When will Stamford's Cedar Heights Road bridge be done? 12 months late, officials say. 

Brianna Gurciullo

STAMFORD — A project to replace the bridge on Cedar Heights Road is now expected to be finished in November — a year later than initially scheduled.

City Engineer Lou Casolo has said that the contractor for the “extremely complex” project, A. Vitti Excavators, has needed to submit plans for handling the flow of the Rippowam River, demolishing the more than 90-year old bridge and supporting utility lines to an inspection firm before moving from one stage of construction to the next.

Those documents have gone through multiple rounds of reviews, resulting in delays, Casolo has said.

While it was obtaining document approvals, “the contractor missed the opportunity to divert the river during low flow times of the year,” Casolo said in a recent statement.

The original completion date was Nov. 30, 2023. A. Vitti Excavators committed to working during the winter and asked for an extension to substantially complete the project by May 31 of this year. Then the date changed to June 30. 

But water handling — or “physically redirecting the river flow” so work can take place in a dry area — “was not possible due to high water flow and further delayed their ability to continue the work to complete demolition, support the existing utilities over the existing riverbed and work on the west side of the structure,” Casolo said.

Questions about the bridge’s timeline were raised by several readers and submitted to Hearst Connecticut Media’s running feature called, “What’s Up With That Place?” where you send us your questions about a property’s status, and we investigate.

As for Cedar Heights Road, the contractor is now aiming for a November completion date.

“Weather permitting, they may be able to open the bridge to traffic sooner,” Casolo said. 

The flow of the river has receded, he said, and A. Vitti Excavators was able to redirect the water and install a work platform so workers for Frontier Communications could start the process of relocating telecommunication lines.

Cedar Heights Road, which is just south of the Merritt Parkway, has been closed to thru traffic during the project. A detour takes cars along High Ridge Road and Wire Mill Road, where another bridge is in line for construction. 

Casolo has said that work on that bridge can’t start until the Cedar Heights Road bridge, which is part of the Wire Mill Road project’s detour route, is open.

He previously told The Stamford Advocate that about 3,800 vehicles passed over the Cedar Heights bridge on a daily basis before it closed.

Eversource upgrades gas lines on Danbury's Main Street, with repaving work planned for July

Michael Gagne

DANBURY — Motorists who have driven in the areas around Main Street and Rose Street during non-rush-hour times recently have been greeted by partial road closures, due to Eversource’s ongoing construction projects to upgrade and replace gas lines in the city. 

Along Main Street, the Eversouce crews replaced “the existing cast iron pipe between Rose and Boughton streets with newer plastic pipe, which is safer, more durable and better able to handle fluctuations in underground temperatures and will also enhance gas reliability for customers,” according to utility spokesperson Jamie Ratliff. 

The utility provider is working closely with the city of Danbury and the Connecticut Department of Transportation on the project, “and our work will be complete in June to meet DOT's schedule for their planned work along Main Street," Ratliff said. 

That planned work includes what Danbury Public Works Director Antonio Iadarola described as “minor restoration work,” including sidewalk surfaces and temporary patching of the street surface “to assure the Memorial Day parade route is safe for pedestrian use." 

Then DOT will take over the project. Iadarola said that under the current schedule for Main Street, DOT is scheduled to mill the street surface on June 28 and pave it on July 11. 

“A preconstruction meeting is scheduled on June 13 for this work and an update will be given after the meeting,” Iadarola said. 

And that’s not the only gas work to be completed on Main Street. Additional work along Kennedy Avenue and Rose Street to upgrade the system to a high pressure main is also underway. 

Officials expected Eversource to complete the Main Street portion of this work this week “with temporary patching of the street surface and sidewalk areas taking place to assure a safe route for Memorial Day parade marchers and viewers,” Iadarola said. 

The Rose Street bridge, where Eversource is installing a gas main, meanwhile, will remain closed off by Jersey barriers, but “will not interfere with the Memorial Day parade staging area,” he told Hearst Connecticut Media. 

Meanwhile on Triangle Street, the rightmost northbound lane in front of the Eversource substation remains closed, with work ongoing at that substation. Traffic has been bypassed to maintain traffic flow in both directions, according to Iadorola. 

“Work will continue through the first part of June, with scheduled completion of this work by mid-month,” he said. “All lanes will be reopened and the bypass area will be removed and the shoulder area restored.”

Other Eversource projects are planned for later this year in Danbury. A second phase of the utility company’s gas main installation is planned on West Street, from Williams Street to Main Street. The utility company also plans to install new gas mains on Bergh, Hakim and Staple streets.

