CT Construction Digest Friday May 8, 2020
New London seeks $24.8 million to expand garage in anticipation of National Coast Guard Museum
Greg Smith
New London — The city is applying for $24.8 million in federal funds to expand its Water Street parking garage, a third try at obtaining funding for a project that would complement a $100 million National Coast Guard Museum proposed to be built across the street.
The city will seek funding from the $1 billion available through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Transportation Discretionary Grants program, which is aimed at infrastructure improvements related to transportation. Half of the available money is going to “rural” areas of fewer than 200,000 people.
Parking Director Carey Redd said the project to expand the garage by 400 spaces could be done without impacting the local budget. Federal guidelines show that grant recipients do not receive a lump-sum cash disbursement at the time of an award but must instead apply for reimbursements.
The proposed project is closely tied to the future construction of a pedestrian bridge over Water Street to connect an area at or near the garage with Union Station. The state approved nearly $20 million toward the bridge and other work associated with the museum several years ago.
The garage and pedestrian bridge projects, while independent of each other, are closely intertwined since thousands more visitors to the city each year are expected to be parking in the city’s garage and crossing Water Street to access the museum, which will be built on the waterfront behind Union Station.
The Water Street garage has 995 spaces with about 30 more in the surface lot outside. Redd has said expansion is needed not only because of the museum but also because of an increasing number of Cross Sound Ferry customers, Electric Boat employees and visitors to the train and bus stations and downtown businesses.
When asked by the City Council this week about the progress of the museum, Mayor Michael Passero said the Coast Guard Museum Association is “actually accelerating their building schedule." Administrative meetings are scheduled this month with architects and the city’s planning department for talks related to preliminary plans for the pedestrian bridge.
Passero said discussion of work on new bulkheads at Waterfront Park, one element of the project, will go before the city’s Harbor Management Commission in the near future, a “prelude to a formal application with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“There is a great deal of momentum currently behind the project,” Passero said.
The National Coast Guard Museum Association announced in January that it had raised more than $56 million for the museum. While preliminary construction was expected to start this year, the timeline remains unclear. The museum association earlier this year said it was pushing back the start of construction because of other major projects in the area, including Electric Boat’s expansion project in Groton.
A spokesman for the museum association, Drew Forster, did not answer questions related to the project timeline or fundraising efforts for this article but instead issued a statement.
“Our team at the National Coast Guard Museum Association continues to make progress on all aspects of the project, even in these challenging times,” Forster said in an email. “As an organization, we support the development and growth of downtown New London. Improvements to the parking garage are an important aspect of that growth."
The grant the city is seeking is a competitive one, evidenced by the fact that no entities in Connecticut were awarded funds in 2019. In 2018, $9.16 million was awarded to the state Department of Transportation toward a $22.9 million project to upgrade five elevators and 17 escalators at the Stamford Transportation Center. Projects are rated on a host of criteria that include local or regional impact. Applications are due this month with award notifications expected in September.
UI challenged on delay in cleanup of English Station site in New Haven
Mary E. O’Leary
Infrastructure is typically a reliable source of business for companies like Martin Marietta and Vulcan Materials, which provide construction materials like cement, asphalt and gravel, as well as engineering firms like AECOM and Jacobs Engineering. That could be less of a certainty for some time as losses in fuel-tax revenue hit state and federal budgets.
Greg Smith
New London — The city is applying for $24.8 million in federal funds to expand its Water Street parking garage, a third try at obtaining funding for a project that would complement a $100 million National Coast Guard Museum proposed to be built across the street.
The city will seek funding from the $1 billion available through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Transportation Discretionary Grants program, which is aimed at infrastructure improvements related to transportation. Half of the available money is going to “rural” areas of fewer than 200,000 people.
Parking Director Carey Redd said the project to expand the garage by 400 spaces could be done without impacting the local budget. Federal guidelines show that grant recipients do not receive a lump-sum cash disbursement at the time of an award but must instead apply for reimbursements.
The proposed project is closely tied to the future construction of a pedestrian bridge over Water Street to connect an area at or near the garage with Union Station. The state approved nearly $20 million toward the bridge and other work associated with the museum several years ago.
The garage and pedestrian bridge projects, while independent of each other, are closely intertwined since thousands more visitors to the city each year are expected to be parking in the city’s garage and crossing Water Street to access the museum, which will be built on the waterfront behind Union Station.
The Water Street garage has 995 spaces with about 30 more in the surface lot outside. Redd has said expansion is needed not only because of the museum but also because of an increasing number of Cross Sound Ferry customers, Electric Boat employees and visitors to the train and bus stations and downtown businesses.
