Highway project integrates the past into the future

The time has long passed when a highway that cuts through the heart of an urban center can be constructed without regard to its social and aesthetic effects on the surrounding area. Civic and community groups are alert to the impact that such construction would have on local neighborhoods, and departments of transportation have learned to heed their concerns.

The design of the final 1.8-mile section of the Route 21 freeway in Passaic County, New Jersey presented the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) with the challenge of integrating a proposed highway into an established urban community with residential and commercial neighborhoods.

An already difficult problem was compounded because the existing terminus of Route 21 opened into a section of Passaic containing textile factories from the mid-19th century that are eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

In an effort to blend the highway into existing surroundings, Vollmer Associates, a New York-based landscape architecture, engineering and planning firm, first performed a Visual Enhancement Technical Environmental Study (TES) and then developed design principles and guidelines. The studies, which were circulated to the public as appendices to the project’s Environmental Impact Statement, identified ways of lessening the impact of the highway extension on the cities of Passaic and Clifton.

The design guidelines also included concepts for recreational facilities and open-space areas to be located near the highway.

The design features for the roadway and its immediate surroundings, which were approved by the mayors and citizens of each affected community and adopted by the NJDOT, include: historically referenced architectural treatments for bridges, retaining walls and noise barriers; detailed grading and special landscaping; streetscape improvements along certain local roadways; various recreational facilities; a minipark; and a passive recreational area.

Computer-aided technology helped to visually represent some of the aesthetic concepts. The technique involved enhancing photographs of specific locations in the project area to show how the view would look before and after construction. This visual presentation helped community groups appreciate the care being taken to ease their concerns.

The final design embraced both functional and aesthetic considerations. The new roadway picks up where the older portion ends, winds through Passaic’s dense urban neighborhood along the Dundee Canal and continues past Nash Park before connecting into Route 46 in Clifton.

The new portion of the highway includes four bridges, two of which were designed with full height abutments and brick veneer to blend with brick buildings in the neighborhood. A third bridge was outfitted with detailed pylons on each side of the abutments.

The pylons are accented by bronze medallions that reflect local history.

The five-span Route 46 Bridge, the largest of the four, features stepped pylons of concrete with architectural detailing carried through under the structure onto the abutment wall faces. Mosaic medallions on the pylons use a stylized rose pattern commemorating the American Beauty Rose, which was developed in the county.

To permit the creation of a minipark, a full-height, brick-masonry veneer retaining wall was designed to reflect an existing wall of similar size and scale through both historical style and materials.

The noise walls, which range from 11 to 21 feet above the roadway elevation, were designed so that the residential side relates with the specific environment in which it is located.

In the urban sections of Passaic, the residential side consists of a brick veneer whose size and color reflect the brick apartment and industrial buildings in the neighborhood. In Clifton, where the adjacent buildings are typically wood frame structures, the wall treatment simulates a vertical brown wood finish.

Landscaping is used throughout the project area to accent certain features, screen and buffer others and to provide erosion control and habitat for both fauna and flora.

Several locations along the Route 21 project corridor offered opportunities for the development of the adjacent areas. These included a minipark, riverwalk, recreation area, playgrounds and streetscape improvements. Other areas were constructed with decorative pavement and landscaping, creating convenient pedestrian access routes.