Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu said the city-owned lot is by West End Pizza

The Route 72-69 project was delayed slightly by the covid-19 pandemic, so this will help move it along in the next few months, she said.

The DOT wants to realign the intersection right by the pizza restaurant to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

The project has been in the works for years. It will involve widening Route 72, shifting it to the north, and adding dedicated left turn lanes, and extending Pratt Street one block north to connect with the state route. Divinity Street will be terminated at its intersection with Landry Street. Four multi-family buildings will need to be demolished. The estimated cost is $6 million, 80% federally funded and 20% state funded.

Zoppo-Sassu has said it will help jump start improvements to the West End, calling it “a little bit of pain for a lot of gain.”

According to Zoppo-Sassu, the neighborhood, which is historic and densely populated, has been struggling for years.

“This is one of those projects that can actually pivot and start to change some of the socioeconomic and perception issues in this neighborhood,” said Zoppo-Sassu.

Joseph Arsenault, DOT project engineer, said the design work is expected to be completed this summer, with construction starting in the spring of 2022.

Because the routes 72-69 intersection and the Route 72-Divinity intersection are so close, “it’s really functioning as one big six-leg intersection versus two intersections,” he said.

“About 15,300 is the average number of vehicles traveling through there in a day,” he said. “So we do see congestion in that area pretty much along all the legs, especially in the morning rush hour or evening rush hour.”

Arsenault noted that narrow shoulders make the area difficult for bicyclists, and people tend to use Divinity to bypass traffic backups on Route 72. In addition, tight curves make it difficult for tractor trailers to travel through, so they end up encroaching on other lanes or popping the curb. The project is intended to fix all of that.

The project is expected to include other property acquisitions in the area, as well as demolitions, to create more parking spaces and lower housing density.

Biden's Executive Orders Has Construction Industry Concerned 

Lucy Perry  President Joe Biden signaled changes in climate and energy policies when he signed a slew of executive orders on his first day in office. Though some consider this a positive move toward reducing global warming and carbon footprint, others see it as adversely affecting the construction sector and a threat to the economy, which President Biden campaigned to support.

The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) noted three major executive orders (EOs) that will affect the construction industry.

Biden signed a "regulatory freeze," halting agency activity until all appointees are installed.

"In practical terms, this action stops agencies from moving forward on any proposed rules, which have not yet been finalized," said Nick Goldstein, ARTBA vice president of regulatory and legal issues.

"This includes the USDOT implementation of the updated National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) modernization, which ARTBA supported."

Goldstein also noted Biden revoked the federal permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Shutting the Pipeline

The 1,700-mi. Keystone pipeline has been on-again, off-again, depending on which administration held United States office.

A massive project, it would carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast.

In 2013-14, the project was criticized by Native Americans, environmentalists and ranchers.

In 2015, President Barack Obama shut down the northern leg of the project after outcry from the public.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2017 approving permits for the northern end of the project.

The pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Energy service provider TC Energy decided to terminate more than 1,000 construction jobs as a result of the permit revocation.

"The project's suspension will result in several job cuts even when it intended to use renewable energy sources to power the pipeline system," the company said in announcing its displeasure with Biden's action.

"Earlier, the company announced its plan to wipe out more than three million tons of CO2 equivalent," said the company.

The plan was an attempt to convince Biden that Keystone XL fits into his ‘Build Back Better' agenda, according to TC Energy.

Industry Reaction

"ARTBA and industry allies have supported the project, citing its potential for creating significant economic benefits, including much-needed jobs in the transportation construction sector," said Goldstein.

Brian Turmail of the AGC was not so optimistic about Biden's swift actions. He said his association hopes the actions are not part of a broader plan.

"It's not a positive sign that someone who claims to be a union president killed 1,000 union jobs when he came into office," said Turmail, vice president, public affairs of the association.

"We hope this was done to placate the radical wing of the democrats and not a foreshadowing of a broader infrastructure agenda by the president."

Turmail said the moves give association members pause for concern. "We wonder whether this president is focused on rebuilding infrastructure or placating environmental activists."

The irony, he said, is the Keystone revocation won't stop the shipment of fossil fuels but will instead create more environmentally damaging methods of moving the oil.

It will require the oil to be moved via rail or truck, requiring "far more energy to move than by pipeline."

The association's position is the revocation "doesn't make a lot of sense" environmentally, Turmail added. "From an infrastructure point of view, it's troubling."

And from an economic point of view, "it's not a direction our economy should be heading right now," he added.

