And here's what a small CEMENT PLANT looks like:

My first clue is that under the picture it says CEMENT PLANT...picture is listed as avaiable for free use.

Look familiar? Ours is a littlle smaller I think.

Concete trucks park next to/under a cement plant to get their cement which is aded to gravel/stones/aggregate and water and "stirred" in the rolling hopper of the truck. Time and the liberation of heat create CONCRETE.


So I guess if ianmac saw 7 concrete mixing trucks awaiting their CEMENT infusion, the plant must be operating full out...presumably to build GODZILLA TOWERS. IF the structure was a static concrete mixer, which I seriously doubt, then presumably one would see lots of trucks lined up with bags and bags of Portland Cement. I've never seen such a truck.

So Newport gets to make the cement and eat the dust while the cement makes concrete for the REST of the city (Godzilla Towers is not on Newport land.)
Doesn't seem quite fair.

Here is a series of photos labeled as concrete mixing facilities.

Here we see the Newport facility

Anyone care to guess why there are 6 concrete trucks lined up ready to enter the facility, while a 7th truck is underneath the large tank?


Here is another view of mixing trucks at the facility.

This article talks about the EPA investigation of the Midlothian, Texas Cement Plant. That plant is listed as
245 Ward Road That address on google shows a massive plant:

Google Maps

Jump over to Microsoft and
look at the Bird's eye view.

Frank,

It is POSSIBLE you are right but I have observed pretty carefully and it seems pretty clear to me that rocks go up a chute and powder comes out and is then mixed with aggregate water and tumbelled in the delivery trucks into concrete. It is of course impossible to get close ernough to see for sure, for obvious reasons.

Think about it this way, why would they need a multi story processor to mix CONCRETE in when the slightest mishap or delay could result in the tallest steel clad concrete column in the city and a useless pice of equipment to permanently enclose it. Concrete is mixed in TRUCKS on the way to a pour site not in 10 story towers.

Like I said, I think it is POSSIBLE you are correct but if this was a betting site, I'd give 2 to one odds that it is indeed a CEMENT manufacturing plant. If you search the web you will see some similar looking cement grinder/kiln systems.

Of course a simple walk over to check would prove the point but it would probably involve electrical fences, Rottweiler attacks, and sniper fire from towers. Some things are best kept secret

(A proviso here: whether or how often the plant is in operation, neither I, nor any other residents, have any way of knowing. It seems the only thing being built during the recession are BEHEMOTH TOWERS on 6th and Washington. )

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I didn't say there isn't a potential dust issue, just that to my knowledge, "cement" is not manufactured at that facility. A Google search for health risks associated with a "cement factory," as suggested by Roy, is mainly going to address hazards from pollutants generated by different processes than occur in Newport.

It's been a long time since I walked through the area, but I recall the installation in Newport was a concrete mixing plant. The most apparent features of a mixing plant are large hoppers that hold cement which was produced elsewhere. It's there that it's mixed with sand, aggregate, and water to form concrete. I don't know what you mean by "grinding rocks into cement," but that's not what goes on at a mixing plant.

The manufacture of cement involves a number of major industrial processes that aren't suitable for that location. For example, the kiln, the most important element of a cement plant, releases a variety of toxic gasses into the atmosphere. Maybe the site has changed considerably since my last walkthrough, but I'm willing to bet there isn't a cement kiln in Newport (i.e. it's not a cement plant).

Yes, as Sammy says, immedicately East of Morton Williams is a vent fro the Holland Tunnel...it has a sister vent on the other end of the pier (and 2 matching over on Canaal Street.
Immediately NORTH of the newer buidings are PATH vents (which form the 100 dgree temps in iin Summer, don't do much good.)

Why do I live next to a cement plant?
a. I didn't know it was there because it was hidden by a huge pile of contaminated soil from the Newport brownfield when I moved in.
b. I didn't think it would be there FOREVER.
c. I moved away from housing built atop chromium tailings
d. I thought about Society Hill but that is a radium dump.
e. The entire Westtern part of JC was covered by smoke from an underground fire that burned for half a century.
f. Several other parts of town seemed likely to risk a slit throat.
g. Areas that are nice today required gut rehabs and tenant evictions back then...neither had appeal.

And of course h, i, j, k, and l are all the same: BECAUSE I LIVE ATOP A PATH STATION.

Yes, I'd love to live at 63rd and Park or in Quogue but cannot afford it.

So that's why I live next to a cement plant. I keep my windows sealed tightly shut. I guess there are worse places...like Linden, Rahway and any other little town along cancer alley where you need to roll up your windows to drive through at 60 mph lest you choke on refinery fumes...oor down in parts of Ocean County where chemical plumes are making their way through the aquifer poisoning all the wells.

Roy is correct when he refers to it as a CEMENT plant...it grinds rocks to cement. Aggregate is then presumably added to make concrete. But it is the CEMENT GRINDING processs is the that is the risky business because of the need to grind randomly selected rock to dispersable dust and that's what sits between Newport and Hoboken, a cement grinder.

