CT Construction Digest Friday March 28, 2025
Portion of Flanders Road to be rebuilt as part of I-95 reconstruction
Jack Lakowosky
East Lyme — Flanders Road commuters might have to visit the car wash more often, as a portion of the road will soon be fully reconstructed as part of the $156 million Interstate 95 Exit 74 interchange project.
Starting in mid-April the road will be gravel for 500 feet from the intersection with Frontage Road to the entrance of Walgreens, said Andrew Millovitsch, project engineer with the state Department of Transportation.
Officials expect the work to finish May 1.
Millovitsch said based on road conditions, the work could extend to the Flanders Four Corners intersection.
Drivers are asked to reduce speed in the work zone, which is part of the effort to widen Flanders, also known as Route 161. Crews have already widened part of Route 161, from Industrial Park Road to King Arthur Drive. Drivers are advised that the work, which will raise the height of the road about two feet in some locations, will be done at night.
Route 161 northbound will eventually be joined with a new road, New Frontage Road, in front of Cash True Value Home Center, with a new four-lane approach consisting of two exclusive left-turn lanes and two through lanes. The southbound approach to this intersection will consist of two through lanes and exclusive turn lanes, according to state information.
In order to widen 161, the I-95 bridges over the road must be replaced. The northbound side of the bridge was recently demolished, work that temporarily closed Route 161.
Crews Thursday were working outside Daddy's Noodle Bar, which is getting its own signal directing drivers onto Flanders Road.
This is all part of the third of four stages in a project meant to make travel safer between Exits 74 and 75, an area with a high number of traffic accidents and 80,000 drivers a day, said project Resident Engineer Robert Obey. Recently concrete barriers were installed to guide drivers into two, 11-foot-wide lanes with 1-foot shoulders compared to the typical 12-foot travel lanes with 3- to 4-foot shoulders, a configuration that will last a while longer.
Between the north and southbound lanes crews are readying the highway for another upcoming change, when southbound traffic will shift to what is now the median from the Route 1 overpass to a location beyond Costco.
Obey said one of the biggest improvements, which comes later in the project, is a new dedicated right-turn lane onto a new Exit 74 northbound on-ramp, eliminating the need for Flanders commuters traveling southbound to take the hairpin left turn onto I-95 north near Starbucks, Obey says. That configuration severely backs up Flanders Road.
That new on-ramp will curve around a new commuter lot, Obey said, and will neighbor the new northbound off-ramp that lands drivers in front of the Flanders Road Burger King.
Obey said the main goal of the project is improving visibility and sightlines. To that end, the height on the south side of the bridge will be raised 14 feet and on the north side, it's dropping 10 feet. Obey said the changes to the highway are some of the most significant of his 35-year career.
The project cost has risen from the original estimate of $150 million, after officials needed more supplies than expected, Millovitsch said. He added it's "amazing" that after two years the large project has only increased in cost by $6 million.
"More than a construction job"
Obey said any major roadway or highway project requires balancing public safety and inconvenience.
"None of it matters if there's a major accident or a fatality," Obey said. "Our job is always to make sure we're operating in the safest way."
"It's not just a construction job," he added. "My wife goes to Costco, our friends and families use these roads. That's why it's important to us."
And sometimes a project requires traffic control measures that may irk drivers. That's why, Millovitsch said, these projects need some cultural engineering, too.
"We're in the Northeast, everyone hustles and bustles," he said, pointing out that when the project started, both cars and trucks often flew by workers on the highway at 80 miles per hour.
Officials piloted a enforcement program last year that significantly reduced speeding.
Obey said the number of people who signed up for updates and alerts about the project, 22,000, surprised him.
"It caught us off-guard how involved people were," he said.
Large Simsbury roadwork project set to begin as Aquarion Water starts water main replacement
SIMSBURY — When the weather gets warm, construction season heats up.
And more than a half dozen Simsbury streets and the motorists who use them will be subjected to the offshoots of construction season with slow-downs and detours beginning Tuesday and lasting into October.
Aquarion Water Co. will be initiating a water main replacement project that will cover just short of 8,000 feet of pipe. The affected roadways will be Katherine Lane, Windham Drive, Valley View Road, Bob White Way, High Hill Circle, Richard Road, Branch Brook Road and Cornfield Road.
Aquarion officials said the work is part of an ongoing program to improve the company's water distribution system, with Aquarion representatives planning to work closely with residents and businesses to minimize any disruptions.
During construction, residents should expect minor traffic delays and possible detours between 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Compass Enterprises Inc. of Simsbury will serve as the contractor for the project, Aquarion officials said.