When asked by the City Council this week about the progress of the museum, Mayor Michael Passero said the Coast Guard Museum Association is “actually accelerating their building schedule." Administrative meetings are scheduled this month with architects and the city’s planning department for talks related to preliminary plans for the pedestrian bridge.
Passero said discussion of work on new bulkheads at Waterfront Park, one element of the project, will go before the city’s Harbor Management Commission in the near future, a “prelude to a formal application with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“There is a great deal of momentum currently behind the project,” Passero said.
The National Coast Guard Museum Association announced in January that it had raised more than $56 million for the museum. While preliminary construction was expected to start this year, the timeline remains unclear. The museum association earlier this year said it was pushing back the start of construction because of other major projects in the area, including Electric Boat’s expansion project in Groton.
A spokesman for the museum association, Drew Forster, did not answer questions related to the project timeline or fundraising efforts for this article but instead issued a statement.
“Our team at the National Coast Guard Museum Association continues to make progress on all aspects of the project, even in these challenging times,” Forster said in an email. “As an organization, we support the development and growth of downtown New London. Improvements to the parking garage are an important aspect of that growth."
The grant the city is seeking is a competitive one, evidenced by the fact that no entities in Connecticut were awarded funds in 2019. In 2018, $9.16 million was awarded to the state Department of Transportation toward a $22.9 million project to upgrade five elevators and 17 escalators at the Stamford Transportation Center. Projects are rated on a host of criteria that include local or regional impact. Applications are due this month with award notifications expected in September.
UI challenged on delay in cleanup of English Station site in New Haven
Mary E. O’Leary
NEW HAVEN — The delay in cleaning up the polluted, defunct English Station site by the United Illuminating Co. continues because it has failed, among other things, to get approval from the newest owner.
That was part of the message from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Lori Saliby, supervising environmental analyst with DEEP, that was shared Tuesday with city officials and environmental advocates.The message comes at the same time that the Fair Haven Community Management Team continues to advocate for a more comprehensive cleanup by the utility that would expand it to the Mill River.
Remediation of the 9-acre site, agreed to in a 2015 partial consent order, is already three years behind schedule.
Saliby wrote that “DEEP has conditionally approved all Remedial Action Plans as to Parcel A,” the site of the older power plant closest to Grand Avenue.
“UI has not begun work in part, because they have not yet met the condition of getting site owner approval of their plans and in part because DEEP has not approved their contractor plans and specs because they do not match with the approved Remedial Action Plans,” Saliby wrote in the email.
She added that there “is also an issue between UI and their contractor.”
Steve Fontana, deputy economic development director with the city of New Haven, in an email to environmental activist Aaron Goode, said the delay is not because of any lockdown of construction work by the city amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He said construction work is continuing on two major projects, the Epimoni/AdamAmerica site for new apartments at 87 Union St. and the Hines project for housing at 630/673 Chapel St., the former Comcast building and across the street adjacent to the Smoothie Building.
In November, after city residents expressed their dismay in a public hearing on the delayed cleanup, DEEP said the agency had issued a notice of violation to United Illuminating for failing to complete various aspects of the consent order and it rejected the company’s revised schedule.
“UI continues to work with its regulator, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, to ensure that the project progresses in keeping with the Partial Consent Order. UI remains committed to fulfilling its obligations under the PCO, and will proceed with DEEP’s consent and authorization at every step along the way,” Edward Crowder, spokesman for UI, wrote in an email.
He said soil remediation, as outlined in the Remedial Action Plan with DEEP, “has not begun as we have not been able to secure the site owner’s approval of the plans, which is a condition of DEEP’s approval.”
Crowder said UI does not comment on “contractor relationships. As with every complex project, UI must manage relationships with contractors in accordance with the terms of the contracts.
“There has been no impact on the work at the site from the effects of the COVID-19 lock down. UI has maintained security at the site including the use of cameras,” Crowder wrote.
He characterized the remediation as an “active project, and work may be ongoing even when there is no visible activity at the site.”
Goode said a bad hurricane season is predicted for the state this year and he fears a category 4 hurricane washing over Ball Island would push all that contamination into the Mill River.
UI has contested a proposed order from DEEP to take responsibility for cleaning up the river. DEEP has said the discussion about the river will move forward as the cleanup work progresses.
Another source of pollution is the Southern Connecticut Gas Co., which is on the west side of the river, according to a 2017 consent order between UIL Holding Corp., United Illuminating Co.’s parent company, and DEEP.
The owner of the English Station property is Haven River Properties, a limited liability company based in Queens, N.Y. The company acquired the property at 510 Grand Ave. for $1 from a Spring Valley, N.Y., limited liability company, Pacific Atlantic.
