CT Construction Digest Monday April 24, 2023
Audit of CT’s hazmat program shows missing documentation
Andrew Brown and Dave Altimari
An audit of Connecticut’s hazardous materials cleanup program disclosed that more than a year’s worth of documentation was unavailable to auditors.
But the audit did not seek to explain why the documentation was missing — or to delve into why the abatement work was largely performed by a select group of state contractors.
The Department of Administrative Services hired Marcum LLP, an independent auditing firm, to sample more than five years of state hazmat projects in March 2022 after federal criminal investigators subpoenaed records related to several contractors that performed cleanup work for the state.
The audit was part of Gov. Ned Lamont’s response to news that a federal grand jury was probing the state’s hazmat contracts, Connecticut’s school construction program and several other state projects that were overseen by Konstantinos Diamantis, a deputy secretary at the state Office of Policy and Management.
The audit, which was commissioned by the state last year at a cost of over $100,000, suggested the months-long gap in oversight coincided with the Lamont administration’s transfer of hazmat program oversight from the Department of Administrative Services to the Office of Policy and Management.
The CT Mirror published a story in February 2022 that highlighted how two of the state’s hazmat contractors — AAIS Corp. and Bestech Inc. — netted nearly all of the $29.2 million that was spent from the state hazmat fund between 2017 and 2022.
DAS officials responded to that story by immediately canceling the state contract through which the companies were paid, and the state agency sought to expand the list of contractors who were eligible to perform hazmat cleanup work on state-owned buildings.
AAIS was removed as a state hazmat contractor earlier this year.
Despite those actions, officials at DAS did not ask Marcum to review why nearly all of the hazmat funding over the past five years went to those two companies, and the agency did not ask the auditors to review or confirm the work those companies performed.
Instead, Marcum was directed to look at only two things: whether there were “processes and procedures” in place for the hazmat program and whether past projects were exclusively performed on state-owned buildings.
“The scope of the audit was to review DAS’ process to administer the program to ensure that the funds were being used by state agencies,” DAS spokesman John McKay said. “It was more about the process of how we administer our side.”
Municipal hazmat projects, such as school renovations, were excluded from the scope of the audit.
McKay said projects such as the MLK Middle School in Hartford and the New London High School project, both done by AAIS, were not included because they were not state buildings. McKay said they don’t know how many municipal projects may have been done through the hazmat program.
DAS Commissioner Michelle Gilman, who declined through her staff to be interviewed for this story, announced in a press release this week that Marcum’s audit “validates the robust processes” that DAS now has in place to control the cleanup work at state-owned buildings and to manage the millions of dollars in funds that are paid out through the hazmat program every year.
“At DAS, we are committed to transparency and ensuring modernized procedures are in place and followed, to provide the best services to our partner state agencies and Connecticut residents,” said Gilman.
According to the auditors, state employees historically used a spreadsheet to record each hazmat project that was paid for by the state. And they recorded key information about each project, such as which state agency asked for the work, what contractor was hired, when the companies billed the state and how much each company was paid.
Marcum’s auditors said those spreadsheets were available for most of the projects undertaken between September 2017 and July 2019 and between January 2021 and May 2022.
But between August 2019 and December 2020, DAS could not locate any similar records tracking the hazmat projects and the approval process for those funds.
The only thing DAS could provide to auditors were records detailing how much money was paid from the hazmat fund during that time.
“DAS is not aware that such a spreadsheet exists for the period August 2019 to December 2020,” the auditors wrote in the report. “In lieu of a tracking spreadsheet, DAS provided a cash disbursement ledger to Marcum in order to facilitate assessment of transactions that occurred during this time period.”
To try to fill in the gaps, DAS also provided the auditors with records maintained by the state comptroller, which describe what projects and services were paid for, with only modest detail.
McKay said he was unsure what other types of documentation were collected for
the various HazMat projects during that time frame because the program
transferred from DAS to OPM.
Chris Collibee, a spokesman for OPM, told the CT Mirror that all of the relevant records from that time frame were returned to DAS in late 2021.
