OWNER: NJTransit, Newark, NJ
DESIGN-BUILD-OPERATE-MAINTAIN CONTRACTOR: 21st Century Rail Corp., Jersey City, NJ
ARCHITECT: Fox & Fowle Architect, NYC
DESIGN ENGINEER: STV Inc., NYC
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER: Muesser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, NYC
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Perini/Slattery, a joint venture, Farmington, Mass.

Soon, commuters who live in and go through New Jersey will be able to go from one end of the state to the other, due in part, to extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit system (HBLRT) from Newport Station to the Hoboken branch terminus at the southeast corner fo the Hoboeken Regional Rail Terminal.

To accomplish this task required construction of a rail bridge over the Long Slip Channel, construction of the Hoboken Light Rail station itself and construction of an elevated trackway with a limited right-of-way.

While the Long Slip Channel was designed to include a future segment of the Hudson Waterfront Walkway, it also contained a Jersey City combined sewer outfall that could not be impeded by construction of the light rail segment. Thus, the challenge was to design a rail crossing with the limited load capacity of deep, soft soils, while maintaining the combined sewer outfall and incorporating the Walkway into the rail bridge design. The solution was constructing of the light rail crossing using a combination of sheet pile cofferdams, pile-supported bridge abutments and prestressed concrete beams to avoid compromising the 100-year-old crib walls of the Channel.

The Hoboken Light Rail station and the New Hoboken Terminal Substation are supported on 100-year-old marine structures that include timber cribs with concrete bulkheads, concrete foundations supported on timber piles and timber-relieving platforms supported by timber piles. In order to design and construct the station and substation, it was necessary to determine the existing conditions, the original design capacity, the current structural capacity, the location and condition of the underground structures, the extent of marine bore infestation and a method of preserving these structures from further deterioration.

To determine the condition of the marine structures, tests were conducted. These included land-based and marine-based borings and geotechnical investigations, marine investigations using divers, remote video investigations of the relieving platform underside and hand- and machine-dug test piles to locate existing foundations and utilities and determine the limits and conditions of the various marine structures. Proof load tests were also conducted to confirm the bearing capacity of various buried structures, existing foundations and the relieving platform. The result was the design and construction of the station and preservation of the structural integrity of the existing marine structures.

In addition, construction of the Hoboken Light Rail station was difficult because it's located adjacent to the National Register-listed Erie-Lackawanna and Ferry Terminal and within Hoboken's Southern Historic District. As a result, there were strict guidelines imposed by the agencies responsible for the administration and protection of these historic areas. The satsify all concerned parties, the station's design employs both the historic and maritime themes of the area in its architectural and landscapes elements. These themes are carried through to the design of the platform, plazas and functional elements of the station.

Because of its location within the confines of a congested area of Jersey City, most of the Hoboken Segment track work had to be installed on an elevated structure. The elevated trackway has a limited right-of-way for construction because it begins just north of Newport Station in Jersey City, ascends about 20-ft. at Newport Parkway and continues to 18th Street in Jersey City where it makes a 90-degree turn to the east and west on the elevated structure forming a "WYE" intersection. The solution was to keep the track radii to under 100-ft. which, while tight,, allows a speed of 10 mph. In addition, unique double-diamond special track work and a complex track interlocking were installed to maximize operation flexibility of the light rail vehicles over the three tracks that serve the Hoboken Light Rail Station.

The jury praised the project team for "overcoming site and logistical challenges and for creating a significant transit link for New Jersey."