CT Construction Digest Monday January 10, 2022
Boughton Takes Regional Approach to Federal Infrastructure Dollars
His official title is Commissioner, but Mark Boughton might soon be better known as the state’s ambassador of infrastructure.
The former longtime mayor of Danbury who now heads the state tax department, Boughton was tapped by Gov. Ned Lamont last month to be his chief advisor in overseeing the upcoming influx of billions of federal dollars intended to reshape Connecticut’s deteriorating roads and bridges and improve its rail and internet service, among other projects.
In an interview with CT Examiner, Boughton said his main task is to build collaborations among state agencies, legislators, town officials, regional planning agencies, business groups and even neighboring states in deciding how to spend $5 billion in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and a similar amount from other grant programs embedded in the bill.
“We want a big tent in allowing people to have input as to how these monies are executed and my job is to make sure everybody is communicating,” Boughton said. “I’m the guy that sets up the meetings and I’m the guy that’s out there explaining to the public why we’re doing what we’re doing. I was a mayor for 20 years so I speak their language.”
Spread over the next five years, the funding is expected to fuel completion of an array of major projects, many that have been in the design phase for years.
Widening I-95 along the shoreline, realigning I-84 and I-91 through Hartford, improving rail and internet service and repairing landmark bridges including the Gold Star Bridge on I-95 between Groton and New London and the East Haddam Swing Bridge are expected priorities.
“What this money will do is help us bring those projects over the finish line,” Boughton said. “We’re looking for short-term wins, medium-term gains and long-term planning that will help drive what we do with this funding.”
Boughton heads a working group of more than a half-dozen key agency commissioners – principally from the state Department of Transportation and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that will receive major portions of the funding – that meets regularly with Lamont.
“I’m there to remove roadblocks for the agency commissioners,” he said. “That’s to take the load off their shoulders so they can focus their team on helping us access this money.”
Boughton also is acting as liaison to an array of local government officials and groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and various regional Council of Government planning agencies.
A former Republican state representative who launched an unsuccessful run for governor in 2018, Boughton said he is strongly pushing a regional approach in order to maximize the chances of receiving funds from the federal bill, which in some cases will require towns to apply for competitive grants.
“We’re trying to discourage 169 applications from 169 towns,” he said. “If you put a grant in with five towns it’s much stronger than it would be with just one town out there doing its own thing. And if you’re not first you’re last so we need to make sure we move quickly on our grant applications and get them in front of the right people. I can’t emphasize that enough.”
That philosophy also extends to working with other states on such massive and expensive projects as improving rail service, he said, which could involve collaborating with New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He noted that transportation department Commissioner Joseph Giulietti’s background as the head of Metro North Railroad and other rail organizations appropriately makes him the designated lead in such negotiations.
“He has rail connections that are amazing and could blow away anything I could ever think of doing,” Boughton said. “It’s really his domain and I’m just there to keep things moving forward.”
Giulietti has said that he will need to hire at least 300 new engineers in order to handle the agency’s increased workload – a task that some legislators and industry groups say is already behind schedule as the first wave of funding is expected to arrive within months.
Boughton said he and Giulietti are developing a plan to “be more agile in our hiring,” and accelerate the often-cumbersome and protracted state hiring system.
“We can’t skip steps in our process but maybe we can get a little quicker in how we do it,” Boughton said. “It would be a shame to lose out on grants just because we can’t execute the projects.”
The energy and environmental department also will need to hire an additional 60 workers to handle its portion of the projects, he said, especially the planned $100 million expansion of high-speed broadband internet that is lacking in many parts of the state.
“I look at access to broadband like a utility – like access to sewer and water,” Boughton said. “You have to have it. It’s a work necessity and it’s also an educational necessity.
For children, this is a very inexpensive way to open up the world to them. It’s something we badly need as a state to close the digital divide and now we’ve got money to do that.”
Boughton said he also is helping set up an office under the Governor that will employ established project-management techniques and protocols often used in the private sector to increase efficiency.
“I used that successfully in Danbury and we leveraged millions more dollars than we should have,” he said. “This is a much bigger scale but it’s a very similar process to make sure there is discussion and understanding about every step we take.”
Boughton predicts that the funding will not only transform the state’s infrastructure, but will stimulate economic growth that could lead to lower taxes.