The auditors laid the blame for the lack of oversight between 2019 and 2020 at the feet of two former state employees: Diamantis, who resigned his government posts in October 2021, and Michael Sanders, who died in December 2021 of a reported drug overdose.
“In August 2019, the HazMat Program moved to the Office of Policy and Management under the direction of Michael Sanders, who reported to Kosta Diamantis,” the auditors wrote.
“The HazMat Program subsequently returned to DAS following Kosta Diamantis’s resignation from state service in October 2021, and continued to be managed by Michael Sanders until his untimely death in December 2021, when the Program was returned to the DAS Construction Services unit,” the auditors added.
Documentation included with the audit shows that Sanders verbally approved nearly 300 projects from 2017 through early 2022. That same documentation suggested he approved some projects even after his death.
“During the period that Mike Sanders was reporting to Kosta, it’s our understanding that projects were often authorized verbally,” McKay said. “So when the program did return to DAS, we verified in writing with each state agency that work had in fact been authorized.”
Dimantis, who has not been charged with any crime, said DAS was attempting to blame him for the gaps in oversight when he had no control over hazmat funds or the cleanup work at state properties.
Sanders did move offices with Diamantis when the state’s school construction program was officially transferred to OPM in late 2019. But he said Sanders continued to report to Noel Petra, a deputy commissioner at DAS, on the hazmat projects at state buildings.
A memorandum of understanding that was signed by Josh Geballe, the former DAS commissioner, and Melissa McCaw, the former OPM secretary, specifically says that “Mr. Sanders services and the hazardous material abatement funds shall remain readily available to DAS.”
Diamantis said that memo clearly shows that he played no role in the oversight of Sanders’ work related to state hazmat projects.
“They can jump up and down and stand on their heads,” Diamantis said. “I had no authority over Mike Sanders on state buildings. All of that came through DAS.”
“That’s as factual, black and white as it can be,” he added. “So they need to take ownership of whatever it is they are looking to throw at the wall.”
Lisa McGinley
Opinion Writer
For a stipend of $600 a year from a grateful state, New London Harbormaster Dave Crocker has more to watch over than ever before.
Crocker bounces his pickup over rough roadways that are dead ends for a truck but open out on the shores where the tides lap the Thames riverfront. On an hourlong tour he has a plethora of state, city and private commercial development to show, from the foot of Riverside Park to Fort Trumbull.
Whatever the river’s name may be when the current legislative session ends, it will still be undergoing its most transformative period since at least World War II. That’s in addition to the immense upswing in submarine design and construction on both riversides and the enhancement of shorefront facilities at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
The highest profile belongs to State Pier as it is remade into an assembly and shipping platform for the new wind power industry. Upriver is the $18.5 million Mohawk Northeast marine terminal and metal fabrication facility. Sited along the railbeds north of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, it has access for ships that fit under the Amtrak bridge.
Kiewit Infrastructure Co., the construction manager for State Pier, is leasing the 15-acre former Thames River Apartments parcel from the city as a storage site for building materials. Deliveries of wind turbine components are due to start this month.
Waste management removal improvements, tug repair, refurbishment of the public boat launch under the Gold Star and work on the bridge itself are all underway with federal, state and/or private funding. Compared to larger ports such as Providence and Bridgeport, the footprint may be compact but the industrial infrastructure is designed for interconnected commerce and intermodal freight up to 21st-century standards.
Marine and rail operations in the vicinity are about to become hugely more visible from either shore as barges begin bringing in deliveries from a German offshore vessel that the harbormaster says is twice as high as the top of the Amtrak bridge. Once launched, the 472-foot Charybdis, constructed by Dominion Energy for wind power components delivery, will be in and out from the pier. Twelve wind turbines are due to be assembled by September.
All of that is besides the submarine design and construction going on at Electric Boat from both sides of the river; U.S. Navy and Coast Guard operations; interstate ferries; and the commercial tugs that move everything along. The Navy ceased operating its own tugboats in the river some years ago, relying instead on the locally-based professional operators.
The cumulative effect is an industrial harbor that has shaken the rust off. It is poised to revive its place among Northeastern ports.
