What has caused the uneven Babbio sidewalk?

About a month ago, the stairs leading up to Babbio from River Street were found to be unstable and had to be closed off for immediate repairs. The stairs have now been repaired with a concrete filling, but the sidewalk in front of the stairs has been given a quick but not long-term solution. The sidewalk connecting the Babbio Center to McLean Hall is irregular and many of the square edges of the concrete are warped. With many large cracks and irregular sidewalk panels, students and visitors passing by having found themselves tripping over the exposed edges.

Many of the sidewalks of Hoboken are similar to the sidewalk outside Babbio, mainly because of weather erosion and water that weakens the underlying soil. After talking to Professor Valentina Prigiobbe, an Assistant Professor in the Civil, Environmental, & Ocean Engineering Department who teaches Geotechnical Engineering and Groundwater Hydrology, this might not be the case for the Babbio sidewalk. Dr. Prigobbe states that it is possible that the sidewalk is uneven due to the sinking or erosion of soil caused by a shallow water table that is underneath most of Stevens lower campus.

Geologically, most of campus sits on a strong Rahway Till deposit, brought by the Pleistocene Glacial Period. In addition, a hard serpentinite rock has also been found in deposits under the school and has been used to construct the Gate House.  Even with this hard bedrock under many of the buildings, the shallow water table that flows underneath lower campus and to the river is weakening the soil under the sidewalk. Buildings have preventative measures against sinking with the use of a strong foundation, but many sidewalks and roads do not have the additional foundation to protect them from becoming warped or sinking. To resolve the issue of the Babbio sidewalk, close monitoring can be done with observation wells at the site of monitoring, which measure the flow of the water tables and determine the impact of erosion. By taking this measure, it can be determined if the sidewalk is being affected by the geological water table or if it is purely the outcome of being located in a region with fluctuating weather patterns.