Marin Boulevard between 18th Street in Jersey City and Observer Highway in Hoboken, N.J. closed Sept. 22, 2025, and will remain shut down for approximately four months as the state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is set to begin its latest phase of construction as part of its Rebuild by Design Hudson River project.
The work is meant to safeguard parts of Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken against storm surge flooding by building more than 9,000 linear feet of flood walls and 26 flood gates.
For this particular stage of construction on Marin Boulevard, NJDEP will relocate underground utilities and begin installing the foundation for a floodgate.
"It's a monolithic project," Hoboken Councilman Paul Presinzano told WPIX-TV in New York City. "In other words, it's layers of stuff that have to be done together."
Residents are not thrilled by the road closure and detours, but most understand that better flood mitigation is necessary.
"It's literally the middle street that connects everyone," said Amanda Ortiz, who lives in Jersey City and works in Hoboken. "I can see why it would be a complete inconvenience."
Hoboken resident Steve Volkwyn said, "It's obviously very important because with the streets flooding, there's trash that goes down the streets. It's pretty unhygienic [and] just causes a lot of disturbance in the whole area."
The floodgate on Marin Boulevard is set to be installed and tested next summer, and the entire project is expected to be complete in the summer of 2027.
In a description on the NJDEP website, the agency noted that Rebuild By Design (RBD) "takes a multi-faceted approach to improve physical, ecological, economic and social resiliency."
It was initiated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2013 in response to Superstorm Sandy.
The RBD Hudson River (RBDH) project is one of a pair of worksites that are ongoing in New Jersey, with the other being RBD Meadowlands (RBDM). The project study area has the following approximate boundaries: the Hudson River to the east; Baldwin Avenue (in Weehawken) to the north; the Palisades to the west; and 18th Street, Washington Boulevard and 14th Street (in Jersey City) to the south, with the Resist construction limiting the boundaries to the area along Lincoln Harbor Road in Weehawken, Washington Street in Hoboken and 18th Street in Jersey City.
The aim of the RBDH work will be to address flooding from major storm surges and high tides as well as from heavy rainfall events while seamlessly blending the project's structures into the fabric of the area by incorporating benches, planters and artistic and educational murals.
The Resist contract is the second phase of the RBDH effort. Its construction is being performed by E.E. Cruz & Company Inc. in Queens, N.Y.
The Resist contract area is defined by two distinct locations. The first is the north work zone, which encompasses northern Hoboken and parts of Weehawken; the second is the south work zone, which is comprised of southern Hoboken and parts of Jersey City, NJDEP noted.
RBD Hudson operates on four principles working in unison:
• Resist: A combination of hard infrastructure (bulkheads, floodwalls and seawalls) and soft landscaping features (berms and/or levees which could be used as parks) that act as barriers along the coast during exceptionally high tide and/or storm surge events.
• Delay: Policy recommendations, guidelines and urban green infrastructure to slow stormwater runoff.
• Store: Green and grey infrastructure improvements such as bioretention basins, swales and green roofs, which slow down and capture stormwater as well as complement the efforts of the City of Hoboken's existing Green Infrastructure Strategic Plan.
• Discharge: Enhancements to Hoboken's existing stormwater management system, including the identification and upgrading of existing stormwater and sewer lines, outfalls and pumping stations.
NJDEP is undertaking the Resist component of the four principles while the other three are being addressed by the City of Hoboken and other stakeholders.
The Sewer Separation Modification (SSM) contract was the first phase of the RBDH effort. That work was completed in July 2022 at a cost of approximately $6.7 million.
The construction separated portions of the Combined Sewer Outfall system in Hoboken into separate stormwater and sanitary lines to ensure that water from a storm surge event will not be able to discharge under the Resist structure once it is completed.
SSM work included sealing more than 100 existing sewer holes — as well as the installation of 30 new ones — along with 40 catch basins, more than 4,000 linear ft. of stormwater pipe and eight water quality units to remove suspended solids prior to the storm water entering the Hudson River.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Rebuild by Design (RBD) competition in the summer of 2013 to develop ideas to improve physical, ecological, economic and social resilience in regions affected by Superstorm Sandy.
The idea behind it was to promote innovation by developing flexible solutions that would increase regional resilience. The current project was one of the competition's six winning concepts.
HUD awarded $230 million to the State of New Jersey for the project in the municipalities of Hoboken, Weehawken and Jersey City. Since then, NJDEP has obtained additional funding for the continued advancement of the RBDH project, including grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