Peter Fazekas, Aquarion's director of corporate communications, offered several suggestions for motorists and pedestrians. They include following reduced speed limits in the construction zone and any other posted signs; preparing for changes in traffic patterns, lane shifts and the presence of workers and equipment in the roadway; obeying flaggers directing traffic through the construction zone; maintaining a safe distance between vehicles; being aware the roadway may be uneven due to temporary patches and/or steel plates; practicing situational awareness by keeping heads up and phones down; and if walking near the construction zone, ensuring pets are leashed and children are supervised.
In an effort to keep motorists and residents informed about scheduled and unscheduled work, Aquarion uses the Everbridge notification system to call affected customers. Customers are encouraged customers to sign up in advance online for the free service.
For project-related questions, contact Project Manager Brianna Paolillo at 203-362-3070. For service or water-related issues, contact Aquarion customer service at 800-732-9678.
Yearlong road work project to start in Greenwich's Glenville neighborhood next week
GREENWICH — After years of planning, Greenwich will finally start a major project to upgrade Glenville Road this week.
This project, known as the “Glenville Corridor,” will make changes to the roads and sidewalks between the intersection of Glenville Street and Glen Ridge Road and the intersection of Glenville Road and Weaver Street.
The project area spans about 1,500 feet, from the future home of DeCicco and Sons, past Glenville Pizza to the Shell gas station on the corner at Weaver Street.
Work is scheduled to begin on Monday and it is expected to take a full year to complete, according to the Department of Public Works.
Crews will be widening parts of the road, upgrading traffic signals, filling slopes in some areas, adding sidewalks, adding stamped concrete pedestrian crossings, adding a traffic signal at the intersection of Glenville Road and Pemberwick Road and more.
“This major infrastructure project will reduce congestion, improve air quality, and enhance safety for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians traveling along the Glenville Corridor,” DPW wrote in an announcement.
This project has been in the works since 2016, when Greenwich was first awarded grant money to fix the roadway.
The project got into more serious planning by 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic struck and altered the town’s timeline, in part because construction costs increased the price of the project. Neighbors also objected to some elements of the design, specifically a loss of trees.
The work was supposed to begin last year, but it was delayed after bids came in too high. State legislators helped secure additional funds from the state government, which administers federal grant monies, and put the town on course to start the work this spring.
“The Glenville Corridor is a heavily traveled commuter route, providing access to major highways and local schools,” DPW wrote. “These improvements will help ease traffic flow and create a safer, more efficient roadway for the entire community.”
Visit the town website for additional information, as well as project updates when they are available.
Torrington High School spring sports prepared for many road games as construction continues
Peter Wallace
TORRINGTON – In a world of modern miracles, the multi-million-dollar, multi-year construction of Torrington’s new high school/middle school almost literally under the feet of its faculty, students, coaches and athletes is a local version demanding attention in its clockwork operation.
Budding engineers, architects, construction workers…and athletic directors couldn’t get a more hands-on education in four years of college.
Torrington athletic director Mike McKenna is one of a myriad of heroes he’s happy to name in making it possible, but the dawn of a new sports season makes him a key to another season’s success in a difficult situation.
“It’s controlled chaos,” he chuckles from a storage-room office that will become a cafeteria storage room when “the envy of every other school in the area” is complete, somewhere around next October.
Meanwhile, former playing fields are rubble, tennis courts are gone and the state-of-the-art Robert Frost Sports Complex with its turf football/soccer playing field and track are almost unreachable in the midst of earth moving tasks in the construction of additional turf fields for softball and baseball in the school’s back yard.
For McKenna, the true miracle is the cooperation he constantly shares with the school’s administration, Parks and Rec Department and outside companies to keep the balls literally rolling.
“I haven’t heard one complaint from coaches or athletes,” says McKenna. “Their only questions are ‘Where do I go?’ ‘What do I do?’.
For many people, the task of providing those answers would be ulcer-producing or worse.
“I haven’t had a heart attack yet,” he laughs, noting that the Covid year was far worse for logistics.
“Then, you never knew what was going to happen the next day. Three kids on a team would show up with symptoms and we’d have to reschedule. This time, we have more control of it.”
To a point. Cooperation, lots of it, is still the key.
Last season, the boys and girls basketball teams were on the road for the final 14 games of their regular seasons while O&G, the prime contractor, began work on the school’s new gym.
This season, while Fuessenich Park and Romanello Field remain home options for baseball and softball games and practices, thanks to the Park Department, McKenna cites 73 away games for all the spring teams, scheduled between April 1 and May 29.
Getting there is the main problem.
“Mary Bussetti and Justine Lunberg, among others, have done backflips for us in Torrington’s branch of All-Star Transportation, the school bus company,” McKenna says. “The reality is they just don’t have enough buses. Nevertheless, it’s come down to just four dates when they can’t help.
“We have two small buses of our own, but, while we’re trying to get another driver certified, Michelle Matrascia is our only driver.
“Winter was easier because the games were at night. Now, with afternoon games, we’re on the same schedule as the rest of the students.