The harbormaster’s job is to keep abreast of anything waterfront, which includes the National Coast Guard Museum going up between Cross Sound Ferry and City Pier; the mayor’s wish for yacht moorings at Waterfront Park; shorefront construction at Fort Trumbull; and the Thames Yacht Club mooring field. At the Fort Trumbull peninsula the city is planning a $40 million community center with help from state funds and has given a developer the go-ahead to plan more than 600 apartments.
Crocker, who was appointed harbormaster by former Gov. John Rowland, has been reappointed by every governor since. His family is the longtime operator of Crocker’s Boatyard in Shaw’s Cove. His knowledge of the Thames waterfront goes deep. He is also the harbormaster for the Niantic River, which is more typical of most Connecticut harbors -- heavily used by recreational boaters and commercial fishing boats, and periodically in need of dredging to keep the channels open.
My tour of the gritty side of the waterfront, with thanks to Dave Crocker, gave me a theory to explain a puzzle I have long wondered about: for a place where residents helped build submarines or went to sea on them, and submariners and Coast Guard officers learned their jobs, there were a lot of other residents whose lives could have been lived no differently in Meriden or Manchester. Other than identifying as the legacy Whaling City, much of the populace seemed to feel little connection to the river and the Sound bordering the city on two fronts. They had Ocean Beach, but some native New Londoners had never learned to swim, never been on a boat, never gone crabbing.
Now I think maybe they were missing something more recent than 19th-century whaling to connect them to their city’s maritime DNA. Maybe the new visibility of maritime-based economic investment will get people excited about jobs and opportunities they can’t get inland.
You just have to see it to believe it.
150-unit multifamily, mixed-use plan submitted under West Hartford’s new transit district
New Jersey-based businessman Sami Abunasra has applied to develop a five-story building mixing 150 apartments with 17,241 square feet of restaurant and retail space along New Britain Avenue in West Hartford, in the town’s Elmwood section.
Located just a couple hundred yards from the Elmwood Station of the CTfastrak rapid busway, the proposal for a 205,262-square foot building is the first to take advantage of a new transit-oriented development district adopted by the Town Council last June.
The district allows developers to build higher multifamily residential densities in a district near mass transit, with preference granted to applications that incorporate affordable housing, clean energy and underground parking in designs. So far, the application Abunasra submitted for 1051 and 1061 New Britain Ave., appears to meet these criteria, Town Planner Todd Dumais said.
“It’s an extremely exciting application,” Dumais said Friday. “It appears on the surface to meet all the goals set when the council adopted the transit-oriented district.”
Another benefit of the transit-oriented district is the application will be weighed by administrative staff, rather than appointed boards, offering a swifter approval process designed to close in 65 days. With such a large and potentially complex project, however, staff may request additional time for review from the applicant, Dumais said.
Abunasra paid $1.1 million for the 2.97-acre property in 2020, initially converting it into an Ashley HomeStore location. After talking with town officials about their aims for the district and reflecting, he pivoted to an ambitious plan for a mixed-use development.
Plans submitted to the town show 128 underground parking spaces and 12 at ground level for residents. An additional 69 ground-level spaces would serve patrons at two restaurants and three retail spaces.
Plans call for 84 one-bedroom apartments, 47 two-bedrooms, 15 studios and four three-bedroom units.
In January 2022, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a $953,646 brownfield grant for the redevelopment, which was then expected to include 131 units and cost $34 million.
THS project architects lead tour of construction site
TORRINGTON — A few months ago, the middle-high school project on Besse Drive was filled with piles of steel beams, trucks and ditches. However, the $179 million building project, which will have a new high school, middle school and central offices for the Torrington School District, is now taking shape.
A recent tour with members of the SLAM Collaborative, the architectural firm chosen to design the new Torrington middle-high school, also included members of the American Institute of Architects' Connecticut chapter and Louis Grasso from Urban Mining, a Beacon Falls-based company.
