White House seeks bipartisan infrastructure push; Republicans wary

David Morgan and Jarrett 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden could find himself under pressure on Monday to prove his much-touted interest in working with Republicans in Congress, as lawmakers return from their spring break to grapple with his $2.3 trillion proposal to improve U.S. infrastructure.

The Democratic president appears to be losing political capital with a group of Senate Republicans, including Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, who may represent his best chance of enacting legislation garnering the support of both parties.

Biden's party holds slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate, meaning he can ill afford to lose Democratic votes. That has empowered and emboldened Democratic moderates such as Senator Joe Manchin who have outsize influence over the fate of Biden's ambitious legislative priorities including the infrastructure package, gun control and others.

Biden, who previously served for 36 years in the Senate, has repeated since becoming president in January his interest in collaborating with Republicans. He is expected to host Republicans and Democrats from both chambers of Congress at the White House on Monday to discuss a way forward on infrastructure.

"Even before the American Jobs Plan was announced, the President himself and White House senior staff were briefing Republican lawmakers on the proposal," said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He's enthusiastic about continuing to be in close touch with both parties about this historic investment in the backbone of the country."

But increasing numbers of Republicans are accusing Biden of having no sincere interest in working with them, saying his overtures have amounted to little more than window dressing for a go-it-alone Democratic strategy. Biden won congressional passage of a major COVID-19 relief bill without Republican support.

"The president has regrettably misled the public on every step of every piece of major legislation he has sent to Congress. The COVID bill wasn't about COVID. This infrastructure bill isn't about infrastructure," said Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee set to play a key role in the infrastructure battle.

Biden can also expect a more skeptical reception from a group of 10 Senate Republicans who met the president on the COVID-19 relief legislation in February only to have their calls to shrink the package dismissed. Democrats subsequently used a process in Congress that enabled them to pass his $1.9 trillion bill without Republican support.

The White House official noted that the COVID-19 bill was a response to a raging national crisis, adding that negotiations on the jobs and infrastructure plan would be a more deliberative process.

'NOT AN INCH'

But Biden angered 10 Senate Republicans last week by saying they had been unwilling to compromise.

"I would've been prepared to compromise, but they didn't. They didn't move an inch. Not an inch," Biden said on Wednesday.

Biden may have a hard time convincing the Republican senators he means business about bipartisanship on infrastructure.

    "That kind of bait and switch, coupled with President Biden's 'not one inch' comments, certainly made an impression on the group of 10 about where this is all going," said a Republican congressional aide close to February's bipartisan talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The administration's words ring hollow."

Biden's infrastructure bill is already a hard sell for Republicans. They object to provisions addressing climate change and boosting human services such as elder care, as well as a proposal to increase corporate taxes that had been lowered in Republican former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cut law.

Republican congressional aides have said lawmakers in their party are coalescing around a more-targeted infrastructure approach that would focus on improvements to roads, bridges, ports and broadband access and pay for itself through user fees and tax incentives.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons, one of Biden's closest congressional allies, has said several Senate Republicans could be willing to support a higher gasoline tax and a road tax on electric vehicles to fund a targeted infrastructure bill.

Top Democrats have shown no sign of willingness to scale back Biden's proposal. Coons said Biden could be willing to negotiate with Republicans through the month of May before proceeding without them.

THINKING BIG

"Always, in legislation, you always listen and you will always see where you can find common ground, but you got to think big. You can't think small when we're talking about the greatness of America," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who aims to pass Biden's package by July 4.

Republican support could be crucial. Without it, Democrats would have to rely on the parliamentary process called reconciliation that lets the 100-seat Senate pass certain legislation with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed to advance most bills.

With the Senate split 50-50, reconciliation would require the backing of all Democrats and a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris. Manchin, who represents Republican-leaning West Virginia, has put Biden and Democratic leaders on notice that he may not back using reconciliation this time after it was used to pass the COVID-19 measure.

Democrats hold a seven-seat margin in the House. Liberal Democrats have been arguing for an even-bigger infrastructure bill. Democrats from northeastern states also want to reverse Trump's cap on federal income tax deductions for state and local taxes.

(Reporting by David Morgan, additional reporting by David Shepardson and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham)

Construction Begins On Bridgeport Residential Complex

Ken Liebeskind

Construction work has begun on Canfield Park, two mid-rise five- and six-story apartment buildings across from the Fairfield Metro North Train Station in Bridgeport, Conn.