The United Illuminating Co. operated English Station for 63 years before shutting it down in 1992. It hasn’t owned it since 2000, but it agreed to pay at least $30 million to clean it as part of an arrangement that allowed the company to be acquired by Iberdrola.
Crowder said he had not received the letter from the management, but issued a statement after getting a copy from the Register.
“UI and SCG remain fully engaged with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other authorities that govern environmental matters and our businesses, generally, and will continue to comply with applicable laws and regulations. UI and SCG value our relationships with the municipalities we serve and will continue to work with the New Haven community to keep them informed about our activities as they progress,” Crowder wrote.
The community management team letter details what it would like to see done to make the water resources around the site usable.
Number one is a comprehensive cleanup of the Mill River so it is safe for fishing, crabbing and swimming.
“All of these activities are happening now in the polluted river. We request Iberdola and its subsidiaries to enter into a full consent order to clean up their respective properties. The standards should be set by CT DEEP, after it undertakes a thorough ‘scoping’ process with the New Haven community,” the letter reads.
Next it wants remediation of soils and historic structures on these sites.
“While the clean up of Ball Island is under way — it is painfully slow,” it wrote. Ball Island is the name of the site where English Station was built.
The management team said it wants English Station and the Southern Connecticut Gas plant “to be made safe from re-polluting the river for eternity. The standard of clean up must account for, at minimum, the predicted three-foot rise in sea level being caused by global warming.”
It requests that the historical English Station power plant and the historical structures owned by Southern Connecticut Gas be preserved.
The neighborhood group also wants residents to have “meaningful public access to the river” for recreation and fishing.
“Fair Haven is a park-poor community, making access to clean, safe, open space (is) a primary public need. Expanded public access and safe areas for recreation will support the physical and mental health of residents,” the community group wrote.
Its last request is creation of a fund “to support community health and development. Unless the investment in environmental remediation work is paired with significant community investment, the long legacy of air, land, and water pollution, and the disparities in health outcomes and economic opportunities will persist even after environmental remediation work is completed.”
The utility, which has merged with Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant, razed that building earlier this year.
The expected shortfall in fuel-tax revenue doesn’t bode well for companies that supply and build roads
More than one observer—including President Trump himself—has noted that America’s coronavirus lockdowns are an ideal time to fix the roads. It would be killing two birds with one stone: avoiding traffic jams and providing jobs during a surge in unemployment. Sadly, the exact opposite might happen in many states, punishing private-sector companies.Infrastructure is typically a reliable source of business for companies like Martin Marietta and Vulcan Materials, which provide construction materials like cement, asphalt and gravel, as well as engineering firms like AECOM and Jacobs Engineering. That could be less of a certainty for some time as losses in fuel-tax revenue hit state and federal budgets.
After recording its most profitable year in 2019, Martin Marietta on Tuesday withdrew full-year guidance, paused share repurchases and reduced its estimate for annual capital expenditures by up to 32%, bracing for potential impact. Infrastructure is the largest user of Martin Marietta’s aggregates—materials like sand and gravel—on a dollar-for-dollar basis, and the company had been counting on healthy state budgets to deliver more business this year. Its chief executive remained optimistic about the possibility of government intervention and said infrastructure is still its most resilient segment.
While it is known that government revenue is taking a big hit from the economic downturn, the impact on infrastructure spending is more immediate and direct: Miles driven and gallons pumped are what drive funding through fixed taxes. The week ending April 3 saw the lowest motor gasoline consumption—measured as product supplied—since the U.S. Energy Information Administration started tracking that number in 1991.
The industry hopes the federal government will step in to make up the shortfall, but that isn’t guaranteed and it still might not be enough. The federal government accounts for roughly a quarter of all public spending on roads and highways; the remainder comes from states and local governments, according to the Tax Policy Center.
States typically fund their share through taxes and fees collected on car or road usage, including fuel tax, highway-use tax and fees from their respective Departments of Motor Vehicles. The balance comes from the federal government, with highways and mass transit funded through the Highway Trust Fund. The fund had to be given a lifeline five years ago because of its unsustainable design: the tax rates—fixed in terms of cents per gallon—hadn’t been increased since 1993.
That lifeline—the so-called FAST Act—is due to expire on Sept 30. AASHTO has said in a statement that there is “no clear pathway in sight” to renew it. The association is also asking Congress for $50 billion in emergency assistance to states, spread over the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years.
Infrastructure stimulus is getting a lot of attention and would alleviate the shortfalls, if passed. There is bipartisan disagreement over how to pay for it, though. The current crisis could spur a compromise, but one also has to keep in mind that the infrastructure bill is a can that has been kicked down the road since Trump was elected in 2016.
