A state grant will cover the costs of roadway improvements to a main road in Secaucus.
The town recently received a state grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to pay for roadway upgrades to Centre Avenue, according to First Ward Councilman Robert Costantino at the Nov. 9 meeting. The road runs through the heart of Secaucus.
“We received a NJDOT grant for local aid for $422,489 for improvements along Centre Avenue,” Costantino said.
Mayor Michael Gonnelli said the town would likely start at County Avenue and go from there.
“It’s not enough money to do the whole roadway,” Gonnelli said. “Well we really don’t know yet.
Town Administrator Gary Jeffas confirmed that the town would start there and work its way down the road.
“We’ll start there and go down,” Gonnelli said.
“We will phase it,” Costantino said.
State assistance to improve roadways
The over $422,000 is part of the $161.25 million in Municipal Aid grants awarded to 541 cities and towns across the state to advance road, bridge, safety, and quality-of-life improvements. The competitive Municipal Aid grant program attracted 625 applications from 547 different municipalities with a total of $363 million requested. Project applications were evaluated and rated on their merits by NJDOT staff and reviewed by an independent panel of New Jersey municipal engineers.
Under the Municipal Aid grant program, each county is apportioned a share of the total funding based on population and the number of local center line miles. Municipalities compete for portions of their county’s share. NJDOT provides 75 percent of the grant amount when a town awards a contract and the remaining 25 percent upon completion of the project.
Secaucus received $422,489 of the $8,916,763 allotted to Hudson County in total.
In comparison, Jersey City got $1,768,519 for the West Side Avenue Improvement Project; Hoboken got $876,483 for the Sinatra Drive Roadway Improvements; Union City got $862,176 for roadway improvements to 13th Street, 42nd Street, and 47th Street; Bayonne got $821,963 for roadway improvements to Avenue A; North Bergen got $767,483 for roadway improvements to 4th Avenue, 85th Street, 88th Street, 76th Street, 77th Street, and 78th Street; West New York got $686,807 for roadway improvements to Dewey Street, Adams Street, 52nd Street, 59th Street and 66th Street; Weehawken got $451,585 for roadway improvements to Columbia Terrace, Fulton Street, and Hudson Avenue.
For updates on this and other stories, check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com.
