Exterior of $50M terminal to be completed by year’s end,
allowing interior construction during winter months
CARTERET, NJ –Mayor Daniel J. Reiman was joined on Aug. 27 by Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin, Freeholder Director Ronald G. Rios, Borough Council members, municipal department heads and employees, representatives of Congressional and state legislative delegations, union construction workers and the project development team to sign the final structural beam on the $50 million Carteret Multimodal Ferry Terminal today.
After the beam was installed by project contractor Brockwell and Carrington of Towaco, NJ, the Mayor and Speaker addressed a large celebratory crowd in the premiere use of the Borough’s new Pier Pavilion on Veteran’s Pier adjacent to Waterfront Park and the forthcoming terminal.
“We’re near halfway through construction,” Mayor Reiman said. “By the end of this year, the entire exterior of the building will be completed, and the project then will start construction on the interior fit out. We’re still a year away from the grand opening.
“This is a project that we undertook starting 24 years ago,” the Mayor continued. “Twenty-four years to fight through the bureaucracy of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, the FTA, the USDOT, the alphabet soup of acronyms that make up the federal, state and regional agencies. But working together with legislature, mostly the Speaker and the Congressional delegation – Congressman Frank Pallone and senators Booker and Kim – we’ve raised over $100 million in federal and state grants. But we wouldn’t be here today without the help of Speaker Coughlin.”
The Speaker added, “This is a really special day for Carteret and a really special day for all of us who have watched this over the course of 24 years. There’s been an enormous amount of investment — $35 million from the state alone. But what really is at the essence of this is vision, determination and the relentlessness that makes sure something gets done. We owe a big round of applause to the Mayor and Council, who for decades has taken on everyone – the Coast Guard, the harbor pilots, the Army Corps of Engineers. Every roadblock that was put in the way of getting this project done has been overcome, and that doesn’t just happen. It happens because you have a team of people who are dedicated to getting it done. It happens because you have the voracity and the belief that you’re going to accomplish something good. And it happens because you have true leadership.”
Days before the final beam installation, the Federal Transit Administration awarded a $9.6 million Ferry Grant to NJ Transit in order to build an electric ferry boat in partnership for the Borough, which has other ferry boats funded with state and federal funds. One of the boats, the Theodore Roosevelt, is docked in Carteret Municipal Marina and soon will find a home within one of four ferry slips. The other boat is under construction in New Orleans.
The ferry service will be running and the ferry terminal will be open long before the electric ferry boat is constructed by 2030, Mayor Reiman said.
“I’m just delighted to hear that another boat is on the way,” Speaker Coughlin added. “These things are not cheap, but this is an example of what we can do when we’re all rowing in the same direction, when we all have same sense of priorities, when we all come together to make sure things get done.
“I’ve seen the renaissance that is Carteret,” continued Coughlin, who often visited relatives here as a child. “It really is a special place. Time and time again, it gets better and better with the performing arts center, the downtown, and now here on the waterfront. You’re going to have restaurants and shops and more places to go.”
The Mayor thanked the U.S. Department of Transportation, the state Department of Transportation, New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, the Federal Transit Administration, the state Department of Environmental Protection and several other federal and state agencies for their support of the forthcoming Carteret ferry service.
The groundwork for the ferry service and terminal was a 1990s study by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that concluded that Carteret was the best location for its next regional ferry stop.
Once a toxic nightmare abandoned by industry, the remediated Carteret Waterfront has much redevelopment to come, including a 5-mile boardwalk, a $1.5 billion movie studio and hotel, and a helicopter pad, the Mayor said.
Since taking office in 2002, Mayor Reiman’s vision to turn Carteret’s once inaccessible, completely industrial waterfront into a popular regional destination for arts and public recreation has led to Waterfront Park, Veteran’s Pier, a mini golf course, the 185-slip Carteret Municipal Marina, and the soon-to-open Pier Pavilion and mobile kitchen.