Fairfield to close part of Riverside Drive as crews rebuild culverts, tide gates to limit floods

Jarrod Wardwell

FAIRFIELD — Part of Riverside Drive will shut down for more than a year in the coming months as construction crews rebuild coastal infrastructure that keeps floodwaters in check.

Fairfield Engineering Manager Bill Hurley said the town will launch a more than $5.5 million project this summer to replace the tide gates and pipes that channel water under the Riverside Drive bridge between Ash and Turney creeks. He said Fairfield will cordon off the east side of Riverside Drive between the Shoreham Terrace and Bay Edge Court intersections through the project's 15- to 18-month duration, rerouting vehicles onto Post Road. 

Pipes known as culverts form holes in the Riverside Drive bridge and allow water to pass through self-regulating tide gates, which typically open based on water levels.

A 2018 report by engineering consultant Tighe & Bond references five culverts in the bridge, three of which date back to 1973 on the northeastern side facing Ash Creek. Those three were 84 inches in diameter, and the other two spanned 48 inches, the report states.

The culvert system protects the Riverside Drive neighborhood from flooding during high tides and coastal storms and offers the primary outlet for a watershed that fills about 2.4 square miles, according to the report. The report states Turney Creek continues from the bridge for about 3,000 feet past the Riverside Drive bridge before dipping underground and reaching up to the Fairfield Woods neighborhood, where it drains part of the Grasmere Brook watershed.

Hurley said the culvert also allows salt water moving upstream to kill phragmites, an invasive type of reed. 

"The proper design and construction of a new culvert and tide gate structure at Turney Creek is crucial to protecting the Riverside Drive neighborhood from both coastal and inland flood events," the report reads.

A 2016 study of Fairfield's tide gates and bulkheads identified the Turney Creek infrastructure as the top priority for replacement because of its deterioration and position to control flooding, according to Tighe & Bond.

Hurley said the tide gates were in "very poor shape," and one was not functioning. He said the bridge is in fair to poor condition, and the town decided to rebuild it since it was already due for replacement in five years.

Hurley said the replacement project will also update sewer siphon infrastructure that shuttles water underground to improve its capacity. 

He said construction should start after the town finishes relocating utilities around the project site. 

Apartment project near Dunkin' Park clears key hurdle, will bring 269 units to CT's capital city

Liese Klein

HARTFORD — Funding secured, developer Randy Salvatore is moving ahead with plans to build a new mixed-use complex on the edge of downtown Hartford, confident that the demand for rental apartments in the capital city remains strong.

A financing package to redevelop the former RPI campus near Dunkin’ Park won key approval on Wednesday, and work has begun to transform the 12.7-acre site at 275 Windsor St. into a mixed-use complex with an initial plan for 269 new apartments. 

“Once we have a clean site, then we’re ready to go,” Salvatore said.

Key to ramping up the RPI project was a $3 million loan approved by the Capital Region Development Authority board on Wednesday. The authority agreed to secure the funds through the state bond commission in coming months and lend the money to Salvatore’s RMS Companies at a 3 percent interest rate for five years.

The loan is meant to offset the $3.8 million that RMS paid for the long-vacant RPI property last year. 

First on the agenda for the RPI site is demolishing the main eight-story classroom building, which is apparently riddled with the pollutants common to 1970s-era structures. Initial cleanup has been done to remediate contaminants and pre-demolition work will start within weeks, Salvatore said. 

“By the end of the summer, the building should be down,” Salvatore said.

The 459-space parking structure on the property remains in good condition and will stay, Salvatore said, and pointed out the garage is currently generating revenue for the city.

Salvatore’s RMS Companies is also developing a mixed-use complex a block away and across the street from Dunkin’ Park, on a parcel occupied by a surface parking lot until earlier this year. Huge mounds of dirt sit on the property as contractors complete initial work to set foundations. That project is slated to bring to market 500 new apartments and retail space eyed for a much-needed grocery store. That project and the RPI project will be built in tandem, Salvatore said. 

Salvatore said he’s confident that demand remains strong for rental apartments in Hartford, citing the strong leasing numbers for his Pennant complex near Dunkin’ Park and his newest completed project — the conversion of parts of the former Hilton Hotel into affordable rentals.

About 60 of the 147 rental units in the new Revel complex inside the hotel have been leased only months after going on the market, Salvatore said. Rents for mini-studios at the Revel start as low as $1,150 a month.

In New Haven, Salvatore’s company is also set to finish up the final phase of his City Crossing development near Yale New Haven Hospital in coming months, adding more rental housing to that city’s downtown.  

