Safety work to begin on one of Jersey City's most dangerous roads

Construction work on a major redesign of one of Hudson County’s most dangerous roads is set to begin this week.

Hudson County officials say work to remake a stretch of John F. Kennedy Boulevard, between Sip and Pavonia avenues, in the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City will kick off Monday. A portion of Bergen Avenue, between Sip Avenue and JFK Boulevard, will also be included.

It’s a stretch of JFK Boulevard with up to seven lanes of traffic, in an area heavily used by pedestrians heading to and coming from the PATH train’s Journal Square station.

“ It just gets an enormous amount of pedestrians, cyclists and buses are going through there,” said Talya Schwartz, the vice chair of Hudson County Complete Streets, a transportation advocacy group.

The area is a tangled web of some of the city’s busiest roads. JFK Boulevard is a major thoroughfare crossing Hudson County, Bergen Avenue runs parallel to it through most of Jersey City, and Tonnelle Avenue begins just west of Journal Square. Double parking is rampant, forcing drivers to swerve around illegally parked cars, which often block visibility of the area's many crosswalks.

Analysis by the state Department of Transportation found 154 crashes in the project area between 2022 and 2024. More than two-thirds of those crashes involved a distracted driver, and about 14% involved a pedestrian or a cyclist.

“ JFK Boulevard is one of the most dangerous streets in the county,” Schwartz said. “The stretch that we're talking about now is on the High Injury Network. It's been identified as having the most severe dangerous crashes and number of fatalities in the county.”

The project, which has been in the works since 2014, will install new and update existing curbs, sidewalks and traffic signals. It will also improve crosswalks to be more visible and accessible and improve street lighting in the area.

Curb extensions and wider sidewalks should be especially effective in boosting roadway safety, Schwartz said.

“ We are excited about the curb extensions,” Schwartz said. “Historically, this area has terrible double parking. It's just, it's everywhere. So I think putting in physical curb extensions and expanding the sidewalks a little bit into those intersections will make it safer.”

The work is expected to take 18 months and will be completed in phases to minimize the effect on local residents and businesses. The project is expected to cost $6.8 million and is funded by the Federal Highway Administration, county spokesperson Karina Diaz said on Tuesday. Construction work is expected to take place on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The affected roads will remain open during construction, Diaz said, though there will be intermittent lane closures and changes to traffic patterns. Drivers are urged to avoid the area during construction or risk delays. Some loading zones and parking spots will be inaccessible during parts of the work.

NJ Transit buses in the area will continue to run their regular routes, Diaz said, though temporary bus stops will be used when regular bus stops are in active construction zones.

John Chartier, a spokesperson for NJ Transit, said the agency will be monitoring the work and “will make any adjustments as needed and feasible.”

“JFK Boulevard is an important corridor for residents, businesses, and visitors throughout Hudson County, and these improvements will help make it safer, more accessible, and more welcoming for everyone who uses it,” Hudson County Executive Craig Guy said in a statement.

The project is part of the larger Hudson County Vision Zero effort, which aims to reduce deaths on county roads to zero by 2034. Other parts of JFK Boulevard in Union City, West New York and North Bergen are also in line for improvements, as are parts of Secaucus Road in Jersey City, Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard in Harrison, and Paterson Plank Road in North Bergen and Secaucus.

But the Journal Square project, which kicks off this week, was designed and approved before Hudson County had a Vision Zero plan. Schwartz said the project that’s about to start needs to be redesigned to include even stronger safety features, bringing it in line with the county’s own goals.

“ This is a first step, and it's in the right direction. It's taking us forward,” Schwartz said. “But we have a lot of plans for JFK Boulevard that include rapid bus transit and making the Journal Square PATH station a thriving downtown. So [the plan] needs a lot more work than what they're doing right now, but it will make the streets safer.”

Mark Cygan, another Hudson County spokesperson, said the county is continuing to look for ways to improve road safety. But it’s too late to change this project now.

“Since the timeline on these types of projects is so lengthy and rigid, we are locked into a design early in the process. This project was always focused on pedestrian safety, and we can’t delay the project further attempting to incorporate last-minute redesigns into the development,” Cygan said.

The federal funding is contingent on the project being delivered as designed, he said, meaning the county would have to pick up the project’s full cost if it's changed. And practically speaking, the contractor is hired and ready to go.

“They’re starting on Monday; we can’t engineer on the fly,” Cygan said.