“When we look at the sum of everything that’s been completed after five to seven years we’re going to say that it has made a huge difference in our economy, in issues of people being treated fairly and in issues of being able to move people around and move goods and services around,” he said. “That will make us more competitive in the nation and ultimately that will mean lower taxes. The more businesses that are successful, the more taxes they pay and the less you need to pay as an individual taxpayer.”
BETHEL — It’s been three years since the opening of the new police headquarters on Judd Avenue, and the town is finally moving onto the final phase of its police station project.
A water leak issue in the new station’s firing range had been stalling the project’s completion, but First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said this week that the problem has finally been fixed.
“Upon completion of the police station, there was a problem found with the firing range,” he said. “The material used on (one of the walls) was not properly treated … and when there was any kind of windy rain storm, water was being driven right through the concrete block that comprises that wall.”
Following a year-and-a-half review with Downes Construction and its subcontractor, Knickerbocker said the construction company “successfully remediated the problem” by applying a waterproof coating to the outside of the wall last fall.
“Some engineering studies had to be done to identify the problem because, initially, nobody knew why moisture was traveling through the wall,” Knickerbocker said.
It was discovered, he said, that Downes Construction's subcontractor had “inadvertently used some untreated block and untreated mortar.”
“Concrete absorbs moisture — there’s kind of no way around it— so they put this coating on the outside of the wall to seal it and create a moisture barrier,” Knickerbocker said, noting that the company also repaired some loose flashing on the roof.
“The problem held up completing the inside of the firing range, but now we’re ready to move to the final phase of equipping the firing range so it can actually be used for training purposes,” he said.
The firing range has been unusable because it lacks a specialized HVAC unit and other equipment — features that were not part of the project voters approved, but that the town plans to purchase using funds saved in a capital reserve fund.
Although the equipment was at one point estimated between $600,000 and $700,000, Knickerbocker said the final installation price won’t be known until the engineering work and site preparation is complete.
“The quote we got a couple years ago from the vendor does not include the engineering work and the ventilation system,” Knickerbocker said. “I know that’s not going to be cheap, but I don’t have any exact costs on that — and I won’t until we put it out to bid.”
He said a town meeting will probably be needed in order to use capital reserve funds for the equipment, but no bond-selling, tax rate hikes or special appropriations will be necessary.
Knickerbocker said the firing range needs a military-grade ventilation system that can remove lead dust, as well as structural enhancements to make it possible to install training equipment.
“You have these computer-controlled targets that move back and forth down long rails, so things have to be added to the ceiling and we have to involve some engineering, the architect who designed it, as well as the vendor who installs it,” he said.
Completing the firing range won’t be a simple task, which is why the Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday to retain Geralyn Hoerauf from project management and consulting firm STV to manage and coordinate the final phase of the project.
“We don’t really have the technical knowledge in-house to write the specifications, so we’re looking to hire a project manager to coordinate all that stuff,” Knickerbocker said.
The Board of Selectmen is requesting Board of Finance approval to use up to $49,447 from its capital reserve fund to retain Hoerauf, who served as project manager for the town’s recent school renovations.
If hired, she would be responsible for completing engineering specifications, putting out equipment bid specifications and coordinating the installation of firing range materials.
“As long as the global supply chain problems get cleared up, I anticipate being in full construction mode by early-summer and having the firing range operational by mid-summer,” Knickerbocker said.
BETHEL — It’s been three years since the opening of the new police headquarters on Judd Avenue, and the town is finally moving onto the final phase of its police station project.
A water leak issue in the new station’s firing range had been stalling the project’s completion, but First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said this week that the problem has finally been fixed.
“Upon completion of the police station, there was a problem found with the firing range,” he said. “The material used on (one of the walls) was not properly treated … and when there was any kind of windy rain storm, water was being driven right through the concrete block that comprises that wall.”
Following a year-and-a-half review with Downes Construction and its subcontractor, Knickerbocker said the construction company “successfully remediated the problem” by applying a waterproof coating to the outside of the wall last fall.
“Some engineering studies had to be done to identify the problem because, initially, nobody knew why moisture was traveling through the wall,” Knickerbocker said.
It was discovered, he said, that Downes Construction's subcontractor had “inadvertently used some untreated block and untreated mortar.”
“Concrete absorbs moisture — there’s kind of no way around it— so they put this coating on the outside of the wall to seal it and create a moisture barrier,” Knickerbocker said, noting that the company also repaired some loose flashing on the roof.
