Bergen Arches is project seen by many as Jersey City’s answer to Manhattan’s The High Line. It could take a step forward in the coming weeks as officials are looking to partner with a firm to create a publicly accessible greenway that would connect several neighborhoods.
Plans for the Bergen Arches have been in the works for years. The moniker is the common name for a mile-long stretch formerly utilized by Erie Railroad, which consists of 85-foot-deep tunnels built in 1906 well below street level that cut through the heart of Jersey City.
Train service stopped dropping passengers at a now-demolished Hudson River terminal over 65 years ago and community activists have long envisioned a park along the stretch. The Bergen Arches Preservation Coalition has driven the effort and joined the High Line Network in 2020.
Jersey City received a $100,000 grant last year to study the adaptive reuse of the arches and is now moving forward on the endeavor. Per a public notice, the city is now accepting proposals for the Bergen Arches Feasibility Study looking to “expand access to open space and safe multimodal transportation options through the development of a network of greenways.”
The city’s Request For Proposals (RPF) wishes to “partner with a respondent to study the feasibility of developing a publicly accessible greenway trail and future public transit right-of-way through an important proposed greenway corridor, the Bergen Arches, between Palisade Avenue to the east and Route 1&9/Tonnele Avenue to the west.”
Jersey City is also hoping to connect the future greenspace to the Sixth Street Embankment, an elevated rail line that officials are hoping to transform into a linear park that connects several Downtown neighborhoods.
The notice states that the study would examine the feasibility of potential connections to the embankment as well as the planned Essex-Hudson Greenway to the west.
The deadline to submit proposals to Jersey City regarding the RPF is July 11 at 11:00 a.m. Contract documents, specifications, and other RFP forms can be downloaded by going to www.bidsync.com.