Salvatore said he is aiming to get tenants into the new complex across from Dunkin’ Park in Hartford in as soon as 18 months, hoping to capitalize on the city’s hot housing market that has seen rents nearly double in some areas.

“We’re trying to go as fast as we can,” Salvatore said. “There’s such demand in the market right now.”

Pawcatuck theater developer proposes expansion of $80M project

Carrie Czerwinski

Stonington ― In a new application to the Planning and Zoning Commission, READCO of Old Lyme and its development partner TRIO have proposed a revision of the master plan for the former Hoyt’s/Regal Cinema property on Route 2.

READCO plans to expand its Pawcatuck theater redevelopment project by adding six adjacent properties, 108 more apartments and demolishing the theater and bank buildings on the site.

“We’re actually coming back with a larger, better project,” said Jeremy Browning, partner and managing director of TRIO Properties Inc., a Glastonbury development and management real estate services firm, on Thursday.

READCO, which has owned the property since 1995, built the theater there along with a Stop & Shop supermarket, McDonald’s restaurant, bank and Stonington Medical Center offices.

The commission unanimously approved a zone change to Neighborhood Design District for the property in February, which allowed the developer to move forward on a project to repurpose the property as a recreational pickleball center, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 124 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The change to a floating zone Neighborhood Design District provides the commission with a great deal of discretion about various aspects of the project, which Browning said was anticipated to cost between $70 million and $80 million.

According to the application, received earlier this month, READCO intends to add six properties to the zone, including the Stop & Shop grocery store property at 91 Voluntown Road, an abandoned single-family home at 3 Voluntown Road, and four additional vacant properties.

If approved, the developer would demolish the Berkshire Bank building and the movie theater.

“We really feel it’s a win-win,” Browning said.

Browning explained that the locations of structural support columns within the theater would not allow room for the required court dimensions for a recreational pickleball facility, and the building was far larger than needed for the sports center.

By expanding the property and demolishing the movie theater, the developer will be able to relocate the facility to the southern tip of the property near the intersection of Liberty Street and Voluntown Road and create a stand-alone clubhouse for residents.

Adjacent to the pickleball facility, the developer has also proposed a two-story, 30,000-square-foot medical office building.

“We were now able to come back with a purpose-built recreational facility that will check all those boxes in a smaller footprint, and obviously allow us to expand the project with the extra land to provide more housing as well,” he said.

The Stop & Shop and a McDonald’s restaurant on the site would remain in place, and the bank would be relocated to the mixed-use building.

Three additional apartment buildings would be added for a total of six, three-story buildings each with 36 units. With the units in the mixed-use building, the property would house 232 apartments.

The developer is applying for financing through Build4CT, an affordable housing financing program through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, which requires that 20% of units be affordable to individuals earning 80% or less of the area median income.

For a single individual, median income is $63,000 a year.

Additional planned site improvements include potential outdoor recreational facilities which may include green space, sports courts and a pool.

Browning said he anticipated the 36-month construction project would begin this summer, and said they are simultaneously pursuing site plan approval for the 124 apartments and 10,000 square foot, mixed-use building that were part of the initial application as well as the stand-alone clubhouse.

Middletown Residents Push Back on $143M Route 9 Revamp

Emilia Otte

MIDDLETOWN — Residents are urging the Common Council to request a delay from the state Department of Transportation on removing Route 9 traffic signals, citing negative economic and environmental impacts.

At a Thursday meeting, locals aired their concerns to the council for nearly three hours, discussing potential consequences to the riverfront development plan, air pollution, water quality and environmental justice questions. 

During a presentation to residents on April 30, DOT project manager Stephen Hall told residents that the traffic lights were causing a “significantly higher” number of traffic accidents compared to other parts of the highway. Hall said there had been 500 crashes and 161 injuries over the last three years, the equivalent of a crash every other day and an injury once every week.

“The goal is to improve the safety by removing those signals. However, that can’t be at the detriment of Main Street or downtown,” he said.  

The purpose of the April 30 meeting was also to gather feedback, Hall explained, and to determine what kind of environmental impact review was necessary. 

But on Thursday, Ed McKeon, a former Democratic council member, criticized the DOT for refusing to hold a public hearing and listen to residents’ concerns. 

“This approach demonstrates an arrogance of power, a misuse of authority, and a disingenuous approach to gathering public input,” McKeon said. 

The project is estimated to cost $143 million, with 80% covered by the federal government and 20% covered by the state. If the design is approved by the end of this year, construction could begin as early as 2027 and would take approximately four years.  

