Passaic County to Receive $600K Grant to Study Aging Bridge

Press release:

The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) Board of Trustees approved $600,000 for Passaic County to investigate options for replacing or rehabilitating the Sixth Avenue Bridge in Paterson.

“The funding from NJTPA is important in terms of the Freeholder Board’s commitment to investing in county infrastructure,” said Passaic County Freeholder Director Hector Lora. “In Passaic County, all of our deficient bridges have been repaired, are under construction or are in design.”

“Over a century after it was built, this bridge remains an important entrance point to the city, particularly for workers heading to and from Bunker Hill’s industrial businesses,” said Passaic County Freeholder and NJTPA Board member John Bartlett. “Roughly 10,000 vehicles use the bridge each day, and nearly one in 10 are trucks. We need to make sure that we have a strong, modern bridge in place to support those vehicles and their heavier loads. This is another example of how important infrastructure investment is to economic development.”

Originally constructed around 1900, the two-lane, 300-foot-long bridge one of the oldest bridges in Passaic County. It connects the City of Paterson with Prospect Park, Hawthorne and the surrounding communities in Passaic and Bergen Counties. More than 9,600 vehicles cross the bridge each day, including almost 800 trucks accessing major manufacturing centers such as the Bunker Hill Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) in the City of Paterson. The bridge was partially rebuilt in 1987, but is now classified as functionally obsolete due to substandard width and scour critical due to soil erosion around its piers and abutments. A 15 mph speed limit is posted for bridge traffic.

The Sixth Avenue Bridge study was one of eight in northern and central New Jersey selected to receive federal funding through the NJTPA’s Fiscal Year 2016 Local Capital Project Delivery Program. The program awards grants to the NJTPA’s member counties and cities to investigate all aspects of a project, including environmental, right of way, access, design and feasibility issues. Studies that complete this initial investigative work, called the Local Concept Development Phase, may be eligible for eventual construction.

A total of $3.2 million was approved for this year’s round of Local Concept Development Phase studies.

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