AIA members were there to hear about Urban Mining's process of using ground glass in making concrete, an innovative advancement in a sustainable building materials effort. Using ground glass emits fewer carbons than traditional concrete; it's also a way to reuse glass, said Domenic Di Cenzo, executive director of the Connecticut Concrete Promotion Council, another tour guest.
"Urban Mining is in a joint venture with O&G Industries (the construction manager for the Torrington building project)," Di Cenzo said.
"It's been a great experience (with Urban Mining) and a good way for us to accomplish our goals as we do our projects," Morhart said.
For many of the guests, seeing such a large project developing from the ground up was also exciting.
O&G Industries' Brian Pracuta, the project supervisor, joined SLAM architect Kemp Morhart in leading the group around the grounds. They first stood in the center of the lot, where the foundation for the new, three-story middle school had recently been poured, and workers were smoothing the surface.
"We've done 4,000 cubic feet of concrete already, and we've got about 3,500 more to go," Pracuta said.
Pracuta, a resident of Harwinton, said the project was moving along and that he was glad to be part of it. "I was honored to have been picked," he said. "For O&G to have entrusted me to do this is so exciting."
Facing the middle school site is the five-story high school building — now a steel beam structure with a completed concrete foundation. The group walked in on what will be the ground floor.
"The central offices will be on the fourth floor of the high school building," Morhart said, adding that the building will also have a "common" first floor for middle and high school students, with shared outdoor spaces between the two school buildings.
Visitors were seeing the bones of what is becoming a multi-faceted campus, with spaces for students preparing for careers and trades, including a culinary lab, construction, technology and robotics labs, automotive shop, ROTC classrooms to introduce students to military training and its history, and child development education classrooms, for students to learn about and become certified to work with young children, according to SLAM.
A nearly 4,000-square-foot band room is the largest SLAM has ever designed. The project's 475-seat auditorium is designed to have professional rigging and a catwalk for the school district's theater program, according to the firm.
The school project originally was approved by voters in November 2020 for $159 million. In January 2022, voters approved adding $20 million to the project. School building committee Co-Chairmen Mario Longobucco and Ed Arum came to the City Council in December 2021 asking for approval to add the $20 million, citing increased enrollment and rising costs for construction and materials.
The 310,000-square-foot combined middle-high school building is being built on the existing campus on the 31-acre Besse Drive property. The old building will stay open during construction and eventually will be razed. To keep the existing high school up and running during construction, project managers reconfigured the driveways and building entrances; students and staff now access the building from the back. Once the old school is taken down, athletic fields will be created on that portion of the property; the football stadium and athletic field will remain in place.
$115M upgrades to Danbury drinking water quality are up for a public vote. Here’s why
DANBURY — No one wants a crisis like in Flint, Mich. a decade ago, when the city looking to save money drew from a river without treating it properly, causing toxic lead in the pipes to leach into families’ drinking water for a year and a half before federal regulators intervened.
While there is no water quality crisis in Danbury, and federal regulators are not breathing down the city’s neck about widespread health concerns, the plants and pipes that bring clean drinking water to the city’s homes have not been upgraded in decades.
That’s where city voters come in.
Danbury needs to borrow $115 million to pay for upgrades to its drinking water treatment plants and its distribution system, and to comply with current clean water standards — including one new rule passed by the government in 2021 because of the health emergency in Flint.
“Overall this administration is working with (the) water department to stay ahead of these things,” Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito said. “The priority for us is some of the equipment out there has gone 40 years without an upgrade.”
To authorize the borrowing, the city needs voters’ permission. An April 25 referendum is planned that will ask a majority of voters to approve $115 million for “the planning, study, design, engineering and construction of improvements, upgrades, and rehabilitation of existing water system assets, facilities and infrastructure.”
If it seems as though Danbury voters not long ago authorized the city to borrow $100 million for an upgrade to its water treatment plant, it’s because voters did — in 2018.
“That was for wastewater,” said Daniel Day, superintendent of the Danbury’s public works department, referring to the city’s regional sewage treatment plant. “This is for drinking water.”
Another difference between the two referendums is the state covered some 20 percent of Danbury’s cost to upgrade its sewage treatment plant, and four towns served by the plant contributed another 20 percent.
