Shore Stabilization Structure | Jersey City, NJ
The Hudson River Walkway is a projected park system and series of walkways that run from the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee NJ to the Bayonne Bride in Bayonne NJ. It is a linear park that is on the waterfront of NJ. It gives unhindered access to the water's edge and the New York City skyline. Large segments of the project have already been completed. One of the largest missing links in the walkway was in Jersey City NJ. It is right next door to the Goldman Sachs Tower, the tallest building in NJ. The site is also directly across the river from the World Trade Center site and has some outstanding views of the NYC skyline. The project is known as the Shore Stabilization Structure, Walkway & Park Installation. The state put this out to bid and it was won by Flanagan's Contracting Group for 5.2 million dollars. Flanagan's Contracting Group is doing phase 1, 2 and part of phase 3. When the Jersey City project is finished there will be a park with kayak launch area. The project started in February of 2012 and is expected to finish in February of 2013. When Bob Flanagan was planning the job, he contacted ICE for his foundation equipment. He knew he had a great working relationship with ICE and their equipment was top notch. Even though the pile driving and foundation work seemed pretty basic, he knew the job itself was not going to be simple. The job had some definite challenges. There was a moratorium for the Sturgeon Fish in the area, so piles could not be driven during that time. The job site was a dry dock many years ago; it had a lot of obstructions and rip rap that had to be dug out. The differences in the tides also would change the real estate of the site. They had to build a temporary road on the west side of the jobsite that ran along some "High End Condo's" with a large swimming pool. The temporary road was very small therefore the crane had very little room to work. Just getting material and equipment thru the congested Jersey City area to the site was tough. Right in the middle of the jobsite was the Colgate Clock, the oldest, largest working clock in the world. "Clock Watching" took on a whole new meaning on this site. The site itself was surrounded by tall buildings or water and everyone could see what is going on. Flanagan's Contracting Group Dockbuilders from Local 1556 and operators from Local 825 had various types of piles to drive. There was permanent 28' long coated steel sheeting that was for a bulkhead. That would be capped, and then a boardwalk would be on top of the sheet wall. Those sheets were driven with an ICE 216 Vibratory Hammer/Extractor. The boardwalk and walkway will wrap around the entire site along the waterfront when completed. They also had some 35' long wood piles that had to be driven and some 45' coated H-beams. The H-beams were sometimes set with the ICE 216 Vibro, and then they would be driven to bearing capacity with an ICE I-8 Diesel Hammer and ICE Leads. The wood piles were also driven to bearing with the ICE I-8 Diesel Hammer and ICE Leads. Tom Voght the Jobsite Superintendent from Flanagan's Contracting Group liked ICE's service and equipment "if there was a problem, we usually had it fixed with a phone call. If we needed someone, which was extremely rare, they were here in no time." The site itself will be a beautiful addition to the area. The NYC views from this park will be amazing.