Turmail did say it's still too early to forecast long-term effects of the revocation, especially "when one project has such an effect on a broader market."

But, he added, AGC members expect the majority of construction will contract in 2021, and this doesn't help.

"It's an already-difficult economic climate. We don't need difficult and unfriendly political environment as well," he added.

The Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) is just as concerned by President Biden's actions.

Daniel Fisher, vice president, government affairs of AED, said association members have provided "a lot" of equipment in the United States and Canada for the project.They'll be hit hard by the Keystone Pipeline permit's revocation, he said.

Revoking the permit "effectively kills continuation of construction in the U.S. and Canada, unless President Biden decides to reverse his actions at some point."

In the very near future and long-term, it will likely mean contractors working on the pipeline will no longer have need for equipment, said Fisher.

That means purchase orders and rental agreements for equipment out there will be cancelled or delayed.

"We also wonder how this could impact future large pipeline projects," he said.

Fisher noted that this project had been reviewed for 10 years by previous administrations. "It represents virtually no environmental impact."

The pipeline construction work would be performed by union workers and run entirely on renewable energy, he said.

"It's one of the more environmentally-friendly pipeline projects, so I doubt the future of any larger pipeline project as long as we have this current administration for the next four years or so," Fisher added.

He said AED as a whole is hopeful the administration will reconsider its stand on these issues, for the sake of the construction industry and the economy.

"We hear a lot of buzz" in the industry, he said, noting there was been broad support for the Keystone project.

"We're in shock, but we're holding out hope the Biden administration will take another look at its climate and energy policies," said Fisher.

Other Biden Orders

Biden also repealed multiple Trump administration deregulation executive orders.

One EO he repealed was the One Federal Decision, shortening national EPA reviews to two years.

He also repealed the two-for-one EO mandating that two rules be repealed for every one that is enacted, said Goldstein.

"Additionally, the EOs will start a review of dozens of federal regulations enacted by the Trump administration, including many supported by ARTBA," he said.

Beyond NEPA modernization, ARTBA backed the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which replaced the Waters of the United States rule.

The association also supported reforms to the Endangered Species Act and recent decisions to retain current Clean Air Act standards.

"While the results of this review are unknown, any changes made to these rules are subject to the public comment process," said Goldstein.

"The EOs also show how President Biden will incorporate his priorities into future rulemakings by asking agencies to ‘identify ways the regulatory process can promote public health and safety, economic growth, social welfare, racial justice, environmental stewardship, human dignity, equity and the interests of future generations.'"

For transportation projects, "this could mean an increased focus on studying how proposed projects impact minority and other underserved communities."

Goldstein noted that the Biden administration also issued an EO directing OSHA to evaluate whether an emergency temporary standard (ETS) covering all employees and all industries is necessary to combat COVID-19.

"ARTBA will evaluate all proposals from the new administration on their merits," Goldstein said.

The association will also "continue to push for a regulatory environment that promotes efficient, safe and cost-effective delivery of transportation improvement projects," he added. CEG

Buttigieg nomination for DOT advances to final round

Chris Teale  Transportation Secretary-designate Pete Buttigieg said the "time is now" for the United States to invest in infrastructure.

In a nomination hearing last week before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Buttigieg addressed the slew of issues facing transportation, including how new technologies like autonomous vehicles and hyperloop should be regulated, and how the federal government can support the rollout of electric vehicles.

With President Joe Biden pushing a major infrastructure package in a bid to jump-start economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Buttigieg said such investment is a "generational opportunity to transform and improve America's infrastructure."

Biden has pledged an ambitious investment in infrastructure to stimulate the economy, and Buttigieg said the time is right for that investment, especially to help the country recover from the pandemic.

"This is our opportunity to literally do the building part in Build Back Better," he said, referring to Biden's campaign slogan for the 2020 election.

And in the new administration’s efforts to fight climate change, Buttigieg said rethinking transportation infrastructure could be crucial, especially as that sector is the nation's biggest carbon emitter. "It's going to take a whole-of-government approach, and certainly DOT has a big part of this," he said.

An infrastructure push stalled during the Trump administration, and the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act needs reauthorizing. House Democrats unveiled their blueprint for that reauthorization last year, but saw it flounder.

Senators noted the difficulties in funding any infrastructure package, with several pushing Buttigieg on whether he would support raising the federal gas tax to pay for it — something that has not happened since the 1990s. Buttigieg said "all options need to be on the table," including an oft-discussed vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax, although he was noncommittal beyond that.