Yes, it's one of the Holland Tunnel vents.

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Given the way you feel I am surprised you have willingly chosen to live next to the cement plant year after year.

Speaking of potential air pollution in that area...do you know what that structure is across the street from the Morton Williams? I was looking at it the other day trying to figure out if it is an automobile exhaust vent for the holland tunnel or not.

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Cement and concrete are not synonyms. Portland cement is an ingredient in concrete, the manufacture of which can produce harmful compounds.

The distinction between a cement plant and a concrete mixing facility isn't subtle. It's like the difference between a steel mill and a machine shop.

We have had some furious dust storms coming from the West that blew so much dust into the air that Hoboken became invisible and it looked like the dust plume had to be extending onto Greewich Village.

And multiply any risk from crushiing rock and liberating it's 100's of components times 25 years of daily use and then disperse it into the most densely populated part of the most densely populated state and you are CERTAIN to cause deaths.
Any guesses on the percentage of asbestos in these randomly chosen rocks. Anyone eveer SEEN someone with mesothelioma?

It's like putting a compost heap in your living room.

I'm sure this plant is in violation of MANY EPA rules but after Bush's slashing of the federal EPA, I doubt the two inspectors left have much time to visit.
..maybe Obama will hire a third?

The cement plant is a hazard, plain and simple, and anyone who is honest will admit that. This isn't rocket science. But yes, it will be hard to prove that any ONE person's case of COPD, lung cancer, mesothelioma, or asthma was caused by the plant so it remains for another few decades...that's what major polluters count on.

Anyone who thinks the plant is a good idea should argue for another one, perhaps built in the heart of Paulus Hook...or in Exchange Place perhaps. How about on the City Hall lawn?

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I believe there is another plant in LHN also producing material; i might be wrong about that.

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We're talking about the cement factory in Newport, right? Newport in Jersey City... in DOWNTOWN Jersey City, right? In the downtown community?

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Concrete can't travel very far. It has a finite life as a liquid from the time its mixed to the time its poured. Concrete from Morristown would likely be ruined by the time it got downtown. And that's why many large projects end up building on site facilities for concrete.

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I seriously doubt you have been living in Newport before the construction of the cement factory. Perhaps you should have considered moving to Tuxedo Park.

Cement dust blows and settles everywhere. Its not just dust but pollutants and toxins that also get released from cement factories. A google search for "cement factory health risks" will bring up a host of information.

Its really amazing that a cement factory has been put up in such a densely populated area like this.

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The prevailing winds come in from the harbor so 90% of the dust is blown into Hoboken.

It is certainly being hidden. I did not know of it until I actually went into a North tower apt and saw it below. It can be a major health issue. Cement dust blowing from it can't be a good thing.

Ianmac,

Have you ever dealt with the dust from an operating cement plant next door for a decade or two?

Any guesses on how they get the cement from the cement plant to the buildings a'building?

Perhaps we could get an onsite sewage plant so our tiolets have shorter discharge routes. Perhaps our garbage could be burned onsite. Should we dig for our oown COAL downtown so we can stay wwarm...put up an oilfield annd some gas refineries.

When every community starts building onsite cement plants, I'll reconsider your logic. But for now, since only MY community is making the concrete for all of Downtown, then perhaps my considering it a blight is the right tack to take. Any guesses where the concrete for ALL the new towers downtown came from? Do you think from Morristown, Upper Saddle River, Tuxedo Park, Quogue perhaps?

I HATE the cement plant and anyone living near it who is not adding to his billions would hate it too...that's why Lefrak is hiding it.

Do you know of MANY housing projects with an onsite cement plant?

Eh, with all the construction past, present and planned for the future, there are a lot worse things than having a local cement plant. If its supplying material to the downtown, its reducing truck trips through the covered roadway and over the turnpike. Fewer miles traveled means less disease fumes, less damage to roadways, and cheaper construction costs.

Notice they have a big pile of bulldozed crap sitting between the cement plant and the walkway to HIDE the cement monstrosity from ths strolling public.


OY, they think they are so smart! Out of sight out of mind works for pre-schoolers and I guess for Lefrak heirs! Is there a major difference?

And its probably going to be another 10 to 15 years before Newport builds a tower on that lot. On the other hand, now that the bridge to Hoboken has been built, it might be worthwhile for them to concentrate on that northeast corner of the property, since anything built there will be about 500 feet from Hoboken and the transit terminal. Still, they are the tortoise rather than the hare.

"Interim use" approval for the cement plant has run 2 decades and counting so far.

There should be copies of the three dimensional Newport map about every twelve feet throughout Newport. If you haven't seen any of those, you can check out this map of Newport expansion projects. (PDF)

interim use.

permitted in efforts to reduce truck traffic ferrying cement/concrete to JC building projects.

since JC Environmental Commission is inactive, doubt any environmental concerns were considered with interim approvals by JC Planning Board.

Does anyone know if the cement factory next to the North Tower is a permanent fixture or if its going to be removed at some point in the future?

Also any idea as to whether any new buildings are going to be coming up in that general area apart from the Ellipse?