LONG BRANCH, N.J. — The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded an additional $425 million in federal transportation dollars to the New Jersey Department of Transportation for transportation projects as part of the Federal August Redistribution process.
Each year, August Redistribution provides an opportunity for the FHWA to increase spending authority to state departments of transportation based on the availability of unused funds. Use of these funds must be approved by the FHWA no later than Sept. 30, 2023. Since 2018, NJDOT has received $830 million in August Redistribution funds, more than four times the amount in the prior ten years. The additional $425 million will be split with $315 million for NJ Transit projects and $110 million for NJDOT projects.
Among the projects to receive funds is the Long Branch Station, which will receive $7.9 million of additional funding to help complete the Long Branch Station Pedestrian Tunnel project. The project will reconnect the east and west halves of Long Branch, which are currently divided by the above-ground railroad alignment. In addition to the $7.9 million committed to Long Branch, other NJ Transit projects benefitting from the additional funding include:
- Watsessing Avenue ($31.6 million) and Roselle Park ($9 million) Station Modernizations — These projects will renovate the stations, providing new platforms and canopies and installing elevators and ramps to allow for full accessibility.
- Replacement of six bridges ($106.5 million) — These projects will replace bridges in Little Falls, Readington, High Bridge, and Bayonne, as well as two in Waterford.
- Delco Lead ($33.8 million) — This project is part of NJ Transit’s Resilience Program and will construct a storage location at a strategic location along the Northeast Corridor that is not flood-prone.
- Hoboken Yard Improvements ($5 million) — This project includes design and construction of inspection pits in Hoboken Yard for required periodic inspections of commuter railcars.
In spite of the fact that the state of New Jersey is currently suing the agency, it decided to award almost half a billion more dollars to the Garden State, and even give the state the flexibility to use the money for transportation projects that normally wouldn’t fall through. according to the agency’s eligibility criteria.
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