Traffic volume will recover as states begin to ease lockdown measures. That won’t make up for lost miles or mend transportation agencies’ budgetary holes. On the bright side, construction companies may be reassured by the fact that U.S. infrastructure is still graded D+. There is no question they have work ahead of them—the question is when.
U.S. Department of Labor Publishes 11 New Translations of OSHA Poster To Help Prevent Workplace Coronavirus Exposure
While it is known that government revenue is taking a big hit from the economic downturn, the impact on infrastructure spending is more immediate and direct: Miles driven and gallons pumped are what drive funding through fixed taxes. The week ending April 3 saw the lowest motor gasoline consumption—measured as product supplied—since the U.S. Energy Information Administration started tracking that number in 1991.
State departments of transportation are projecting at least a 30% decline in transportation revenues on average for the next 18 months, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or AASHTO. That funding shortfall could last a while.
States typically fund their share through taxes and fees collected on car or road usage, including fuel tax, highway-use tax and fees from their respective Departments of Motor Vehicles. The balance comes from the federal government, with highways and mass transit funded through the Highway Trust Fund. The fund had to be given a lifeline five years ago because of its unsustainable design: the tax rates—fixed in terms of cents per gallon—hadn’t been increased since 1993.
That lifeline—the so-called FAST Act—is due to expire on Sept 30. AASHTO has said in a statement that there is “no clear pathway in sight” to renew it. The association is also asking Congress for $50 billion in emergency assistance to states, spread over the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years.
Infrastructure stimulus is getting a lot of attention and would alleviate the shortfalls, if passed. There is bipartisan disagreement over how to pay for it, though. The current crisis could spur a compromise, but one also has to keep in mind that the infrastructure bill is a can that has been kicked down the road since Trump was elected in 2016.
Traffic volume will recover as states begin to ease lockdown measures. That won’t make up for lost miles or mend transportation agencies’ budgetary holes. On the bright side, construction companies may be reassured by the fact that U.S. infrastructure is still graded D+. There is no question they have work ahead of them—the question is when.
U.S. Department of Labor Publishes 11 New Translations of OSHA Poster To Help Prevent Workplace Coronavirus Exposure
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has translated and published its “Ten Steps All Workplaces Can Take to Reduce Risk of Exposure to Coronavirus” poster in 11 additional languages.
Currently available in English and Spanish, the poster highlights 10 infection prevention measures every employer should implement to protect workers’ safety and health during the coronavirus pandemic. Safety measures include encouraging sick workers to stay home; establishing flexible worksites and staggered work shifts; discouraging workers from using other workers’ phones, desks and other work equipment; and using Environmental Protection Agency-approved cleaning chemicals from List N or that have label claims against the coronavirus.
The poster is available for download in the following languages:
The additional translations are OSHA’s latest effort to educate and protect America’s workers and employers during the coronavirus pandemic. In response to President Trump’s action to increase the availability of general use respirators, OSHA has issued a series of guidance documents that expand access to respirators in the workplace. OSHA has also published Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19, its guidance aimed at helping workers and employers learn about ways to protect themselves and their workplaces during the ongoing pandemic.
Visit OSHA’s coronavirus webpage frequently for updates. For further information about coronavirus, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to help ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.
The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
Currently available in English and Spanish, the poster highlights 10 infection prevention measures every employer should implement to protect workers’ safety and health during the coronavirus pandemic. Safety measures include encouraging sick workers to stay home; establishing flexible worksites and staggered work shifts; discouraging workers from using other workers’ phones, desks and other work equipment; and using Environmental Protection Agency-approved cleaning chemicals from List N or that have label claims against the coronavirus.
The poster is available for download in the following languages:
- Arabic
- Chinese Traditional
- Korean
- Tagalog
- Brazilian Portuguese
- French Creole
- Polish
- Vietnamese
- Chinese Simplified
- Hmong
- Russian
The additional translations are OSHA’s latest effort to educate and protect America’s workers and employers during the coronavirus pandemic. In response to President Trump’s action to increase the availability of general use respirators, OSHA has issued a series of guidance documents that expand access to respirators in the workplace. OSHA has also published Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19, its guidance aimed at helping workers and employers learn about ways to protect themselves and their workplaces during the ongoing pandemic.
Visit OSHA’s coronavirus webpage frequently for updates. For further information about coronavirus, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to help ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.
The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
Agency
Occupational Safety & Health Administration
Release Number
20-754-NAT
Contact: Department of Labor National Contact Center
Email