The borough of Carteret has received a $5.38 million grant from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, Mayor Daniel J. Reiman announced.
The grant will provide funding toward the $48 million Carteret Multimodal Ferry Terminal Building, which broke ground on Dec. 12. NJTPA is the federally authorized transportation Metropolitan Planning Organization for 13 counties, including Middlesex.
“A project of this magnitude cannot happen without strong collaboration from the alphabet soup of acronyms of federal, state, regional, and local agencies, some working collaboratively with us to become partners in the project,” Reiman said.
“Their funding, guidance, and partnership have been vital in moving this project forward. These agencies recognized the value and impact of this terminal for the people of Carteret and for the transportation network of our entire region.”
In late October, a construction contract of $47,502,761 was awarded to Brockwell and Carrington Contractors of Towaco to construct the four-story, 52,000-square-foot multimodal ferry terminal. The facility is designed to be a destination unto itself with retail, restaurants and recreational space.
The terminal is expected to be an 18- to 24-month construction project. Completion is expected by December 2027. Each floor will be about 13,000 square feet, according to architect Tom Potter of Potter Architects in Union.
To pay for the overall ferry project, the Reiman administration has secured more than $86 million in federal and state grants.
The intermodal aspect of the Ferry Terminal will allow NJ Transit buses, municipal jitneys, and NJ Rideshare to drop passengers off. The jitney will pick up passengers throughout the borough, as well as at Rahway and Woodbridge train stations.
The terminal is expected to open by early 2028 or sooner, but ferry service may be provided earlier through a smartphone app on a kiosk on the dock of the ferry slips, Reiman said.
