As a child in her native Jamaica, Susan Herman remembers her father returning from work as a builder of residential buildings with blueprints of his latest projects, spreading them out on a table and asking her and her older sister for their input and recommendations. Herman was all of 10, but she became hooked on a dream of designing and building projects that would change people’s lives for the better.
Today, she’s doing that as PATH’s senior project manager for four New Jersey stations — Hoboken, Newport, Exchange Pl and Journal Sq. Altogether, Herman oversees $150 million worth of construction, engineering, and infrastructure projects for PATH, forming the bedrock of its ambitious 2-year PATH Forward initiative to improve infrastructure, facilities, and rail cars.
Currently, she is in the middle of one of the biggest capital projects in the nearly 117-year history of the railroad. As the Hoboken station undergoes extensive track and station rehabilitation, necessitating an unprecedented 25-day closure until Feb. 25, Herman is directing platform reconstruction, station waterproofing, and historic restoration of ceiling vaults, walls and floors, as well as stair and lighting upgrades.
“I’m passionate about what I do. I love to see how what starts as mere concepts on paper eventually reach fruition,” she said while observing the current work at Hoboken’s station platform B, now littered with construction material and equipment. That passion is her father’s legacy of building and blueprints passed on to her.
In a Port Authority career spanning 20 years, the last three at PATH, Herman has been involved in some of the agency’s most critical and high-profile projects. She spearheaded the rehabilitation of the Grove St station during weekends in the first half of 2024. Herman wrapped up the project on time and on budget.
“We had to really push ourselves to make sure we hit our deadlines,” she said.
Pushing herself, her teams, and Port Authority contractors to the best possible results is essential to Herman’s personal and professional ethos. Herman is applying that high level of care and attention to the current Hoboken project, which is so far the largest and most complex project she’s undertaken while at the Port Authority in both cost and scope.
I often ask my contractors: if this was your house, is this how you would treat it? Would you not perform the work at the highest quality? – Susan Herman, PATH senior project manager
“There is a lot of coordination and planning that goes into a project of this size and scope, and we can’t miss a step,” she said.
Herman arrived in Newark, N.J., from Jamaica for her freshman year at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), not prepared for what she would encounter. “It was a culture shock,” she said with a laugh. “The pace is much slower in Jamaica than what I experienced in New Jersey and New York.”
From NJIT, Herman received two degrees – a bachelor’s in architecture and a master’s in transportation, and later another degree in public administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Herman was ready for the world of designing and building vital transit projects. She joined the Port Authority’s engineering department and eventually moved to PATH, part of a diverse and skilled management team developed under the leadership of PATH director/general manager Clarelle DeGraffe.
“We’re certainly not alone in the transportation industry in seeking out the best and brightest,” DeGraffe said. “One of the things that stands out for me and makes me especially proud is that PATH is an integral part of the everyday lives of many thousands of people across the region. What we do really matters.”
PATH Assistant Director Damian McShane, who leads the railroad’s capital projects team, described Herman as one of the railroad’s most valuable assets. After the Hoboken station rehabilitation, Herman will be tasked with managing the planned rehabilitation of PATH’s Newport station later this year.
“The ongoing effort to rehabilitate our Jersey City and Hoboken stations is a challenging undertaking for the most seasoned engineering professionals,” he said. “Susan works tirelessly to minimize impact to our riders while delivering on the transformative work that’s taking place at these locations.”