Only the chief executive of a town is required to approve the plan, and residents at the Thursday meeting criticized Mayor Ben Florsheim for his absence.

According to the DOT website, discussions about removing the traffic lights near Middletown began in the early 2000s. Before the April 30 presentation, Florsheim noted that his plan had developed differently than previous ones. 

“What I think that this plan has done is go back to the drawing board [and] try to make Route 9 operate better as a road through the center of Middletown, to try to slow traffic down in a way that is organic and safe,” he said. 

At the April forum, Florsheim stated that Middletown’s Department of Public Works had multiple discussions with the Department of Transportation, exchanging feedback and gathering resident input on the plan. He did not respond to CT Examiner’s request for additional comment.

The Middlesex Chamber of Commerce has also endorsed the plan. But council members seemed less certain. 

On Thursday, council President Eugene Nocera told CT Examiner that he intends to meet with members next week to discuss asking the DOT to pause its public comment deadline of May 31 and address some of the residents’ concerns at an additional forum. 

“You can hear from tonight’s presentation, there still remain a lot of questions. Very important questions,” Nocera said. “This is a very, very well-informed community.”

Minority Leader Linda Salafia said she agreed with taking a pause. 

“I hate to say it, but for 40 years they’ve been doing this,” she said. “I don’t think that it’s going to work.” 

Residents’ concerns

Residents were particularly concerned about a proposed exit from Route 9 northbound leading to a three-leg roundabout on River Road. 

McKeon said the exit location — the former Omo Manufacturing Site — contains hazardous materials that have yet to be cleaned up. The site is adjacent to Sumner Brook, which flows into the Connecticut River. 

The site is also located in a flood plain, which will require the DOT to unearth soil from an area along the riverbank large enough to catch any floodwater before it reaches the roundabout. In his presentation, Hall stated that the “cut” would go largely unnoticed, despite residents pointing out that it would affect the same area designated for outdoor educational facilities in the riverfront master plan.

“This roundabout is sized properly to handle any size highway vehicle and does a tremendous job of naturally reducing speeds and improving safety,” Hall said.

But residents questioned the impact the exit would have on Middletown’s plans to redevelop the waterfront, which includes creating spaces for restaurants, parks, walking trails and boat docks. 

“I would call going from zero cars at this spot to 4,500 cars a day an adverse effect, especially when you consider that River Road is where we were hoping to build a tranquil, pedestrian-oriented path and park along the waterfront,” said Jennifer Alexander, the owner of Kid City on Washington Street. “It’s right by the Peterson Oil property where we pictured an outdoor music venue. That just can’t happen at a spot where trucks are coming off a highway into a rotary.” 

In addition to the new exit, the project will reconfigure the exit from Hartford Avenue to Route 9, creating a northbound and southbound on-ramp and eliminating the left turn from Route 9 North onto Hartford Avenue. Rapallo Avenue would become a one-way street. The plan also includes a pedestrian bridge over the highway connecting the downtown to the riverfront. 

Alexander and other residents also criticized the department for not doing more to make the existing intersections in Middletown safer in the short-term. 

“I feel like the DOT is like a hammer where … everything looks like a nail. The DOT is looking at our situation and their solution is big, expensive construction projects — $143 million. Imagine what we could do with $143 million to simply make the existing intersections more safe,” resident Kate Ten Eyck said.

Barry Chernoff, a wetlands scientist and professor of environmental studies at Wesleyan University, recommended that the DOT conduct an environmental impact assessment, and said that the area near Sumner Brook functioned as a wetland. He also expressed concerns about the effects the new roundabout could have on water quality, as the pumping stations for Middletown Water were located adjacent to that site. 

McKeon said the new exit would shift more cars onto the streets in the North End of Middletown and place Route 9 close to Walnut Street and Maplewood Terrace — areas that are disproportionately low-income. 

“It transfers noise and pollution to at-risk neighborhoods on DeKoven, Rapallo, Portland Street, Bridge Street, and it shunts traffic through the North End. It harms vulnerable neighborhoods where people of color and people struggling financially live,” McKeon said. 

Multiple residents shared how they valued Middletown’s walkability, and said they feared the impact of increased traffic within the city on pedestrian safety. Alexander said having more cars driving on Main Street or DeKoven Drive could hurt downtown businesses.  

“Economic development on a traditional main street is a tricky thing. It requires slow enough travel speed, about 20 to 25 miles an hour, so that people can easily see the storefronts, and a pace where diagonal parking is safe and convenient — not like where you feel like you’ll be trapped because there’s constant backup behind you once you park,” she said. “Main Street does not need an influx of cars who don’t want to be there, the kind that’s trying to get through each light as quickly as they can.”