Spinnaker Real Estate of Norwalk, Conn., and Eastpointe of Fairfield, Conn., are the real estate companies partnering on the property and they secured a $68 million loan to construct the 300-unit property in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport. The companies formed a joint venture and purchased the site at 286 Canfield Ave. for $7.7 million in August.

Live Oak Contracting, Jacksonville, Fla., is the lead contractor on the job and is being assisted by M&O Construction, New Milford, Conn., which completed demolition and is currently working on initiating the site work and the foundations for the new apartment buildings.

The site housed a 50,000-sq.-ft. Showcase Cinemas multiplex with a 500-plus car parking garage, where the apartments will be constructed, according to Bryan Ring, Live Oak's project manager.

"The movie theater and parking garage were demolished and we're preparing the site for foundations, putting piles in on the smaller side and pouring foot foundations," he said. "We plan to start framing in January."

Bill Weingart, M&O Construction's general superintendent, said his company has done most of the preliminary work with the assistance of Helical Drilling of Braintree, Mass.

"We started the earth work in October and the demolition of the movie theater was finished before Christmas," he said. "We took it down along with a small corner of the two-story parking garage. Now, we're working on the foundation for the new buildings. We'll do the digging for the foundation, which will be poured with concrete."

Weingart called this stage of the job rigid inclusions. "We bore down to hard soil or bedrock that will be filled with concrete grout to support the new buildings."

He said the job is running smoothly, after a brief delay caused by a snowstorm in December. The construction equipment M&O Construction has used on the job includes Kobelco excavators with hammers and Komatsu concrete crushers, loaders and dozers, Weingart said.

The development features a five- and six-story apartment building with studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, averaging 850 sq. ft. The property also will feature more than 20,000 sq. ft. of amenity space and a parking garage with 500 spots for residents.

The amenities include a resort-style pool, a rooftop deck with grill stations and bar, a golf turf simulator, a yoga studio and a rock-climbing wall. The six-story building will feature 231 units and the five-story building will feature 69 units.

Construction is expected to be completed in December 2021 and the first units will be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.

The Sullivan Architectural Group of Milford, Conn., designed the project.

Peter Rochford, senior director of JLL Capital Markets, which arranged the loan for Spinnaker and Eastpointe, said, "The project will be highly attractive to families transitioning to a more suburban lifestyle and empty nesters downsizing from large single-family homes to modern rental properties. The Bridgeport market has seen a large influx of New York City residents since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis and this property is well positioned to benefit from the shift in renter preferences." CEG

Ideanomics sells former UConn West Hartford campus for $2.75M after plans for Fintech Village dissolve; buyer, future use of site not disclosed

Kenneth R. Gosselin 

WEST HARTFORD — The owners of the former UConn regional campus in West Hartford have agreed to sell the 58-acre site near Bishops Corner — one of the few large properties left to be developed in town — for $2.75 million, according to a regulatory filing, almost half of what they paid for it in 2018.

Ideanomics once planned a thriving technology hub for the property, touting that it had the potential to bring hundreds of high-tech jobs to Greater Hartford, but decided to sell the property after its plans for the $400 million “Fintech Village” dissolved.

In a March 31 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ideanomics said it had accepted the offer on Jan. 28 and “subsequently signed a non-binding sale contract on March 15.” The filing did not name the buyer, a timetable for closing the purchase or what the buyers intend to do with the property.

Ideanomics bought the property for $5.2 million in 2018.

John Cafasso, a broker at commercial real estate services firm Colliers International, confirmed late Friday the property was under contract, but declined to identify the buyer.

West Hartford Town Manager Matt Hart said late Friday that he assumed a “due diligence” period was now underway.

“If a sale is finalized, I’m looking forward to hearing from the buyer and learning about their plans for the site,” Hart said, in a text.

“This is a very important parcel and the town would like to have the opportunity to work with a new owner to see that the property is properly remediated and developed in a manner consistent with our” plan of conservation and development, Hart said.

Hart declined to identify the buyer, referring questions to Colliers.

Town officials have said they expect multifamily housing to figure into future redevelopment plans.

The town decided not to seek to purchase all or any part of the Asylum Avenue property, bisected by Trout Brook Drive, allowing its “right of first refusal” to expire Dec. 31 along with a maintenance agreement for the property.

The redevelopment of the former campus is viewed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to boost the town’s tax rolls. But the redevelopment has been complicated because portions of the property where many of the campus buildings now stand remain contaminated by PCBs. The cost of cleanup could figure heavily into the scope of future development.

