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Bhalla boondoggle: Washington St. Project won’t be completed this summer

MILE SQUARE VIEW EXCLUSIVE
Hoboken residents who hoped to see the Washington St. project finally completed this summer will be disappointed to learn it isn’t happening. Again.
Mayor Ravi Bhalla who only weeks back touted his “commitment” in Hoboken noting as an accomplishment repaving Washington St. to 9th Street by mid-July has run into bigger troubles.
The predicted “accomplishment” in the future struck some as odd in a recent Bhalla release where he said work in Hoboken as mayor was the reason he didn’t “generate commissions” in his second job with a Republican land use & zoning law firm.
About a month ago Mayor Ravi Bhalla predicted the Washington St. project would be repaved to 9th St. by weeks end but that projection and the stated completion of the project this summer is a failure.

The Washington St. project’s completion set for the end of summer is officially kaput.
According to a vendor memo by T&M buried deep in the City Council meeting documents set for tomorrow, “additional time captured within Change Order No. 20” will push the completion date set for August 21, 2018 to September 21, 2018. 
After further review, however, the vendor adds the Washington St. project may call for an “additional 147 days…” even as repaving to 9th Street is being planned for late July.

That latest delay would mean the Washington St. project won’t be completed until 2019.

The additional delays mean millions in added costs to the original $12 million budget under former mayor Dawn Zimmer. The project is already heading past a $20 million price tag and shows no sign of completion this summer.
The single City Council meeting in July is scheduled for tomorrow and the topic of the latest delays in completing the Washington St. project is anticipated.

Mayor Ravi Bhalla will see the Washington St. project
conclude at some point but it won’t be by end of summer.
See you in 2019!

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