Day said grants and other government funding were available to offset the city’s plans to revamp its drinking water system, but he was not prepared on Wednesday to say how much the city could count on.
In addition to modernizing the drinking water supply
facilities at Lake Kenosia well field, and the West Lake and Margerie water
treatment plants, the $115 million in borrowing covers the cost of complying
with a new federal rule passed as a result of the lead contamination disaster
in Flint.
“First they want a lead service line inventory,” Day said of the federal
Environmental Protection Agency. “They want to know many lead service lines we
have. Then they want us to submit a lead line replacement program.”
The improvement work, should voters approve the $115 million bond, will not cause undue disruption of street life or water quality, Day said.
“This is going be planned work unlike an emergency,” Day
said. “The hope is not to impact water quality.”
Esposito agreed.
“The citizens understand that this is what we have to do,” he said.
Voting is from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 25 at regular municipal and state voting locations.
“I’m encouraging all voters in Danbury to participate in the upcoming Danbury water system upgrades and improvements bond referendum on Tuesday, April 25,” Esposito said in a prepared statement. “This bond referendum will allow for the upgrade of existing water system assets, facilities, and infrastructure to continue complying with established regulatory drinking water standards, as well as new drinking water standards.”
Canal Construction Finish Pushed To The Fall
THOMAS BREEN
Concrete has been poured and hard-hatted construction workers are busy on site, but the final downtown stretch of New Haven’s Farmington Canal Heritage Trail won’t be done until the fall — thanks to a mandatory break to accommodate summer camps in an adjacent park.
That’s the latest with the ongoing construction of Phase IV of the canal trail, which will see the below-grade section of the rail trail paved, landscaped, and opened to the public from its current terminus on Temple Street down to Grove Street.
The trail will then rise up to at-street level beyond the Grove Street garage, and snake its way at street level down to an already-built protected bike lane on Water Street, Brewery Street, and Long Wharf Drive.
City officials and trail boosters broke ground on Phase IV’s construction in September 2021 after roughly a decade’s worth of planning and easement negotiations. At the time, the construction completion goal for Phase IV was December 2022.
At Tuesday’s latest monthly online meeting of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team, attendee and neighbor Charles Musser asked the city officials present about the latest with this long-in-the-works project.
“The canal trail that they’ve been working on at Grove and Orange has been going on forever,” he said. “It’s actually somewhat dangerous” at that intersection, where a northside stretch of sidewalk on Grove is still partially closed to pedestrians.
“It has been a long time,” city Economic Development Officer Kathleen Krolak said. “I don’t think that it’s supposed to be complete until the fall.” She and City Engineer Giovanni Zinn promised to check in with the City Plan Department, which is overseeing the project, to get an update.
Farmington Canal advocate Aaron Goode then wrote in via the Zoom chat with a more detailed update about the latest with Phase IV from his understanding. He wrote that Phase IV construction is now scheduled to be complete in the fall.
“They have to stop work for several months during the summer to accommodate the summer camps that use the Park of the Arts behind Audubon Street — it’s a condition of the construction easement agreements,” Goode wrote. “However they might be able to continue work on the ramp at the southern end (where the sidewalk is closed on Grove) and could possibly finish that sooner, I’m not sure.”
In response to a request for comment for this article, City Plan Director Laura Brown confirmed the expected fall finish date — and laid out more details on the work that has already taken place, and what’s still to come.
“Phase IV of the Farmington Canal from Temple Street to the terminus at Canal Dock continues this spring with an anticipated completion date early fall,” Brown wrote. “Concrete has been poured in the tunnel and the Canal bed, ramps are in construction within Park of the Arts, and interpretive elements within the tunnel are in fabrication. Work within the Park of the Arts will pause this summer due to commitments to summer programming within the Park. During this time construction will concentrate at The Foundry entrance off Whitney, on finish work within the tunnel and at the gateway entry between the Grove Street Garage and Sitar restaurant.
“Unfortunately the new section cannot be opened in phases due to construction and liability issues related to active construction zones. We eagerly anticipate our opening ceremony in the Fall; the City will send announcements once an opening date has been set.”