“In some cases, the administration has allowed us to get kids out of their last classes of the day to accommodate the buses. In others, a bus will drop one team off and come back for another.
“I’m telling coaches they’ll have to wait 15 or 20 minutes sometimes. Nobody gripes.”
Meanwhile, Torrington high school and middle school students are settling into their new school while the rumble of progress continues outside, thanks to the clockwork planning of O&G engineers and Torrington directors Ed Arum and Mario Longobucco and many others.
Student athletes will continue to hit balls out of a park, set new track and field records and win tennis sets thanks to Mike McKenna and many, many others.
“It’s going to be a beautiful facility,” says McKenna, happy for now to have a storage room he can use for an office to help keep it all moving…like clockwork.
Former Briarwood College campus in Southington may become senior housing
SOUTHINGTON— The former Briarwood College property may soon be transformed into a new senior development if the zone change is approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The project will have 150 age-restricted housing units spread out among seven buildings on site at 2279 Mount Vernon Road. The mix of studio and one-bedroom apartments will range between 350 and 1,000 square feet, Severino Bovino, an engineer and vice president of Southington-based Kratzert, Jones & Associates Inc. said at the recent meeting.
He added a new pool area would be included along with six acres of land dedicated to open space.
The impacts on the surrounding environment should be minimal, as no new building construction is planned, said Johnny Grunblatt, a representative of New Haven-based PGX Holdings LLC.
Bovino said all roads and facilities would be maintained by the property owner on site and the project would be served by the 311 parking spaces that are presently there.
The site has been vacant since the for-profit school, Lincoln College of New England, closed in 2018, citing enrollment and financial difficulties. It had been founded as Briarwood College in 1966.
PGX Holdings bought the property in 2021 for $3.5 million, according to earlier stories.
There were a multitude of different options for the 32-acre campus over the years including 83 age-restricted ranch homes and medical offices in 2020. Other ideas were a family center, day therapy and a school. Over the years, the campus has been listed for $6 million to $9.5 million.
PGX Holdings LLC submitted an application on Feb. 18 to change the zone from R-40 to ARCHZ, ultimately going from a residential zone to allowing for an age restricted development for those aged 55 and over.
Once the zone change is approved PGX will return before the PZC for a site plan review/approval. And go before the Southington Zoning Board of Appeals as well to get a variance that will allow for part of the facility to be used as rented space.
Meriden City Manager proposes $36 million in capital improvements that excludes senior center
MERIDEN — City Manager Brian Daniels proposed a $36 million capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2026 that falls nearly $1 million under the city’s spending cap and is $20 million less than the current year.
“We have kept it extremely tight,” Daniels recently told members of the City Council Finance Committee.
Daniels added that funds from the American Rescue Plan Act helped offset additional costs. Funding for the Board of Education, Harbor Brook flood control work and enterprise funds for water and sewer were exempt from the spending cap calculation.
The 2026 expenditure represents a $36 million commitment for capital improvement spending and calls for $4.5 million in net city costs when grants are factored. The cap is 2.5% of the prior year’s general fund revenue or $5,071,555.
More than 70% of the costs cover seven projects over several years, Daniels said. The capital improvement budget contains the funds allocated for all capital projects in a given year.
Of the $36 million, $5.8 million will go toward continuing the West Main Street bridge replacements, $5.4 million for almost a mile of a critical sewer main replacement, $4.4 million of annual road resurfacing, $3 million to replace a Carpenter Avenue water storage tank cover, $2.9 million for required lead service line inventory, $2.4 million to replace a ladder truck within 3 to 4 years and $2 million to finish the Edison Middle School roof.
The funds aren’t spent until the projects are authorized and ready to begin.
The capital improvement plan eliminated $25 million included in fiscal year 2025 for a senior center. The proposed senior center at 116 Cook Ave. has been delayed until at least 2027.
City Councilor Dan Brunet questioned the exclusions from the spending cap and whether the numbers represented a true picture of the city’s obligations.
“It seems like there are so many things excluded, I’m not sure where we’re going with this,” Brunet said. Some of this “was included in the cap. Our debt service has gone up every year.”
Brunet said the city’s debt service has increased to 7% for the past several years and called for consistency in calculating the city’s debt.
Daniels said that regardless of where the expenditures fall within the budget, they still need to be paid. For instance, a police cruiser or firetruck may not appear in the capital improvement budget, but it will show up in the police or fire budget line. A school boiler replacement could show up in the Board of Education budget.
He said he and Finance Director Kevin McNabola would prepare a more thorough review of the prior calculations and projections.
Department heads from the public works and facilities departments presented the numbers behind the requests. The Meriden Public Library also requested $20,000 to repair window leaks in a portion of the library that was not part of a 2023 $13 million renovation.
Library board members faced some backlash on the request.
“It’s an embarrassment,” said City Councilor Bob Williams.