“The problem held up completing the inside of the firing range, but now we’re ready to move to the final phase of equipping the firing range so it can actually be used for training purposes,” he said.
The firing range has been unusable because it lacks a specialized HVAC unit and other equipment — features that were not part of the project voters approved, but that the town plans to purchase using funds saved in a capital reserve fund.
Although the equipment was at one point estimated between $600,000 and $700,000, Knickerbocker said the final installation price won’t be known until the engineering work and site preparation is complete.
“The quote we got a couple years ago from the vendor does not include the engineering work and the ventilation system,” Knickerbocker said. “I know that’s not going to be cheap, but I don’t have any exact costs on that — and I won’t until we put it out to bid.”
He said a town meeting will probably be needed in order to use capital reserve funds for the equipment, but no bond-selling, tax rate hikes or special appropriations will be necessary.
Knickerbocker said the firing range needs a military-grade ventilation system that can remove lead dust, as well as structural enhancements to make it possible to install training equipment.
“You have these computer-controlled targets that move back and forth down long rails, so things have to be added to the ceiling and we have to involve some engineering, the architect who designed it, as well as the vendor who installs it,” he said.
Completing the firing range won’t be a simple task, which is why the Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday to retain Geralyn Hoerauf from project management and consulting firm STV to manage and coordinate the final phase of the project.
“We don’t really have the technical knowledge in-house to write the specifications, so we’re looking to hire a project manager to coordinate all that stuff,” Knickerbocker said.
The Board of Selectmen is requesting Board of Finance approval to use up to $49,447 from its capital reserve fund to retain Hoerauf, who served as project manager for the town’s recent school renovations.
If hired, she would be responsible for completing engineering specifications, putting out equipment bid specifications and coordinating the installation of firing range materials.
“As long as the global supply chain problems get cleared up, I anticipate being in full construction mode by early-summer and having the firing range operational by mid-summer,” Knickerbocker said.
United Rentals signs new HQ lease in Stamford
STAMFORD — United Rentals, the world’s largest equipment-rental company, has signed a new headquarters lease at the First Stamford Place complex, the property’s owner announced this week.
The company has signed a direct lease for a full floor covering 51,194 square feet in the building at 100 First Stamford Place. The new lease runs through 2030, with United previously subleasing its current space on the seventh floor.
“Food, fitness, day care, close proximity to the Stamford Transportation Center and spaces for social connection are all right here at First Stamford Place,” Jeff Newman, senior vice president at Empire State Realty Trust, said in a statement. “The property serves as the ideal location for companies to recruit and retain employees from across the tri-state area.”
Messages left this week for United were not returned.
United has been headquartered at First Stamford Place since 2013 when it relocated its main offices from Greenwich. The property is yards from the downtown Metro-North Railroad station and Interstate 95’s Exit 7.
The company employs about 20,000 people who serve groups, including construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities and homeowners.
It operates nearly 1,300 rental locations across North America, including a depot a few blocks from its headquarters, as well as sites in Beacon Falls, Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Danbury, New Haven and North Stonington.
In the first nine months of 2021, United produced revenues of nearly $7 billion, up 11 percent from the same period in 2020. It ranked No. 352 on last year’s Fortune 500 list of the companies with the highest annual revenues.
United represents one of three Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Stamford. The others are Charter Communications, the provider of Spectrum-branded services, and Synchrony, the country’s largest provider of private-label and store-brand credit cards. Last year, Charter opened a new headquarters at 400 Washington Blvd., a block from First Stamford Place.
Later this year, another Fortune 500 firm, tobacco giant Philip Morris International, plans to open a new headquarters at 677 Washington Blvd., a few blocks from First Stamford Place.
“It’s exciting that United Rentals is committing to long term investment in Stamford along with other Fortune 500 companies like Charter Communications, Synchrony, and most recently Philip Morris International,” Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons said in a statement. “In addition to these large employers, Stamford is home to a network of fantastic small businesses, and our community will continue to foster growth from businesses of all sizes in the years ahead as we continue to grow our local economy.”
Covering more than 776,000 square feet of rentable space, First Stamford Place is one of Connecticut’s largest office complexes. In addition to United Rentals, its other tenants include CareCentrix, Crane, EY, Elizabeth Arden, Exela Technologies, Grant Thornton, Legg Mason, OdysseyRe, PartnerRe, TigerRisk Partners and Trexquant.
Development booming at Fort Trumbull in New London
New London — After years of stalled development plans for the Fort Trumbull area, the city suddenly has four major projects in various stages of development.