At the end of last year, the town extended its lease another six months for the baseball fields on the property, leased by the town from UConn since the 1990s and subsequently from Ideanomics.

The town has said it hopes to work with the new owners to continue using the ballfields.

Town officials have said it is unlikely that single-family development on the campus portion of the property would be a viable option, given the costs of environmental cleanup. So, that could mean apartments as an option, which would be within walking distance of Bishops Corner.

But because the area is zoned only for single-family houses and uses such as churches, a zone change or special permit would be required. UConn, as a state entity, was exempt from local zoning.

The property was listed without a sale price in September and brought to a painful close Ideanomics’ plan for the site that was touted for its potential to bring hundreds of high-paying jobs to Greater Hartford.

$22M Upper Albany Hartford mixed-use development in Hartford in limbo

Matt Pilon  

nearly $22 million mixed-use development proposed for the corner of Woodland Street and Albany Avenue in Hartford is in limbo, after the city has questioned the developer’s project financing and overall design. 

Development Services Interim Director I. Charles Mathews has recommended the city postpone signing a land lease with developer 7 Summits Realty LLC, which had proposed building a mixed-use development at the site that would contain up to 75 mostly affordable apartments and retail space.

Mathews made that recommendation in a February memo that was reviewed Thursday by the Capital Region Development Authority, which committed $5.5 million to the project last year. 

A CRDA subcommittee voted Thursday to reserve the funds for the site in the hopes a modified project proposal — likely scaled down and with fewer apartments — emerges in the coming months. Its full board will vote to finalize the move next week.

Mathews’ decision comes after the city council had authorized the lease deal last year.

Mathews wrote that since December, “a number of issues” have surfaced that may “adversely, and materially, affect the successful completion of the proposed development project.”

That list of potential problems, according to Mathews, includes the proposed funding stack, the mix of affordable vs. market-rate units, and “the ability of some funding sources to co-exist with other proposed sources.”

The city now plans to hire a mixed-use consultant to study options for the property.

7 Summits CEO Rohan Freeman declined comment for this story.

However, in a February email to Mayor Luke Bronin, which was recently obtained by HBJ, Freeman disputed the notion that he didn’t have project financing in place.

In fact, Freeman provided a list of funding commitments totaling over $31 million, which he wrote “greatly exceeds the estimated cost of the project.”

In the email, he also said the project is ready to move forward.

“The Albany and Woodland project has been studied several times in the past, we have our own financial consultant and the community is happy with the current programming and is eager to move forward.  There’s no need to further delay the project,” he wrote. “We’re confident that we can meet a 2021 construction start date and have all the pieces of the project currently in place to accomplish this.”

Mathews did not return a request seeking comment.

Exactly how long CRDA can hold the funds is unclear. Executive Director Michael Freimuth said Thursday that the state Bond Commission, which approved the funding last year, may eventually want to repurpose the money for other needs.
Randal Davis, deputy director of development services for the city, told CRDA the site remains a priority.

“We wouldn’t ask to hold this if we didn’t think it was strategically important,” Davis said.

Offshore wind energy plans brighten State Pier’s future

Paul Choiniere

A couple of weeks ago President Biden announced a massive effort to develop offshore wind energy projects, seeing them as the key to a “clean energy revolution.”

It is a big change from the Trump administration, which was lukewarm, at best, about supporting renewable energy development and approving offshore wind-power leases. The Biden administration projects this undertaking will employ more than 44,000 workers in offshore wind by 2030 and nearly 33,000 additional jobs in communities supported by offshore wind activity.

I’m excited that hundreds of those jobs stand to be created here in southeastern Connecticut and that the port of New London could be a major player. It is ideally situated. Between the port and the proposed wind fields there are no bridges to impede the shipping of the towering wind-turbine stanchions to their destinations.

But instead of celebrating these possibilities, some critics remain fixated that this is somehow an awful thing. Yes, the Connecticut Port Authority had its scandals — extravagant use of credit cards, pals being hired, purchases that benefited people connected to the authority — but the bigger picture is that this project is good for the city, state, region and the climate.

There have been no arrests, the FBI has not knocked down any doors. Attorney General William Tong’s office is investigating whether rules were violated in the manner in which a consultant, with some connections to the port authority, was hired and compensated. But it is worth noting that Tong’s office deals with civil, not criminal, matters.

Some of the stuff being tossed out to smear the project sounds desperate.

