New Flood Wall System Coming to Village Hall to Protect Against Saddle River and Ho-Ho-Kus Brook Flooding
file photo by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
RIDGEWOOD, NJ – The Village of Ridgewood is taking immediate, tangible steps to boost its resilience against flooding. Starting next week, on Monday, November 10th (weather permitting), construction will commence on a new flood wall system designed to protect Village Hall.
The entire project is expected to take approximately three weeks to complete, with the most intensive work scheduled to occur during the first six days.
Important Access Information for Residents
The construction will directly impact access to Village Hall. To minimize disruption, the Village has implemented a staggered closure plan:
- Impacted Areas: Both the Main Entrance and the Community Center Entrance will be affected.
- Access Protocol: Only one entrance will be closed at a time to ensure continuous access for employees and residents throughout the three-week project.
A Comprehensive Approach to Flood Resilience
This flood wall project follows extensive planning efforts initiated in response to increasing flood events caused by the Saddle River and Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, which flow through the village.
Last year, the Village Council successfully requested a public meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Deputy Chief of Planning Stephen Couch hosted the meeting, discussing the regional challenges inherent in controlling water flow within the massive Passaic River Basin, which covers 935 square miles across 116 municipalities.
“Resilient Ridgewood” and the Rain Barrel Initiative
The USACE meeting and the new construction follow the release of the “Resilient Ridgewood” report prepared by Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. This comprehensive report, presented to the Green Ridgewood committee, offered suggestions for reducing both flooding and the village’s carbon footprint.
One of the most immediate, community-level recommendations was a homeowner “rain barrel” initiative. This program aims to expand water retention in the uphill sections of the village, reducing rapid runoff that contributes to flooding in the lower-lying areas. Ridgewood Water is actively promoting rain barrel use, which also helps conserve water during summer months.
Climate Change and Local Factors
During the USACE meeting, residents pointed to several factors they believe contribute to increased flooding: climate change, expansion of impervious surfaces, the presence of artificial turf on local sports fields, and upstream bridge widening.
Both the Columbia report and the USACE emphasized a key conclusion: there is no single solution to the complex flooding challenges facing the village and the broader Passaic River Basin. The new flood wall is just one piece of a long-term, multi-pronged resilience strategy.
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But is it wetlands when it floods there…?
I don’t recall this ever being discussed at a Village Council meeting. How much is this going to cost and who’s paying for it?
Typical NEGATIVE NELLIE comment. I just wonder why it hadn’t been done long before now. Whatever it costs, it will be far less expensive than the damage caused by the next storm. Get some positivity in your life!! Not everything is bad.
ok John .. a.k.a. Paul’s Puppet!
Rain barrels is a joke. People have no idea what one inch of rain produces. A better idea would be to reduce lot coverage and install dry wells.
Wall will not help when water rises up thru the ground
I thought Democrats were against building walls.
The Village Engineer designed this. Guaranteed to work.
I hope this will not be a fool’s errand. The whole point of where we located municipal buildings, and sports fields, was to occupy land no one else wanted because it is a flood zone. The first floor of the municipal building should never have been constructed for use – citizens though that when it was built – the building needs to be planned as on “stilts”. Flooding in this area has been going on for millennia, the wall will not stop it. Waste of money.
The only support I have heard for building such a wall was to protect our sports fields, not the town hall, to get a sense of where citizens’ concerns are LOL. This brings to mind the saying about how people spend “other people’s’ money
Just to clarify the origins of Village Hall. It was originally built and owned by the Elks club. The village bought it in 1951. I suspect the flooding was less severe and happened less often back then as less of the floodplain of the Hohokus Brook had been built on back then.
The Village didn’t build this -it was bought in 1951 from the Elks Club.
I thought the DEP prohibited building walls in the floodplain. At least that’s the excuse we get when they are proposed for the high school fields. Different rules for different organizations…
This project consists of a simple replacement of the existing rubberized door dams because they are wearing out. There is no new concrete wall being constructed.
So rubber devices to stop fluid, gotcha.