A 200-unit residential complex is under construction by RJ Development + Advisors on Howard Street where Hughie's restaurant was once located, and the city has plans to build a $30 million community recreation center at Fort Trumbull.
The latest developments are a 100-unit residential complex and 100-room extended-stay hotel that would span three parcels on the Fort Trumbull peninsula. The plans by Massachusetts-based Optimus Senior Living Group are scheduled to come before the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission on Thursday for a key site development plan approval. While these two projects could become the the first new construction on the peninsula, the RJ Development apartment complex was the first groundbreaking in the area covered by the Fort Trumbull Municipal Development Plan.
The projects collectively total about $100 million in private investment, and all have come together within the past three years, though work to attract development has gone on for two decades.
Peter Davis, the director of the city’s development arm, the Renaissance City Development Association, said it's a combination of factors and timing that have led to the rush of interest.
Davis was hired by New London Mayor Michael Passero in 2016 to help attract developers to an area of the city open to development through the use eminent domain — a chapter in the city’s history that still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many. The Fort Trumbull neighborhood properties were bought or seized to accommodate development in association with the construction of the former Pfizer research center. The use of eminent domain led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2005 in the case of Kelo v. City of New London. The court sided with the city, but it was a pyrrhic victory.
Pfizer is now gone, but Electric Boat occupies the space, and the submarine maker's hiring blitz over the past several years is helping driving a boom in construction of residential units across the city.
Passero said the city has put together a strategy to attract and guide would-be developers, helping instead of hindering them. The new housing units being constructed are filling up as fast as they are being built, he said.
“There was always a lot of interest for people to live in New London, but there was never the inventory of housing that would attract those people,” Passero said. “People want to live in a walkable urban environment.”
He also credited Davis and the RCDA for facilitating recent developments on Howard Street, including the completed apartment complex at Bank and Howard streets.
Davis said the local market is being driven by the major employers such as EB and Yale New Haven Health. Passero said the development of an offshore wind power hub at State Pier is also helping to drive interest.
If Optimus’ plans are approved, the RCDA has a deal in place for the company to purchase the Fort Trumbull parcels for $750,000.
The purchase would come at an opportune time for the RCDA. It has a Feb. 13 deadline to satisfy a court-stipulated $600,000 settlement with Riverbank Construction, the Westport-based firm that had its own plans for a residential development on the peninsula but was found to be in default of a development agreement by the RCDA’s predecessor, the New London Development Corp. A lawsuit was filed in 2016 and for years left a cloud overhanging any potential development offers on four parcels, 2A, 2B, 2C and 3B. Three of those parcels would now accommodate Optimus’ hotel and residential development. The city has satisfied a $200,000 portion of the settlement, and the RCDA is expected to cover the rest.
If all goes as planned, the Fort Trumbull peninsula would have limited space left for development. The largest parcel is adjacent to land being leased to a commercial fishing businesses. The RCDA is in the process of dividing that parcel because of environmental contamination issues that remain on one portion.
“The state invested a lot of taxpayer dollars in that peninsula to benefit economic development. That’s finally coming to fruition,” Davis said. “The good news is the inventory is shrinking. The bad news is the inventory is shrinking.”
Mattern Construction eyes old YMCA building for office
NORWICH — Eric Mattern, vice president of Mattern Construction, thought there would be more proposals submitted to Norwich for how to make use of the old YMCA building in downtown.
“We expected there was a possibility of people entertaining ideas to completely demolish all the structures and do something new,” Mattern said. “I’m surprised there weren’t any proposals submitted to the city for those ideas.”
Back in November, Mattern Construction submitted its plan to the city on how it would use the building. The plans the company submitted to the city included getting rid of some of the structures and saving others. The main building is expected to become the main headquarters of the company, and a warehouse space. Part of the building will also be a commercial space for another business.
“There’s some good structures there, so our intention is to gently modify them in a way that remains consistent with the architectural styling of the city,” Mattern said.
At this point, Mattern said the construction company and the city are finalizing agreements. Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said the next step is for the city to get state grants from Connecticut’s brownfield remediation program, since part of the site was once a gas station, according to May 8, 2020 minutes of the City of Norwich Redevelopment Agency.
“We own the property right now, we really need to clean that property up, then that commercial site can be open and active,” Nystrom said.
