Rail Corridors

Historical Perspectives has been a team player on a number of New Jersey Transit corridor projects, including the two complex and highly charged projects described below: MOM and the Lackawanna Cut-Off.

NJ TRANSIT’s Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (MOM) Rail Draft Environmental Impact Statement has focused on three potential commuter rail alternatives. The proposed introduction of passenger rail service to one of these three alignments requires a cultural resources evaluation which addresses potential archaeological resources within the site area. Both precontact and historic archaeological sites have been documented in the counties affected, some within close proximity to the proposed rail alignments’ associated station sites. A Phase 1 Archaeological Survey is mandated to satisfy requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as well as state and local review agencies, including the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and local regulatory bodies.

An archaeological assessment examines areas of potential effect (APEs) - areas where new ground disturbance may be caused by project-related construction. In the case of the MOM project, these include 18 proposed station sites, two proposed yard sites, and five connection areas, and new rights of way, as well as new bridge construction and temporary lay-down areas.

HPI’s Phase IA study concluded that the MOM candidate station, yard, and connection point sites contain a range of precontact and historic period archaeological sensitivities. As alternatives are narrowed and construction plans are finalized, these sensitive sites will be subjected to appropriate analysis.

Click map to enlarge.

NJ TRANSIT is considering the restoration of passenger rail service in northwest New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania along a corridor commonly referred to as the Lackawanna Cut-Off. The Lackawanna travel corridor from Scranton to Hoboken is approximately 133 miles in length.

In New Jersey, this corridor is part of the “Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Lackawanna Cut-Off Historic District,” which has been evaluated as eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NR) by the NJ SHPO. Subsurface archaeological features associated with the railroad alignment may be eligible as contributing resources to portions of the alignment which are, or may in the future, be determined eligible for the NR.

Historical Perspectives conducted a Phase IA Archaeological Investigation for those portions of the project corridor that will be affected by future subsurface impacts as part of the rail service restoration. The HPI study and technical report was conducted to satisfy the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and meet the standards of the NJ SHPO.. HPI prepared a separate Phase IA Archaeological Investigation report for submission to the Pennsylvania SHPO for the portion of the project area within Pennsylvania.