Diane Gervais, owner of Amato’s Toy and Hobby on Main, said the plan would make businesses less accessible, decrease the appeal of dining outdoors at restaurants and devalue local neighborhoods. She said that her family had to close the store they operated in New Britain after another highway construction project disrupted the city’s downtown. 

“We will lose most of our access to and from Route 9. Our downtown streets will be forced to take on the burden of the traffic that has historically been on Route 9. The walkability of our downtown will be minimized. Our businesses will suffer. Eventually, our tax base will erode and we will become another statistic like New Britain, Manchester, Meriden, Hartford and countless others,” Gervais said.

Catherine Johnson, an urban architect and Democratic member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, suggested that the DOT focus more on expanding public transit options rather than “monkeying around with exits onto city streets.”

 “The problem is, here in Middletown, the DOT is treating us like a highway that inconveniently has a downtown bordering it. But we’re a downtown … that happens to have a highway travel through it. It needs its own civilized way of passing through,” she said.

State Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, who also attended the meeting, told CT Examiner he planned to meet with the DOT “in the near future.” He agreed with Florsheim that this version of the project differed from past attempts. 

“It’s always difficult to get 100% of a community on board with any kind of infrastructure projects,” he said. “It’s my hope to continue to work with the community to make sure we get this right.”

As a Middletown resident, Lesser said he also had questions about the project’s implications for quality of life in the city. 

“I’m trying to get my head around it and listen to smart people who I trust in the community,” he said.

In response to questions about the riverfront redevelopment project, traffic in the North End neighborhood, the exit’s location and potential negative effects on the downtown, DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan told CT Examiner that the issues “have been answered and addressed in the previous public meetings and forums we’ve held this year.”

Morgan said the people who attended the April 30 forum were able to ask questions and “had their comments entered into the record.”

The DOT will be accepting public comment on the proposal until May 31. 

Ex-CT Deputy Budget Director Diamantis linked to bribery scheme years after Torrington courthouse project

BRIGITTE RUTHMAN

TORRINGTON – Former Connecticut deputy budget director Kosta Diamantis wasn’t yet part of an alleged extortion and bribery scheme involving school projects when the masonry company he is accused of gaining contracts for in exchange for kickbacks went to work on the city’s new county courthouse 10 years ago.

Diamantis, 67, is accused by the FBI of extorting private contractors into paying him thousands of dollars in bribes as the director of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review.

A lawyer and former state representative, Diamantis posted a $500,000 bond following his arrest on 22 charges, including extortion, bribery, conspiracy and making false statements from 2018 to 2021. He is alleged to have demanded and received tens of thousands of dollars in payments in exchange for directing work on large state-funded construction projects.

Federal authorities also said three executives with two private contractors – one the masonry business and the other a construction management firm – entered not guilty pleas two weeks ago to conspiring to bribe Diamantis.

The 35-page indictment offered electronic communications to demonstrate the link between Diamantis and Salvatore Monarca and John Duffy, the president and vice president of Acranom Masonry Enterprises in Middlefield. The firm was picked as a subcontractor in the two and-a-half-year, $92 million project on Field Street in the city constructed by KBE Building Corp., which has offices in Farmington.

Acranom also worked on a school project in Tolland for which Diamantis is said to have received money.

In its portfolio of projects, Acranom lists the Litchfield Courthouse saying construction required 282,000 bricks while working with the KBE Corp. The project began in 2014 and was completed in 2017.

Diamantis made it clear through messages that he expected a percentage of the contract fee.

“I am very good at what I do and always do what I say, Johnny knows,” he said of Duffy, his former brother-in-law. “And usually work at 5% of total, FYI.”

Diamantis claimed to have needed the money and fast. Despite hefty payments, the probe found that at one point his bank account was overdrawn by $276.

Both Monarca and Duffy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion. Neither could be reached for comment.

Diamantis was involved briefly with the Torrington school project, appearing once with a building committee and an architect in October of 2021 to discuss the $179.5 million build, but left after receiving a phone call, Committee Co-Chair Edward Arum said. It was when Gov. Ned Lamont’s office said steps were taken to remove him from his government jobs in light of ethical improprieties, including the school projects role he was hired for in 2015 by former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Money is also said to have changed hands for projects in Hartford, Tolland and New Britain, according to the indictment.

Courthouse construction projects, like school projects, are handled by the Department of Administrative Services.

No one at DAS could be reached for comment.

Diamantis was a state representative for parts of Bristol from 1993 to 2005 and is drawing from a $72,514-per-year state pension.