"Transportation infrastructure investment, around here, has always been an area for bipartisan cooperation...The other thing that enjoys bipartisan popularity around here is not paying for it," Sen. John Thune, R-SD, said. "We continue to just put it on the debt and hand the bill to our kids and grandkids."

In addition to Buttigieg, another city-level transportation official could be in line for an elevation: New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg has been nominated as Deputy Secretary of Transportation.That nomination, which will also require Senate confirmation, received strong support from various organizations. In a joint statement, NACTO Executive Director Corinne Kisner and Chair Janette Sadik-Khan said Trottenberg is an "inspired choice" who "knows first-hand the enormous challenges that cities face."

A committee vote has not yet been scheduled to advance Buttigieg’s nomination, although Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-MS, said in his opening statement he is "quite certain" Buttigieg will be confirmed.

Danbury scrambling to build CT’s first condominium-style school before enrollment surge hits

Rob Ryser  DANBURY - The city’s plans to be first in Connecticut to open a school in an office park under a condominium-style agreement has put leaders in a race against an Oct. 1 grant deadline to get blueprints to the state.

Missing the state deadline would make Danbury ineligible for an 80 percent reimbursement of the school’s estimated $90 million cost, members of a city task force warned during a meeting this week.

“We have a bubble of students who are coming through in the next three-to-four years,” said Mark Boughton, the former longtime mayor who heads the task force. “If we’re not ready for them, we’re just not going to have space.”

If the city’s plan was conventional to house up to 1,400 upper grade students in a new career academy at the massive west side office park known as The Summit, meeting the state’s Oct. 1 grant deadline might be less ambitious.

As it is, there is nothing conventional about Danbury’s plans to buy 210,000-square-feet of office space from the owners of The Summit’s and convert it into classrooms and labs.

“We have to do a formal submission of an application that doesn’t exist right now because this has never been done before,” said Antonio Iadarola, the city engineer and a task force member, speaking during a Tuesday Zoom meeting. “I have had discussions with the builder about condominium-izing the space, which is very interesting to the state, because they have never done a school that’s under a condominium-ized ownership.”

There is also optimism among task force members that the city has found a solution to a classroom space crisis, brought on by a steep and steady enrollment climb that is unlike anywhere else in the state.

“The beautiful thing about The Summit is 90 percent of the square footage that we need is already constructed,” Iadarola said. “There’s only going to be a small, 25,000-square-foot addition that’s going to create a lobby area on the ground floor and also create a gymnasium.”

It helps the cause that Danbury’s plan was approved in principle by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont in September, along with smaller school construction funding projects in Brookfield and New Fairfield.

Boughton, who left City Hall abruptly in December to become Lamont’s tax commissioner, said leaders in Hartford along with Danbury’s own legislative delegation support the city’s novel approach to its enrollment crisis.

“The Summit is probably the most convertible building that we have, it will be able to accommodate the students that we need to put there, and it can be done quickly,” Boughton said. “Everybody is on board because this is not a political thing; it’s about taking care of our kids.”

The city’s scramble to finalize plans, to negotiate contracts, to get approval from voters and to submit a grant application by Oct. 1 is part of a larger effort underway at The Summit to create a “city within a city” at the 1.3 million-square-foot former world headquarters of Union Carbide.

In December, the healthcare system known as Nuvance that runs Danbury and Norwalk hospitals made headlines by signing a lease for 200,000-square-feet of office space The Summit.

The city’s efforts to open the career academy at The Summit also come at a time when separate efforts are underway to open a charter school in Danbury. Those plans got a major boost when supporters announced earlier this month that a philanthropist had donated $25 million to build the school.

The fate of the proposed Danbury Prospect Charter School remains in the hands of Hartford, however, where Democratic lawmakers from the city’s own delegation are opposed to funding its year-to-year operations for fear it will take resources away from public schools.

Among the next steps for the career academy task force is to send preliminary plans to the state and ensure that the path in the unchartered territory is clear.

“They know we have a problem and they recognize we are doing everything we can to deal with the increased enrollment and the overcrowding,” Iadarola said. “Honestly, this is going to save millions of dollars for not only Danbury but the state, because I don’t see any other opportunity to do a project with this sort of deadline other than to do an existing building retrofit.”

Connecticut has nearly $1B in new federal relief. Legislators and municipalities want to know how Lamont plans to divvy it up.

Keith M. Phaneuf  Fresh off extending Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers, state legislators are pressing Lamont on how and when he will divvy up nearly $1 billion in new federal relief earmarked for education and housing — and they aren’t alone.

