New London State pier project ‘exactly what our state needs’

Chris DiPentima  The year 2021 is underway, and with the new year, Connecticut’s businesses are seeking new opportunities for relief and growth. As our state’s business community continues to rebuild after COVID-19 shutdowns and a challenging 2020, we must look to new industries, new possibilities, and even new technologies to strengthen Connecticut’s established manufacturing and technology base.

Connecticut’s offshore wind industry is quickly emerging as one of the state’s key industries as further investment goes into additional environmentally friendly, sustainable energy technologies.

With Connecticut seeking clean energy in offshore wind farms, we are experiencing a dramatic shift as new supply chains begin to form and massive infrastructure projects, such as the $157 million public-private upgrade of the State Pier in New London, move forward to prepare for this burgeoning mari-time industry. Connecticut’s manufacturing businesses need to be ready, or we will miss out.

Just last month, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), now the powerful Senate majority leader, announced a multi-million dollar investment through the New York State Energy Research and Develop-ment Authority to upgrade port infrastructure and prepare the state for its own growing offshore wind industry. This is an industry that has bipartisan support due to its potential climate impact and opportunity for high-tech business development and manufacturing on U.S. soil. Other states have already made overtures to lure the project proposed for the State Pier.

If Connecticut continues to delay in its preparations for the offshore wind industry, we will miss out on the anticipated 460 construction jobs, approximately 400 new offshore wind-related jobs, millions in local community investment, as well as partnerships with the local chain of manufacturers and suppli-ers this project will create.

It is time for our elected officials, business leaders, industry organizations, environmental advocates, and workforce to come together and support Connecticut’s offshore wind industry and the redevel-opment of the State Pier.

We are at a critical juncture, as businesses seek new opportunities to drive the post-pandemic recov-ery and future growth. The introduction of a new industry that is willing to invest in Connecticut is exactly what our state needs to rebuild.

Chris DiPentima is the president and CEO of the Connecticut Buiness and Industry Association.

Connecticut Port Authority working to bring State Pier project on budget

Greg Smith  New London — A state official involved in planning for the reconstruction project at State Pier in New London says efforts are underway to keep the project on budget.

Kosta Diamantis, deputy secretary for the Office of Policy and Management, addressed the Connecticut Port Authority this week and fielded questions about the possibility of costs escalating for the $157 million project, which is being funded through a partnership by the state and joint venture partners Eversource and Ørsted.

State Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, was among those to question statements made by Gov. Ned Lamont to The Day’s editorial board earlier this month that the cost of the project had risen above $200 million. Formica also wanted clarification on whether the state was on the hook for cost overruns.

Diamantis said the initial design phase is nearing completion and while estimates are above $157 million, there are sure to be revisions as the process moves forward.

“At the end of the day it’s the owners' responsibility, through the various consultants, to sit down with them and taper where this project needs to be for the purposes imagined by the owners,” Diamantis said. “We’re still in the estimating phase. There’s nothing definitive at this point.”

He said upcoming meetings with the construction manager will better separate what is essential versus what is wanted for the project. OPM was tasked by Lamont with financial oversight of the port authority in 2019, a tumultuous year for the quasi-public agency that included the resignation of its former executive director, a financial audit that revealed questionable accounting and spending habits and legislative hearings.

Diamantis, who is also the director of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review of the state Department of Administrative Services, said the project is not unlike a school construction project where architects and engineers include elements and amenities that can lead to cost overruns.

David Kooris, chairman of the Connecticut Port Authority's board of directors, reiterated that the CPA is working with construction manager Kiewit to “hone the scope of the project to bring it in line with costs estimates in earlier iterations of this design.”

The original estimate for the project was $93 million but by the time a deal was signed, the cost had risen because of alterations made to the design to better accommodate Cross Sound Ferry’s concerns about interference in its waterfront operations. Ørsted and Eversource have committed $77.5 million and the state and port authority the remainder.

“We are in the midst of an in-depth process to bring the project in line with the funds available,” Kooris said. “A lot of people have their sleeves rolled up and are working on it. The idea that there is a new dollar amount is not accurate. There are estimates that continue to be developed.”