Robert Fromer, an anti any development gadfly, contends that an operation to assemble massive offshore wind turbine parts and place them on large ships for transportation to ocean wind-power fields is not a “water-dependent use” and therefore prohibited under the state’s Coastal Management Act.

No, seriously, that is what his filing claims.

I suppose that is not terribly more outrageous than the assertions that filling the space between the parallel State Pier and the so-called railroad pier — creating a larger, far more robust cargo laydown area — would amount to an environmental disaster.

We’re not talking about filling in the saltwater marsh along Bride Brook in Rocky Neck State Park. The piers are already in a heavily industrialized area. The Thames River and the marine life that depends on it will survive.

But don’t take my word for it.

“It was determined that the environmental impacts associated with the proposed project have been minimized to the greatest extent practicable and have been found to be acceptable,” said Michael Grzywinski, who works for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Land and Water Resource Division, during a hearing on the project.

Then there are the claims that Connecticut is subsidizing the project’s development for the rich and powerful Ørsted and Eversource partnership that wants to use State Pier to serve its offshore wind projects.

Actually, the opposite is true. The private sector is subsidizing redevelopment of a state facility.

Connecticut owns State Pier. Any permanent structures or apparatus constructed there will become property of the state. It will still be a state facility when the wind-turbine projects end, but one that will be able to handle much larger, heavier, and more diverse cargo.

The project's estimated cost has inceased, about double initial estimates. In a meeting with The Day Editorial Board, Gov. Lamont placed the projected investment at around $200 million. David Kooris, chairman of the port authority board, said a specific total will be released when the board approves a construction contract.

The Ørsted/Eversource partnership will be subsidizing at least $70 million of the cost of these improvements. In addition, Gateway, as part of the deal that led to the port authority awarding it the contract as terminal operator, is committed to investing another $30 million in capital improvements, like cranes.

Ørsted/Eversource must pay the Connecticut Port Authority $1.25 million per year during the first two years of construction, and $2 million per year thereafter, for use of the facility it is helping pay to redevelop.

As a result of the planned improvements, a pier that can now handle 1,000 pounds per square foot will become a far larger facility able to handle laydowns of 3,000 pounds per square foot, with a heavy lift pad capable of handling 5,000 pounds per square foot. Along with the heavy-lift onshore cranes, this will significantly increase cargo opportunities. The port will be able to accommodate, for instance, some container shipments, which is not now the case. For the first time roll-on/roll-off ships, designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, trucks and trailers, could dock in New London.

Yes, for a decade or longer, the primary use will be supporting those wind projects. But the port will be busier than it has ever been and its future far brighter. Other cargo shipping can be accommodated during lulls in offshore wind support.

Could Connecticut and the port authority have gotten a better deal? Maybe. But the deal at hand has major corporations contributing towards redeveloping State Pier to make New London a hub for tackling the biggest challenge of our age — climate change — and in the process creating a vastly better port facility.

Not bad.

Paul Choiniere is the editorial page editor.

Major change in traffic pattern coming to Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown

Jeff Mill

PORTLAND - Traffic flow on the Arrigoni Bridge will change beginning Tuesday, as the bridge repair project enters a new phase.

The change will see traffic moved to two lanes on the north side of the bridge so that work can begin on the eastbound lanes, according to Michael Bugbee, the state Department of Transportation project engineer.

The two travel lanes will be separated by “temporary barriers” from Tuesday through to September, the estimated completion date for the Phase Three repairs to the eastbound lanes.

The overall project, which is intended to upgrade and improve the approaches to the bridge, began in February, 2020 and has a budget of some $46.8 million.

The work involves “superstructure steel upgrades and repairs, as well as substructure repairs to improve the overall structural capacity, reliability and integrity of the bridge,” the DOT said in a statement.

In addition to the improvements to the approaches, the project calls for “repairs to sidewalk and pedestrian railing deficiencies to better support integrity of the deck,” according to the state agency.

As of Friday, the project is “on schedule and on budget,” Bugbee said.

“It’s important that make your readers aware of these changes,” Portland First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield in an interview Friday morning.

“Please tell the people of Middletown, Portland and East Hampton to be aware that this will be a whole different traffic pattern and that they will need to exercise caution,” Bransfield said.

“Most of the changes are self-explanatory,” Bugbee said, “so it’s no different really from following traffic signs on the highway, so it should be safe.”