Norwich Public Works Director Pat McLaughlin said the city will apply by next week for Connecticut’s Community Challenge Grant, which the state’s site says can award between $1 million and $10 million for approved projects. McLaughlin said that money can be used for demolition, environmental remediation, and abatement, among other things.
McLaughlin said the city is expecting to hear back on the state’s brownfield remediation grant shortly, while another grant application to the federal Environmental Protection Agency will take longer.
Nystrom said it’s fortunate how things are working out for the city with the YMCA property, as he believes fixing up the property to make it active again can be done more quickly than knocking it down.
“So far, it’s worked out well,” Nystrom said. “The RFP was to reuse the property, not demolish it.”
Norwich Community Development Corporation President Kevin Brown said that Mattern Construction has had a standing relationship with Norwich.
“It’s a great partner to have in this very important project to turn that east entry into the city into something special,” Brown said.
Mattern hopes that his company can be moved into the space by the end of this year.
“We and the city both share an optimistic outlook,” Mattern said.
An opportunity for growth
Mattern first got interested in the property around the time the city first took control of the YMCA building last year. He sees the space as a solution for the company’s growth needs.
“This property seems to check those boxes,” Mattern said.
Mattern is also familiar with the property, as he went there as a kid, though the building is far more rundown than what he remembers.
Mattern said the project will cost the company millions, but the estimates are preliminary. However, Mattern Construction will be the developer for its own project.
“I downplay it a lot, but it’s going to be a lot of work,” Mattern said.
Currently, Mattern Construction is in the Baltic section of Sprague. Mattern expects the equipment yard and the laydown storage yard to stay in that town, but he isn’t sure what to do yet with the current office space.
Note To Prez Joe: Help Us Pilot Green Hydrogen
PAUL BASS
Franklyn Reynolds sees a green wind blowing our way — and he hopes to harness it to tackle climate change.
Reynolds is the man responsible for keeping the lights on in New Haven: He is president and CEO of UIL Holdings, which includes United Illuminating and Southern Connecticut Gas.
The wind will blow, and be harnessed, in Massachusetts and in Bridgeport. UI’s parent company, Avangrid, is developing a wind farm 14 miles offshore of Martha’s Vineyard. It’s developing an offshore wind farm in Bridgeport that it hopes will supply 14 percent of Connecticut’s electricity while avoiding the emission of millions of tons of carbon.
That wind could be converted into “green hydrogen” through a process called electrolysis. It can then serve as an alternative to fossil fuels to power factories and vehicles.
Reynolds’ company has put in a bid to lead the way on developing that green hydrogen, with a proposal to the federal Department of Energy. It’s competing to obtain the money through the department’s new “Hydrogen Shot” program funded by President Biden’s new infrastructure law. The proposal — which would evolve in its details as potential funders and regulators weigh in — at this point is to create a “20 MW electrolyzer and hydrogen storage facility” for UI facilities in Connecticut, powered by offshore wind and backed up by solar energy.
“We want to make Connecticut a hydrogen hub,” Reynolds said during an interview Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
In the interview, Reynolds discussed both the short-term and long-term approaches UI is taking to climate change.
Short term, climate change has brought the state more frequent, and more violent, superstorms. UI has invested in stronger poles to withstand high winds, he said. It is exploring “selective underground” pilots for spots where it may be financially feasible to bury power lines.
ISO New England, which operates the region’s power grid, issued a warning on Dec. 6 that this winter can see enough disruptions — thanks in part to delays in deliveries of oil and liquified natural gas thanks to global supply chain snags — that our area might see its first-ever rolling blackouts (aka “controlled outages”).
That warning caused concern over the past month. Reynolds pointed out that ISO has been issuing similar warnings for years, and this one was based on extended colder-than-usual streaks. In fact, predictions are for a milder winter, he said.
But UI is ready in any case, he said, because difficult weather is the new normal. If rolling blackouts were to occur, he said, either ISO would give UI a 21-day notice, which would give plenty of time to warn customers; or, in the event of an unexpected problem, UI has plans to notify customers in real time through email, social media, and the company website. UI would also seek to rotate any potential blackouts “so that customers could repower their phones” and turn up the heat.
Rather than “panic,” UI and its customers need to “prepare,” said Reynolds, who while working his way up in the power industry served 20 years in the Army National Guard. Born in Jamaica, he grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and attended University of New Haven. He began his career at Southern Connecticut Gas.
Along the way, he came to see keeping the power on as a team mission.