’ll just abandon the old line.”