30 years vacant: Stamford developer looks to replace Dress Barn site with 198 apartments, retail
STAMFORD — Some still remember the grassy parcel as the site of the original Dress Barn. Decades before then, preservationists say, it was home to a Victorian-era shoe factory.
For the past nearly 30 years, however, the 128 Broad St. plot has been empty. The vacant property fronting the Bedford Street parking garage has become a rare pocket of inactivity in Downtown Stamford as developers fill in the remaining gaps like puzzle pieces.
But now, the company that helmed downtown's urban renewal era has come forward with a plan.
Stamford-based F.D. Rich Company is seeking Zoning Board approval to build a 198-unit luxury apartment complex on the parcel, which includes an adjacent lot across Gay Street. The proposed 13-story building would include 22 studios, 100 one-bedroom units, 67 two-bedroom units and nine three-bedroom units. In accordance with the city's Below Market Rate program requirement, the developer plans to build 18 affordable apartments on site.
The plans also feature ground-floor retail space and amenities including a fourth-floor deck with an outdoor pool, workout facilities, a play area for dogs and more.
The properties are centrally located — in front of Bedford Street parking, across the road from the Landmark Square tower and next door to a 228-unit apartment complex under construction between Broad Street and Greyrock Place, approved in July 2021.
But though some developers inquired about the space, proposals have been few and far between, Land Use Bureau Chief Ralph Blessing said.
It is a "challenging site," attorney Michael Cacace told the Zoning Board at its April 3 meeting. In total, the property is just 0.82 acres — including Gay Street, which bisects the two lots to provide entry to the Bedford parking area. The side street is owned by F.D. Rich, but the city has an easement that ensures vehicle and pedestrian access.
The developer's pitch: building over top of Gay Street, while carving out a path for cars and people through the middle of the ground floor. The covered road would also provide access to the apartment building's loading dock and 17 parking spaces, though the vast majority of parking would be on the second and third floors. It would also maintain access to the rear of existing businesses.
The plan would alleviate the loss in first-floor space, in part, by building upward. The building would be 147.2 feet tall. The fourth floor, though it would have some apartments, would mostly house tenant amenities including the pool. But most of the units would be on the fifth through 13th floors.
If approved, the developer plans to start construction in September 2023 and complete it by spring 2025, Cacace said. The city's tax revenue from the site would increase from $40,000 annually to $1.3 million, he estimated.
"I will tell you that having worked on it with the development team for 18 months now, we've come up with a plan that works for the applicant, works for the city and works for the neighborhood," he said.
Zoning Board officials had a handful of questions for the attorney, eventually sending the developer a list of 11 requests to be addressed before their next scheduled meeting on April 24. The two primary questions revolved around the ground-floor design and parking plan.
Zoning regulations require the developer to provide 215 parking spaces. Cacace said F.D. Rich planned to comply, but noted that the group's most recent downtown development, Summer House, has an excess of parking. The building has 228 apartments, but less than 100 spaces are regularly used.
Still, the attorney said F.D. Rich would satisfy the requirement while rotating 37 parking spaces between valet and self-park, though it could impede access to other self-park spots.
Zoning Board Chair David Stein requested a new parking plan that maintains full access.
"I agree with you. I think that there is a lot of evidence that we do require more parking than is needed, but I think the way to go about that is to change the regulations to reduce the parking — not to try to do this kind of scheme that I think is not really in compliance," Stein said.
F.D. Rich Owner Tom Rich said that his team "overcomplicated" the description at the meeting. The parking plan would allot 112 self-park and 103 valet spots. If one of the options reached capacity, new residents would be placed on a waiting list.
"Hopefully, we'll get the opportunity at the next hearing to really explain it, but it's a simple plan," Rich said. "It's a hybrid system. You can choose valet park or self-park. It's really not much more complicated than that."
Additionally, officials asked for a design plan for the back of the Gay Street passageway. Stein said he wanted to make sure the space connecting the garage with Broad Street and the apartment building would be open and welcoming.