Kooris said if the project does exceed $157 million, the Harbor Development Agreement puts the onus on the CPA to seek additional funding from the state. If the state refuses, the CPA is likely to go to Eversource and Ørsted to help fill the gap. If they elect not to add additional funds, Kooris said further efforts will be made revise the scope of the project to get it in line with available funds.

Board member John Johnson promised full transparency as the project estimates come to light.

Meanwhile, CPA Executive Director John Henshaw reported this week that cleanup of the site in preparation for construction is expected to get underway by mid-February. He said Kiewit has expressed its desire to be on site by March.

The port authority on Tuesday approved a new extension to State Pier tenants, including road salt company DRVN.

DRVN, whose massive pile of salt remains at State Pier, will have an extra month to continue to sell its product. A previous extension had given the company until the end of January to sell the salt or forfeit it to the CPA in order to make way for upcoming construction; it now has until the end of February.

“It’s obviously in everyone’s interest to see DRVN successful in selling that salt,” Henshaw said.

Commercial fishermen and Skanska, the construction company using the pier as a staging area for work across the river at Electric Boat, also will have additional time.

Plans for State Pier to become a staging area for the offshore wind industry involve an expansion to allow the pier to handle larger vessels and heavy-lift cargo. The plans also call for filling in the area between the two existing piers to create additional storage space and will result in three berths.

Ørsted and Eversource will lease the pier from pier operator Gateway for a minimum of 10 years to use the facility for the pre-assembly of wind turbine generators. Ørsted and Eversource plan to use State Pier to support their planned 704 megawatt offshore wind farm, Revolution Wind, and other projects in the planning stages across the Northeast.

The projects await approval by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Kiewit, construction manager for the State Pier project, is holding a virtual project information session on Jan. 28 to provide an update on the project and advertise procurement opportunities. For more information, visit the event webpage, bit.ly/kstatepier1.

Tens of millions in power plant revenue at stake in Killingly

John Penney  KILLINGLY - With Gov. Ned Lamont recently publically questioning the prospect of the Killingly Energy Center ever getting constructed, where does a halted project leave the town?

 With about $125 million fewer dollars.

Under a pair of 2018 Town Council-approved agreements, the town is in line for $5 million in Community Environmental Benefit, or CEBA, money, once the facility is built, along with $120 million in projected tax revenue over the course of 20 years of operation.

But that windfall is obviously dependent on the plant going online, Town Manager Mary Calorio said.

“But we do not count on that money until it’s actually in hand,” she said. “None of that money is being looked at right now as realized revenue and we’ve made no capital improvement plans based on that money. It’s all hypothetical at this point.”

The two agreements with NTE Energy, which is seeking to build a 650-megawatt plant on Lake Road in the Dayville section of town, were finalized in January 2018. The “unrestricted” CEBA money was earmarked for environmentally-oriented projects, with ideas for a scholarship fund, water testing at Alexander’s Lake and tree-planting initially discussed, but no final spending decisions have yet been made.

An original revised tax stabilization agreement was revised up from $90 million to $120 million as the plant’s projected energy output increased.

The town’s say in the project was always limited to ensuring proper local land-use requirements were met, with the larger issue of whether the plant should be constructed never under the Town Council’s purview.

“That’s why the Siting Council was formed, to make a decision on projects whose scopes extend beyond the borders of any one town or city,” Calorio said. “Projects like this are too big of a political football to be decided on locally.”

Calorio said she’s not sure how the project could be halted if the company is approved for pending wastewater discharge permit and water quality certifications.

“If those standards are met and the project is rejected without grounds, I think that could be easily challenged,” she said.  

The project has gotten a split reception by the town’s elected officials since it was first introduced. The largest public proponents of the plan have been union workers pleased with the idea of hundreds of new construction jobs needing to be filled.

“These are good jobs with living wages and secure benefits,” Sal Luciano, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO wrote in a 2019 letter of support for the project.

Environmental groups have roundly criticized the project over possible negative air, water and wildlife impacts.

The project, and its tens of millions of potential incoming local dollars, has not been a frequent item of discussion for the current council. During a February goal-setting session, council members listed “Support NTE project,” as the seventh of 23 goals discussed, though the issue failed to make councilors’ top five list of priorities.

The CEBA money and its possible uses also came up again last year when council members were considering upgrading the Broad Street community center.

