Oct 18

PSE&G Weekly Project Update – Week of October 21, 2024

Update #30

PSE&G Weekly Project Update – Week of October 21, 2024


The Project site is located in the portion of the state-owned parking lot near the New Jersey Department of Labor Building and Division of Taxation Building and adjacent to the helicopter pad. For the safety of employees and the community, the sidewalk and walking path adjacent to Route 29 (Market Street) and at the PSE&G project entrance has been closed. Please use an alternate route.

Weekly updates are posted to the project website: https://jfitchwayproject.com/

Questions? Concerns? Call the Project Information Line at (855) 356-2383 or email us at comments@jfitchwayproject.com.

NOTICE: Limited excavation is taking place outside of the enclosure to seal a historic brick drainage line. This work is outside of the area of impacted soil.

Ongoing Monitoring & Mitigation Measures During Remediation

  • Dust suppression and odor controls.
  • Odor assessment walks conducted twice daily.
  • Air monitoring within the enclosure.
  • Perimeter air monitoring.
  • Enclosure air filtration system will be on during remediation work hours.
  • Vibration monitoring will be conducted during the remedial work and on the nearest onsite buildings.
  • Trucks carrying impacted soil will be covered and wheels washed before exiting the site.
  • Soil erosion and sediment controls.
  • Site security 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Anticipated Work to be Performed: October 21st – October 25th           

  • Continue to run chiller units of freeze walls for the first two phases of the project. 
  • Continue to receive and stage clean fill outside of the tent for backfilling excavated areas inside the tent.  No contaminated soil will be staged outside the tent, the only soil that will be staged outside the tent will be clean fill.
  • Continue excavation, loadout and transportation of impacted soils to a licensed facility.
  • Continue to install piping for establishing a belowground freeze wall for subsequent areas within the remediation boundary. For more information, https://jfitchwayproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/freezewall.pdf.
  • Continue dewatering.
  • Continue backfill of the excavation.

Work Performed: October 14th – October 18th                    

  • No work took place on Monday, October 14th.
  • Over the weekend, PSE&G conducted electrical maintenance of the equipment that powers the site.
  • Conducted limited excavation outside of the enclosure to seal a historic brick drainage line. This work is outside of the area of impacted soil.
  • Continued to run chiller units of freeze walls for the first two phases of the project. 
  • Continued dewatering.
  • Continued excavation, loadout and transportation of impacted soils to a licensed facility.
  • Continued to install piping for establishing belowground freeze walls, which includes trenching outside of excavation limits.
  • Received and continued to stage clean fill outside of the tent for backfilling excavated areas inside the tent.
  • Resumed backfill of the excavation.

Community Outreach 

  • Issued 29th weekly update and posted it to the project website.
  • Weekly updates emailed to: NJ Department of Treasury (which in turn distributed to the NJ State Department of Labor, Division of Taxation, Hughes Justice Complex, Office of the Governor); City of Trenton officials; Mercer County Officials; community and neighborhood organizations.

Background: The project will remediate impacts to soil from the operations of a former manufactured gas plant (MGP) operated by a predecessor company of PSE&G in Trenton from the late 1840s to late 1890s. Approximately 100,000 tons of MGP-impacted soil will be excavated. Any infrastructure related to the former MGP operations that remain underground also will be removed. Most of the work will be performed within a temporary sprung structure (i.e., tented enclosure). Excavated soil will be transported to a permitted off-site soil treatment and disposal facility. The excavated areas will be backfilled with certified clean fill and restored to the pre-existing conditions. Groundwater encountered during soil remediation activities will be treated and conveyed off site in accordance with permitting.

The project is anticipated to take approximately 18 months to complete. All work is being performed in cooperation with and under the oversight of the Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP), and in accordance with the requirements and guidance of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).