“It’s an alley with a driveway," Stein said. "People are going to be walking from the ground parking area out to Broad Street, and we want to make them feel safe there.”
Rich said his team is submitting renderings of the property to the Land Use Bureau, which he hopes will clarify concerns.
"It's a very wide opening, sidewalks on both sides, 15 feet tall," Rich said. "It's not an alley."
Otherwise, the Board's requests for the developer included a long-term affordability plan and a plan for street trees, among several other asks. Cacace submitted a document on April 14 that responds to all 11 Zoning Board requests.
The Zoning Board plans to resume discussions on the project at its April 24 regularly scheduled online meeting. The meeting will include a public hearing to hear local comment.
The last building that stood on the parcel was a three-story brick building constructed in 1883. The building cycled through several uses including the Loudesbury-Soule shoe factory and the flagship Dress Barn, according to a 1985 Stamford Advocate article. It survived much of the city's urban redevelopment — where F.D. Rich turned the industrial New England downtown into a corporate hub, largely through eminent domain — before being slated for demolition in 1985.
After preservationists stood up to protect the building, the city and the owner made a deal to save it. But various development plans failed to coalesce over the next decade, and it was razed in 1995.
Chamber president in Denmark to drum up wind business
Lee Howard
Tony Sheridan headed to Denmark last week to tour wind-turbine component manufacturers in Copenhagen and Aalborg and perhaps lure a few of them back here to New London.
Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, told me the nearly weeklong trip is funded largely by the European Community to strengthen economic ties with the United States. He expects to speak to representatives of about 60 separate companies in what he called a “dating process” where he can assess firms interested in setting up shop in the innovation center that will be opening this summer at the new Chamber headquarters in downtown.
“My goal is to assess the level of interest in doing business with America,” he said. “New London ... has all the ingredients necessary for an offshore wind hub.”
This includes a deep-water port, local manufacturing already tied to maritime industry and no bridges or overhead power lines that could interfere with transporting these massive turbines up and down the coast.
The Danish wind-turbine manufacturing company Orsted, along with American energy producer Eversource, currently are watching the state finish up construction work at State Pier in New London to support their plans to seriously up the ante on wind power generation throughout the Northeast. The two companies last year sponsored a study of the potential for the wind industry here that predicted “rapid growth and significant economic impact” in Connecticut.
“We’re the hub of the wheel,” Sheridan said.
And New London is the only heavy-lift port in Connecticut equipped to do this work, he added.
He likened the first wind project in Rhode Island to “Tinker Toys” compared with the huge turbines envisioned in New London, whose height out of the water will loom about as tall as the Empire State Building.
He added that the Virginia-based energy company Dominion, which also runs the Millstone power plants in Waterford, will be building a special ship made in Texas just to transport these monster machines, whose blades are about the length of a football field.
While in Denmark, Sheridan said he will be seeking letters of interest from companies considering taking their turbine-related businesses to New London. But it will be up to the state, most likely through AdvanceCT or the Department of Economic and Community Development, to offer incentives to move here.
“We need companies that have some experience,” Sheridan said, citing the Swedes and Germans as other possible sources of turbine components. “We’re 25 to 30 years behind where they are. There’s a fabulous opportunity here.”
The most likely scenario, he added, would be to create American subsidiaries of these European companies. He called the local Chamber a perfect liaison to make connections between these foreign companies and people in Connecticut who can help ease the transition to America.
“We’ll be able to give them access to a whole host of people it would take months to have otherwise,” Sheridan said.
He added that there is currently one New York company interested in making the wind turbine blades, but believes at least two firms in the Northeast will be needed to create competition that would keep prices reasonable.
“This is an industry that keeps on giving,” he said, pointing to not only potential manufacturing opportunities related to wind power but also to the need for maintenance and training.
He added that the recent news about thousands of new jobs opening at Electric Boat combined with construction of the National Coast Guard Museum and the wind-turbine activity at State Pier will create a ripple effect throughout the regional economy.
“It you don’t try something, nothing will happen,” Sheridan said. “If I pull this off, I feel like I would do something significant to feel good about.”