Carteret Logistics Center Carteret, NJ

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The site currently known as Carteret Logistics Center is situated between the New Jersey Turnpike and the Rahway River. For decades this site was used as an industrial waste facility for American Cyanamid Company. For decades this site was used as an industrial waste facility for American Cyanamid Company, which pumped its industrial waste across the Rahway River from its plant in Linden for storage in lagoons at Carteret. In 2012 the site started to undergo remediation. The site has been remediated by filling the industrial waste lagoons with large boulders, then a cementitious soil fill media was used to encapsulate the contaminants. The cementitious soil cap keeps the industrial waste from migrating with the groundwater or into the Rahway River, while protecting people and wildlife above.

After the site was capped, the site, which is also surrounded by wetlands and prone to flooding, began to undergo a redevelopment. The redevelopment has raised the site such that it will no longer be impacted by floods above and beyond the FEMA 100yr storm. The redevelopment consists of three large warehouse buildings. The first building, Building A, is now complete. This building is 479,700 SF with ample loading bays, trailer storage, and parking.

There are nine underground stormwater basins that control stormwater runoff from across the site. After the stormwater is detained in these underground basins, the runoff is cleaned via UpFlo stormwater filters before it is discharged into the Rahway River.

The site is accessed via an access road that connects to the adjacent Amazon warehouse roadways. This access road has two culverts that cross the Cross Creek in two separate locations. It is also raised above the flood elevations by utilizing recon block retaining walls. The retaining walls are utilized instead of graded fill in order to minimize impacts to adjacent wetlands.

In order to protect and promote native wildlife, a variety of native landscaping features have been added across the site. Bayberry shrubs are provided in strategic places along the loop road to create a buffer for local species of birds. A buffer of an average depth of 100’ has been established between the wetlands and the development. This buffer is to be planted with a native meadow seed mix that is cut only a few times a year. This mix promotes the creation of habitats for insects and other wildlife.

This redevelopment has turned an industrial wasteland into a functional property that encourages economic growth while protecting native wildlife.

This project won the 2023 Metropolitan Builder and Contractors Association Award of Excellence for Best Engineering for Site Design of a Brownfield Redevelopment.