The Arrigoni Bridge, named for Charles J. Arrigoni, a member of the General Assembly first as a representative and then a senator in the years 1933-40, was built in just two years, from 1936-38.

The 1,200-foot-long through-arch bridge carries an average of 33,000 vehicles per day back and forth above the Connecticut River.

Two major roads traverse the bridge: Route 17, which links New Haven to Glastonbury, and Route 66, which runs from Meriden to Windham.

“It’s been a pleasure working with both DOT and the contractor who is actually doing the work, Mohawk,” Bransfield said, referring to Mohawk Northeast of Plantsville.

“We meet monthly with them and officials from Middletown and the (Middlesex County) chamber of commerce,” she said.

“Any problems we might have, we talk them out in those meetings,” she said.

“So far, the project ahs been a great success,” Bransfield said.

She said she thanks the DOT and Mohawk personnel who are involved in the project.

Multi-million Killingly wastewater treatment plant project nears finish

John Penney

DANIELSON — Two years after town officials held a ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of a multi-million upgrade project at the decades-old wastewater treatment plant, crews are poised to complete the work.

“The work is 90% done and we expect the project to be substantially finished by May,” Dave Capacchione, director of engineering and facilities, said on Thursday. “The project is within budget and we were able to do the work without any interruption in service.”

The two-year refurbishment project at the 50-year-old main facility off Wauregan Road focused on operational upgrades, including demolition work; replacing original parts too outdated to meet state and federal guidelines for the removal of nitrogen and phosphorous; and adding new components, such as four new pumps, aimed at making the plant run more efficiently.

One big addition is a large wash-press chute system designed to better deal with the worrying number of baby wipes and other materials residents flush down their toilets. Such disposals had a tendency to gum up grinder motors — expensive items to replace — and forced workers to descend into wet well troughs to remove the wads of shredded materials.

The new system allows such material to be pulled from the regular flow system via a chute before they are washed, dried and hauled away.

A pair of new centrifuges — which help separate liquid and solid materials — replaces a half-century-old version with both of the new versions able to each operate at a much higher level than the old one. That power upgrade means the town, which is charged for disposals by weight, will be paying less in disposal costs since dried material is lighter than water-soaked loads.

Capacchione said one big benefit from the project will be swapping out outdated equipment with newer versions whose replacement parts aren’t hard to find or are hard on the wallet.

“It’s the difference between trying to find parts for a 2021 Chevy pickup compared to a Model T,” he said.

In September 2014 — less than a month after a referendum on the issue failed — residents approved spending $25.8 million for work at the main plant with a state funding package earmarked to cover 20 percent — or $5.1 million — of the overall cost and the rest being paid through a 2 percent loan from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Clean Water Fund.

That loan is set to be paid back over 20 years with a multi-year sewer user fee increase that began in July 2017. Over a five-year period, the average multi-family home in Killingly was expected to see sewer bills rise from $300 in 2016 to $440 in fiscal year 2021.

Massachusetts-based RH White Construction was awarded the contract for the main plant work with its bid of $18.1 million.

Town Manager Mary Calorio said the project, originally scheduled to be finished in December, faced some COVID-19-related and site delays. She said the project will hopefully mean fewer emergency system repairs just by dint of having newer equipment in place.

“But this work is only on the operational side,” Calorio said. “There’s still capital improvement work that’s still needed for the administration building, for roofs and for windows,” she said. “That’s something the (Water Pollution Control Authority) is going to have to explore, but they are not going to be able to cover all those costs.”

Calorio said most residents likely don’t spend much time thinking about the health of a sewer treatment plant — and that’s not a bad thing.

“When everything works like it should, it’s a matter of flushing and forgetting or just turning off a faucet without any issues,” she said. “But this project, though the longevity of the new equipment, means we will be saving money in repair and disposal costs.

NPU to replace natural gas mains ahead of rotary construction

Matt Grahn

NORWICH -- On Monday, natural gas crews from Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) will begin replacing hundreds of feet of cast iron piping and four service lines in downtown Norwich, according to a Thursday press release. This work is part of NPU’s annual gas main replacement program.

The project will take place from Main Street through Franklin Square to Bath Street, with construction taking place between 7:00 am and 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday, for one month.

Traffic control will be provided by flaggers and the public is asked to use precautions when traveling through this area during working hours

NPU estimates that the existing gas main was installed in 1910 and has out-performed its typical life expectancy. In this project, NPU will replace approximately 350 feet of older, 12-inch gas main with new, six-inch polyurethane gas mains and four gas service lines.