More Grant Money Proposed For Carteret Ferry Terminal

CARTERET, NJ — This week, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ6) proposed a $5.625 million federal grant to help launch ferry service from Carteret to Manhattan.

While the money is not approved yet, this new grant would help cover a portion of the costs of building the terminal building, which would connect buses and jitneys in Carteret with the ferry boats, said Carteret spokesman Jon Salonis.

Carteret and South Amboy have both been attempting for the past several years to launch ferry service to New York City

However, construction has not started on a ferry terminal in either town.

The Carteret ferry terminal — if it's built — would lie at the north end of Carteret Waterfront Park, along the Arthur Kill. It would take about 25 minutes for the ferry boat to reach Lower Manhattan.

The Carteret ferry terminal building is proposed to be three stories tall, at 7,500 square feet per floor. The building would have a waiting area, restrooms, food court/snack bar, operations center, meeting space and a rooftop observation deck.

There would also be a 20-foot-wide elevated pedestrian boardwalk that would connect the parking lot to the ferry slips, and then continue along the waterfront. This walkway will connect into the Arthur Kill Waterfront Park and the boat marina located south of the site. The Carteret Waterfront Park now has a waterfront fishing pier and a 185-slip boat marina that opened in 2019.

Congressman Pallone has been supportive of both ferry proposals and been securing federal money for the projects for the past several years.

"Each of these projects are important investments in our transportation system’s safety, efficiency, and reliability for the region’s residents and tourists," said Pallone this week. "The INVEST America act makes long overdue investments in our country’s infrastructure and fulfills the promise President Biden made to build back better. I look forward to seeing this bill advance through the Senate so we can get it to the President’s desk.”

Last July, South Amboy announced it received $5.3 million in federal funding to build its passenger ferry terminal.

The South Amboy ferry terminal will be located at 1 Radford Ferry Road, next to the Manhattan Beach Club, a currently under-construction 1,875-unit luxury apartment complex.

The trip from South Amboy to Lower Manhattan is about 40 minutes by boat.

Both Carteret and South Amboy are previously blue-collar, working-class towns are trying to reinvent themselves as attractive bedroom communities for New York City commuters, similar to the way Jersey City and Hoboken transformed their waterfronts.

The vision of Carteret Mayor Dan Reiman is to surround Carteret's ferry terminal with as-of-yet-unbuilt condos, office and retail space and boardwalk shops. Reiman also hopes to build a future events center at the park and a $13.25 million boardwalk and river walk.

Reiman said in January of this year:

"Our nearly two miles of public access along our eastern shoreline, including our ferry, marina, events center, and walkway is a remarkable feat for a community that had no public access to the waterfront for over 100 years," he said, of Carteret's previously industrial waterfront.

Previously: Carteret, South Amboy Move Forward With NYC Ferry Service (January 2021)

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