Of the $233,072,991 total spending plan, 3.88% comes from increases in seven categories of expenses over which the city and the Board of Education have no control, Daniels recently told city councilors.
Those drivers include $2.6 million in city and BOE health insurance increases, $2.1 million more in salaries and benefits and $1.3 million in debt service on 2024's bonds.
Hearings on Daniels' $233 million budget proposal will continue through March before a public hearing set for 5:30 p.m. on April 14.
Park or artwalk? Business owner proposes art tourism site for Capehart Mill: What happens now?
The City of Norwich wants to turn the Capehart Mill site into a public park. However, a developer who owns an adjacent property, the former Atlantic Packaging site, says the city will miss out on an economic opportunity if that is done.
Evan Blum wants to buy and merge the Capehart Mill site with his property to develop it into an art tourism site with an artwalk among the ruins, multiple restaurants, a marketplace, a theater, a smaller park space, and space for a solar panel manufacturer. This plan includes the Shawmut Diner building he brought to Norwich in August.
But Norwich officials are not interested in Blum's plan.
On Feb. 3, The Norwich City Council approved the city's purchase of the Capehart Mill property from A Foot of Fifth for $1. A Foot of Fifth would then pay the city $800,000 "to offset sums owed as a consequence of any liens or encumbrances."
The sale closed on Thursday, March 27, according to Norwich Community Development Corporation President Kevin Brown.
Blum's primary business is Demolition Depot and Irreplaceable Artifacts in New York, which reclaims antiques and architectural features from demolition sites to sell to wealthy clients and film and TV productions. With his clientele, he estimates his plans to redevelop the Norwich site could bring in 5,000 to 10,000 visitors a week, create hundreds of jobs, and spur further investment in Norwich.
Blum and Brown have met to discuss his current property and the future of the Capehart property. Blum said showed Brown a book full of ruins that have been turned into attractions and gave him the artwalk pitch. Brown declined Blum’s plan, Blum said.
Blum's idea is unique, but not effectively planned, Brown said.
"If he came to me with a viable solution, and had a compelling ask, I'd be the first one to work with him," Brown said.
Brown and other city officials are also concerned about Brum's plan because of the condition of his property, the former Atlantic Packaging site.
"We've not said no to him on these ideas he's floated on Facebook and in other places, but I don't know if he has the means to do it," Building Official Dan Coley said.
With Irreplaceable Artifacts, Blum hasn't taken the steps to get the permits to convert it from a factory to a storage building. The warehouse's sprinkler system isn't running "which is a major problem when you have that much stuff inside there," said Coley.
The Shawmut Diner building is also sagging, Coley said.
"When we've talked to him, he's a nice guy, but he hasn't followed through with anything we've asked him," he said.
Blum’s complaints about the city’s plans
Blum claims they hadn't given him a fair shot at explaining the plan. So now he is seeking public support for his plan, so the City of Norwich will talk with him about his plan. If this effort doesn’t work, he’ll consider moving his redevelopment efforts elsewhere.
Norwich is a distressed area, which Blum argues the city isn't doing enough to revitalize. A strong commitment to the arts and private investment has revitalized cities from San Francisco to New Orleans, he said.
Blum insists Norwich’s park plan wouldn't do anything about the drug and crime problems in Greeneville, and would devalue his property.
What is the state of the Capehart Mill site in Norwich?
Blum said he has worked on his concept for years including contacting the owner of the long-abandoned property.
Blum said he got the owners to do some maintenance on the property. The fires, which were arson, stopped at that point. The Norwich Fire Marshal was about to indict Foot of Fifth because of the fires that kept happening.
Blum and Foot of Fifth had planned over a year ago to give the property to Blum and provide $800,000 if he indemnified them, Blum said.
Despite Blum paying attorneys $6,000 to draft a contract, which only needed the signatures, Blum claims Brown “stole” the property from him by approaching Foot of Fifth himself, after Blum brought the Shawmut Diner building to Norwich.
“I could do it for a lot less money than they’re getting from the taxpayers, and they can return some of the money from the government for another project,” he said.
The City of Norwich has long been interested in improving the Capehart Mill property, regardless of what Blum does or doesn't do, Brown said.
Why Evan Blum thinks Capehart Mill can be saved
While the City of Norwich claims the mill can’t be salvaged, Blum insists it can still be fixed. The ruins could be turned into an attraction, like Bannerman Castle in New York, Blum said.
The Uncas Leap Heritage Site in Norwich uses a stabilized ruin, so it could be possible to do the same thing for part of the Capehart Mill. However, much of the building is too delicate or dangerous to save, as new collapses were found during Coley's visit to the property last week.
Brown says Greeneville deserves an unobstructed view of the Shetucket River. Brown expects the park in Greeneville to be similar to Red McKeon Park in Occum, in that it is well-kept and appreciated by the neighborhood.