Council Chairman Jason Anderson said there’s no question the CEBA and tax stabilization funding is needed.

“That’s money that we can certainly use for things like school projects and roads,” he said. “I hope there’s some final decision made on this project in the next few months, but I was hoping that two years ago.”

146-unit apartment development proposed in Farmington’s medical district

Greg Bondonaro  well-known Farmington developer is proposing a major 146-unit apartment development in the heart of the town’s medical district, a project that has the support of major area employers, including the nearby Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, UConn Health, Stanley Black & Decker and Carrier Global Corp.

The project, which is garnering opposition from nearby residents, is expected to be discussed during a planning and zoning meeting Jan. 25, and would convert vacant land on Farmington Avenue -- across the street from Jackson Lab and behind a UConn Health building  -- into a 146-unit apartment development with 224 parking spaces, including garages. 

A project map also shows there will be an entrance on Quarry Road. Full project details, including the overall development price tag, weren’t immediately available Friday morning. 

That land was put up for sale in 2018 by Farmington Avenue Baptist Church and was purchased at the end of 2019 for $1.1 million by prominent Farmington developer Geoffrey Sager of Metro Realty Group, which has been an active builder of medical office buildings in the area. 

Metro Realty Group is the project's lead developer. 

The development has already received support from the Farmington Economic Development Commission and area employers like Jackson Lab have talked for years about the need for more housing in the area.

Metro Realty needs a zoning change on the property to move forward with the project, town documents show. 

Delays, labor costs make for pricey transit projects: Getting There

Jim Cameron  Why is transportation construction so expensive in our area? What kind of honor was it when New York City recently surpassed Zurich (one of the most expensive cities in the world) as No. 1 on the most-expensive-place-to-do-underground-construction dishonor roll?

The highly respected Regional Plan Association has studied that question and offers some explanations and frightening examples. Focusing on three recent MTA mega-projects in New York City — the Second Avenue Subway, the #7 subway extension to Manhattan’s west side and the LIRR’s East Side Access project — their findings make for depressing reading.

Let’s focus on the ESA plan, an ambitious project to construct new rail tunnels under Park Avenue and a new rail station 10 storeys beneath Grand Central to serve LIRR trains. This is an important project for Connecticut as it will eventually allow some Metro-North trains to run across the Hells Gate Bridge to Penn Station.

Once estimated to cost $4.3 billion and to be finished by 2009, ESA may not be finished until 2022 at a total cost of $12.2 billion. So, what happened?

The RPA report says the project was initially pushed by politicians who grossly underestimated the initial budget just to get it approved. Because Metro-North and the LIRR (both part of the MTA) operate as silos, they had trouble coordinating their efforts. Worst of all, the procurement process and contract writing was a mess, adding four years of delays.

Though the ESA project was huge in cost, it was small in distance — only 3.5 miles of new tunnels and track. But it involved boring huge tunnels through bedrock and ended up building the most expensive mile of railroad track in the world at over $3 billion.

One big culprit was labor.

In 2010, auditors found that 900 workers were each being paid about $1,000 a day though only 700 workers were needed for the job. Nobody could explain what the other 200 workers were doing every day, aside from getting rich.

An investigation by the New York Times blamed the cozy relationship between labor unions and politicians, consultants who hired MTA bosses to gain more work and contractors and vendors regularly inflating their bids by 15 to 25 percent for what’s known as “the MTA factor,”, i.e. the hassles of working with that agency.

Jobs like running the tunnel boring machines were staffed with 25 workers on the ESA project, about triple the number employed on the same equipment overseas. Elevators at the construction site each had an human operator even though they ran automatically. Crane operators also had an “oiler,” an unneeded throwback to older times. All told, staffing for underground construction in New York City was quadruple that of similar jobs abroad.

The labor unions push back saying the work is dirty and dangerous and their members live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, so they deserve more.

Lamont to business: We need ideas for transportation funding

Ken Dixon  As he plans his two-year budget proposal, the state’s rapidly depleting fund for transportation infrastructure is a major headache, Gov. Ned Lamont told a business audience on Friday.

He asked for their help, not with money but with ideas — a year after every financing plan to fix highways, bridges and transit systems failed in the General Assembly.