The plan to restore the Highland Avenue Station appears to finally be on track after a decade of planning.
Marty Mayes, the director of public works in Orange, said that the $6.6 million restoration will begin this month. The project will not affect service along the line and will last one year, eventually reopening a historic stationhouse that has been closed since 1968.
“It will be a different experience when you’re catching the train there,” Mayes said. “It’s something Orange really needs and another step toward bringing the city back.”
The effort to renovate the station, one of the most rundown stations on any of NJ Transit’s passenger train lines, dates back to 2014. That year, the city began getting estimates and entered an agreement with the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternative Program.
John Jahr, principal at Bright View Engineering, which has been involved with the plan since the beginning, said that coordinating with various levels of government — local, state, and federal — and a series of shutdowns was part of the reason for delays.
“Every single agency imaginable has had a hand in this project,” Jahr said.
Another reason the project took 10 years to finally leave the station was a steep rise in the projected cost. Chris Hartwyk, the city’s business administrator, at a City Council meeting last year said that between the time he had applied for funds in 2021 and when they were received, the conditions had further deteriorated due to the collapse of a ceiling, exposure to the elements, and vandalism.
In 2016, funds for more than $600,000 were awarded, but the project never began, despite Mayor Dwayne Warren telling the West Orange Chronicle that the city had hired an engineer and architect for the project.
In 2021, hope was revived when the city government applied to the federal government for $1.2 million to cover the total cost. But last year, the city government scratched those plans after concluding that even more money was needed to complete the project—this time the costs doubled to $3.5 million.
Two contracts — one for $4.3 million to Prezioso Construction and another to Bright View Construction for $350,000 —were approved at the City Council’s September meeting. A separate $2 million grant will go toward rehabbing the exterior of the station. The total cost to repair the dilapidated station has now surpassed $6.6 million, more than ten times the amount the city estimated a decade ago that would require.
“The cost of things changed significantly, especially since Covid,” Jahr said. “Covid had a dire impact on the cost of wire, conduit, and building materials.”
Highland Avenue Station, built in 1918, has no landmark designation, unlike Orange Station, which is listed on the National Register. Nevertheless, the project entails restoring the station to its original “grandeur and magnitude,” Jahr said.
“It’s a very complicated job because it involves an old train station that is historic in nature,” said Jahr, whose firm has worked on historic stations in Madison and Hoboken, “and a lot of effort was put in place to preserve it.”
Mayes believes the station restoration is part of a larger transformation of the Orange Valley Historic District, which has already seen the approval of two six-story buildings on South Jefferson Street, another project on Nassau Street, and even more development in Scotland Road.
“The corridor is a main gateway,” he said. “When all projects are said and done, there will be a different look along Scotland Road.”
Passengers at the station last reacted favorably to the news that the long-boarded-up station was finally in the process of being repaired.
“It’s about time,” said Francisco Monsanto, 68, who moved to Orange seven years ago. “These stations were very beautiful when they were built.”
Geo Martinez, 38, said having a train station would make his daily, two-hour commute to and from Cliffside a little easier. “Sometimes I have to be here for an hour or more because of the delays,” he said. “When it’s windy or cold, there’s nowhere to take shelter.”