The largest lobbying group for cities and towns also wants to know when more than half of that money — approved by Congress more than a month ago — will go to local school districts.

And behind those questions is another big one:

Can Lamont, whose emergency powers to handle the coronavirus pandemic recently were extended until April 20, make those decisions by himself — even though he insists he won’t?

“We should know who has the ability to draw this [federal money] down. We should know the exact time frame — all of that,” said Rep. Toni E. Walker, D-New Haven, co-chair of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee. “We are finding this by going to other sources rather than from the administration, and that is very concerning.”

The committee’s other co-chair, Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, added, “We should be getting information out to local school districts so they can properly reset their budget.”

Not long after Congress enacted a $900 billion relief bill on Dec. 21 — which President Trump signed six days later — Connecticut learned it included nearly $750 million to support education here, and more than $230 million for affordable housing.

The linchpin of this new money was $492 million for elementary and secondary schools. Another $225 million was earmarked for higher education, and $28 million for emergency education needs identified by the governor.

But since then, the Lamont administration has said little about this.

The administration responds that things aren’t as simple as they seem. Federal guidance for much of this funding wasn’t released until January, and some details didn’t come out until just one week ago. And Paul Mounds Jr., Lamont’s chief of staff, said that while the administration isn’t legally compelled to work with legislators to craft a funding distribution plan, it nonetheless has pledged to make it a collaborative process.

“I can tell you this, this administration will be putting forth a [plan] that will take that into account, that goes through the legislative appropriations process,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, a New Haven Democrat, said Wednesday that legislative leaders’ decision to endorse extending Lamont’s emergency powers until April 20 was with the understanding that all spending decisions must go through the legislature.

“The legislative branch will continue to exercise its constitutional and statutory authority to appropriate any and all funds distributed to the state of Connecticut where federal law allows for such discretion,” he said. “We of course will continue to work with Gov. Lamont and his staff over the coming months to draft a budget all sides can agree to.”

But some questioned whether the governor isn’t rushing funds to local school districts now so the administration can grab bigger headlines in a few more weeks.

Lamont will submit his next two-year budget proposal to legislators on Feb. 10. And if the rollout plan for this federal money is released then, some say it could give the appearance the Democratic governor — and not Congress — is channeling this much-needed relief to Connecticut’s schools.

“I would be very disappointed if I find out this money is incorporated into his biennial budget proposal — to give the governor personal accolades,” said state House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, adding school districts already are developing their budgets for the next fiscal year and already should have received details on what to expect.

Max Reiss, Lamont’s communications director, responded that the governor has been consistent in protecting education throughout the pandemic.

“The Lamont administration has supported institutions across the state, large and small, through the use of federal funds since the start of the pandemic,” he said. “The approach has been successful, as it’s led to hundreds of thousands of school children having an in-person experience this year. The next round of funds, as prescribed by federal guidance, will focus on continued support for safe in-person learning and to focus on educational recovery and learning acceleration for every student.”

But Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said the dearth of immediate details is the latest in a general “lack of transparency” that has typified the state’s handling of federal funding since the pandemic began in March.

The General Assembly, which adjourned the regular 2020 session two months early last March, has been limited largely to virtual committee meetings since.

Lamont declared a six-month public health and civil preparedness emergency that gives him sweeping powers — provided the legislature does not block him. Leaders of the Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate have endorsed two extensions since then.

But DeLong said Wednesday that legislators need to form a special commission to track all federal dollars received, how they’ve been assigned and when they are disbursed, to keep both lawmakers and the public informed.

“Everyone needs to understand where those expenditures are going and why they’re going where they’re going,” he added.

Both Candelora and Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, said the latest extension was a mistake. The GOP favored limiting any further extensions to 30 days, provided lawmakers also begin an immediate review of all executive orders issued by Lamont during the pandemic.

“Connecticut is where constitutional government was born. The people have a right to know what’s going on,” Kelly said, adding that the lack of information on federal funding “erodes the people’s trust.”

And Candelora added that the stakes in this debate are huge.

President Joe Biden’s new administration has proposed another massive round of stimulus that includes $350 billion in new flexible aid for states and municipalities — meaning it could be used not only to cover pandemic-related costs but also temporarily replace eroding revenues in their budgets.

If such a proposal were to pass, that likely would mean billions of dollars for Connecticut.

“Democratic legislators are in no position to cry about how the governor is spending all of the federal money when they have, time and again, handed the car keys over to him,” Candelora said, adding the legislature must “reassert itself as a co-equal branch of government.”