The Elizabeth River Trail extension project, designed by Suburban Consulting Engineers, Inc. (SCE) from Wall, New Jersey, is an urban yet modern public focal point in the Elizabeth, New Jersey. The project transformed a vacant, urban land area adjacent to busy roadways and intersections into an innovative public space that services the community and local visitors who travel between New York and New Jersey. The River Trail brings together the diversity of local landscapes and communities while promoting its various recreational, wellness, and transportation alternative offerings.

SCE provided landscape architecture, site planning, surveying, engineering, permitting, and construction administration services for the design of the trail connection, open space park, and gateway area. The team delivered innovative lighting and design solutions on this project by providing a site design geared to encourage use by pedestrians, cyclists, and users of other forms of non-motorized transportation. The project includes an arbor structure with bicycle amenities, a variety of seating options, and places to gather. Simple site materials, including granite seat blocks and native plantings, were selected to reduce site maintenance for the city. The unique light column and seven-flag display add verticality to the site that catches the eye of motorists as they exit the NJ Turnpike or approach the site from Goethals Bridge.

Site lighting was a key component of the design and involved several innovative ways of creating an inviting atmosphere in the park at night. Site lighting is provided with 16-foot-tall Sierra 4000 LED model light columns that establish uniform light along the entire vertical length. These fixtures are placed along both sides of the meandering pathway and accentuate the vertical amenities, including the flag poles and gateway entrance portal. Facade lighting at the entrance portal projects downward to highlight the park entrance. This effect is also replicated in the shelter where cyclists can service their bicycles.

 

Mixed in with the stone benches are LED illuminated benches that inject a unique dynamic of color and lighting. These benches are constructed of 3/4-inch-thick, clear, tempered glass that was finely sandblasted for translucency and then painted with a block pattern. Anti-slip squares on the exterior surface mirror the inner pattern to produce a three-dimensional effect. The light source is muted and diffused by recessed, stainless steel housing with a matte acrylic panel. Additionally, stainless steel, ground-level uplighting is installed for the cluster of seven 20-foot and 30-foot flagpoles. This area is surrounded by vertical site lights to create a visual focal point in the park.

The River Trail is accessible and utilized by families, cyclists, athletes, and groups traveling within the city or crossing into New York. Visitors are immediately greeted by the entrance portal welcoming them to Elizabeth. Upon entering, they have the opportunity to rest, relax, eat, and recharge before continuing on their journey along the riverfront into the center of the city. Cyclists have access to a bicycle shelter where they can temporarily store their bikes on racks, view wayfinding signs to decide where they wish to travel, and utilize the bicycle repair stand and tire pump. Seating and picnic areas are also found along the trail pathway through this portion of the park.

The design team emphasized the necessity of providing a natural canopy for much-needed sun cover throughout the park, reducing costs for additional shade structures. Trees line both sides of the trail and along the perimeter to offer a natural canopy and to separate pedestrians and cyclists from the local roadways. Shade trees also border the interior pathway and site perimeter to buffer the site from the urban surroundings and to provide cover throughout the park.

A green infrastructure stormwater management system is also built into the design to reduce stormwater runoff. Shallow grass swales collect and treat runoff, which allows percolation into the subsoils and reduces the amount of stormwater entering the city's existing stormwater system. Two shallow detention basins constructed into the site grading collect the runoff and control the rate at which it enters this system.

One of the main construction challenges involved a large sanitary trunk sewer, which passes directly through the center of the site from Trenton Avenue to Cole Place at a shallow depth below the existing site elevations. To avoid exposing the sanitary sewer, the two drainage basins were established on either side of it, and the excavated material was used to raise the grade at the center of the site just above the sanitary sewer to provide proper depth for the flag circle footings and tree planting.

To create safe pedestrian circulation from both ends of the trail and across the busy street with truck and vehicular traffic, the team added open and accessible walkways and two controlled intersections with traffic signalization for vehicles and pedestrians. Previous conditions forced cyclists and pedestrians to share the road in an area that experiences heavy commercial truck vehicle traffic. Now, this direct trail and rest area allows these visitors to safely travel this multi-use shared pathway without interruption.

SCE has a strong working relationship with Elizabeth and has successfully completed various park and recreation projects for the municipality. This partnership allowed for a smooth process from early conceptual stages through completion. SCE worked closely with city representatives, community groups, residents, and all project stakeholders to develop a project that met the requirements and expectations of the city, community, and agencies such as the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and Transportation (NJDOT). These coordinated efforts - along with several other organizations such as Elizabeth's Planning, Engineering, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and Police Departments, and the City and County Offices of Emergency Management - facilitated the project's successful completion.

The improved infrastructure portions of this project have supported the city's goals to promote alternate means of transportation. This includes access to parks, open spaces, and exercise facilities from the surrounding areas such as Union County's Mattano Park, the existing portions of the Elizabeth River Trail, and to the new pedestrian trail and bikeway constructed on Goethals Bridge connecting to Staten Island, New York. The design of the site and accent lighting enhance the visual appearance of the gateway trail and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike.