CT Construction Digest Monday July 14, 2025
Billion-Dollar Amtrak River Rail Bridge Replacement Project Under Way in Conn.
Ken Liebeskind
O&G Industries of Torrington, Conn., and Tutor Perini/Los Angeles are the Joint Venture
O&G Industries of Torrington, Conn., and Tutor Perini of Los Angeles are joint venture partners on the $1.37 billion Connecticut River bridge replacement project. Construction began on Aug. 5, 2024, with completion scheduled for July 16, 2030.
Amtrak is the project sponsor, with primary funding provided by an $826.6 million Federal Railroad Administration grant. The remaining costs are being covered by Amtrak and the State of Connecticut.
According to ogind.com, the project "will involve building a two-track, electrified and resilient movable bridge structure equipped with new track, signal, catenary, power, communication, controls and security features."
The new bridge will be constructed approximately 50 ft. south of the existing structure, allowing uninterrupted service during construction. It will reconnect to the existing tracks 1,000 to 1,500 ft. from each end. Designed for a 100-year lifespan, the new bridge will provide greater reliability and reduce travel delays by supporting more modern infrastructure.
Project highlights include:
• more than 25,000 cu. yds. of concrete;
• more than 13 million lbs. of structural steel, including a 207-ft. bascule span;
• more than 4 million lbs. of reinforcing steel;
• deep foundation drilled shafts ranging from 3 to 8 ft. in diameter;
• catenary and signal system upgrades; and
• demolition of the existing bridge upon project completion.
Located between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, the Connecticut River Bridge lies 3.4 mi. from the mouth of the river at Long Island Sound, along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. It is one of several movable rail bridges on the route.
According to Amtrak.com, "The existing Connecticut River Bridge is nearing the end of its useful life. Its decreasing operational reliability leads to cascading delays in both rail and maritime traffic due to failures in opening and closing properly."
The replacement project is intended to improve long-term reliability, enhance serviceability and ensure continued rail and marine traffic.
Following the August groundbreaking, Peter Spath, senior project manager of O&G Industries, listed progress milestones including:
• mobilization;
• trestle design;
• invasive species treatment;
• clearing and grubbing;
• erosion and sedimentation control;
• design and construction of access roads;
• temporary aerial cable tower design;
• installation of a box culvert at 17 Shore Road;
• construction of the Eagle Landing fishing pier; and
• installation of monitoring equipment and additional boring investigations.
A statement on ogind.com described the new bridge as "a $1.3 billion modern and more resilient structure" featuring a trunnion bascule span, modernized rail infrastructure and increased rail and maritime performance. It will support train speeds up to 70 mph — a 55 percent increase over the current 45 mph limit. Vertical clearance in the closed position will rise from 18 to 24 ft., and in the open position, the navigable channel will expand from 71 to 90 ft.
Equipment used on the project by O&G includes:
• Cat 305 backhoe excavator
• Manitowoc 14000 (220-ton crawler crane)
• Ingersoll Rand SD105DX vibratory smooth drum roller
• JLG 860SJ aerial boom lift
• Stow 200ER vibrator
Tutor Perini added that its equipment inventory includes "top drive vertical drills, tieback and micropile drills, service and duty cycle cranes, crane-mounted drill rigs and limited access drills."
New Milford's $2.5 Million Route 7 safety improvement project on track for November completion
NEW MILFORD — Work to install hundreds of feet of new sidewalks, three new bus shelters and other pedestrian safety improvements along Route 7 in New Milford is expected to be finished by the fall, according to town officials.
“I’d say (it’s) 75 percent complete,” said Jack Healy, director of New Milford’s Public Works Department. “I’m looking forward to getting it done.”
Healy said the Public Works Department is waiting for the covers to be installed on the new bus shelters, crosswalk lighting to be installed on Larson Road, and the abutments to be installed on the pedestrian bridge across from the Wetmore's Chrysler Jeep Dodge RAM dealership at 333 Danbury Road.
According to Healy, the Route 7 project is slated to be completed by mid-November.
From Candlewood Lake Road South to Larson Road between New Milford High School and the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market, the installation of 2,300 feet of new sidewalks along Route 7, also known as Danbury Road,, started in July 2024. The new sidewalk was designed to connect with the existing sidewalk at Larson Road and Danbury Road, near Cumberland Farms and the high school, according to Joe Cooper, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
The project also called for installing 1,500 feet of sidewalk from the existing Cumberland Farms sidewalk at Larson Road north to Sullivan Road, with a pedestrian bridge built over the stream.
In addition to the new sidewalks along Route 7, the project involved installing 1,700 feet of sidewalk on Aspetuck Avenue to connect New Milford’s town green to Canterbury School; 500 feet of sidewalk in front of John Pettibone Community Center at 2 Pickett District Road; 300 feet of sidewalk from Sullivan Road to the existing Sullivan Court sidewalk; and 200 feet of crosswalk to connect the existing sidewalks in front of Taco Bell at 177 Danbury Road, according to Cooper.
The three new bus shelters were built at the Candlewood Lake Condominium at 20 Candlewood Lake Road South, New Milford High School at 388 Danbury Road, and the Sullivan Road bus stop. New crosswalks were installed across the driveways at the high school, Candlewood Lake Condominium and Industrial Park, and Danbury Sullivan Road.
The project also included building a new crosswalk and bus shelter at Pickett District Road and Danbury Road near the John Pettibone Community Center.
The $2.5 million project is 80% funded by the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives Program and 20% by the town of New Milford.
The Hartford-based contractor BETA Group Inc. is completing the construction work.
According to Mayor Pete Bass, the safety improvements along Route 7 are in step with New Milford’s multifaceted approach to making Route 7 safer for everyone.
Route 7 has been the site of multiple accidents and fatalities over the past few years, including a fatal three-car crash that killed a 17-year-old New Milford student and injured three others in September 2023. That crash motivated the state to study Route 7’s safety and compile a road safety audit.
Just as the DOT finalized its road safety audit on Route 7, another fatality involving a New Milford student occurred in December on Pickett District Road, a street parallel to Route 7.
The audit, which details Route 7’s existing conditions and identifies ways to make the roads safer, is being used to guide New Milford’s efforts to improve the road.
Enfield planning commission delays vote on riverfront housing approval
ENFIELD — Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission punted on approving a special permit that would pave the way for a large housing development along the Connecticut River, instead choosing to table the vote until their next meeting.
During a lengthy presentation by the developers and subsequent public hearing Thursday, many residents, including those who live adjacent to the proposed site on North River Street, said they support the project.
Developers are proposing constructing 156 units of high-quality and workforce housing at the abandoned site along the Connecticut River, in an effort to revitalize the riverfront.
Greg Vaca, founder and president of Grava Properties, called the proposal "a transformational project, we believe, for Thompsonville and for Enfield" that would spark future development in the area.
"We're really excited about this transformation," he said.
Plans for phase one call for the construction of the four-story apartment buildings, a walking trail that spans the entire property, 175 parking spaces, and planting a variety of plants and trees.
Apartments would be a mix between studios, and one- and two-bedroom units.
Paul Santos, director of housing for New Haven-based Newman Architects, said the location is "truly a special site," and the design of the buildings was inspired by historic mill buildings and is meant to preserve the history of the area.
Developers were awarded a $4 million brownfield grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development in December to clean up contamination on the former power facility site.
Remediation and redevelopment would revitalize "one of the most beautiful stretches of the Connecticut River in the state" that is currently "almost invisible to Thompsonville," Vaca said.
On-site water filtration systems that would flow into the river would be far more environmentally friendly than the runoff from the contaminated site currently, he said.
Along with a wider road, and cleaning up contamination and neglected structures, "we will be leaving the residents to the north in a far better position than they are today," Lewis Brown, founder and managing member of Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, said.
Neighbors abutting the site agreed, speaking in favor of the development.
Jay Stradinger, of North River Street, said he's frustrated with the current condition of the property, unwanted traffic, and homeless in the area.
"It's a good plan," he said of the project. "It's a valid plan. It's a plan that will take care of 99% of those problems."
"These people are certainly going to improve this property and I'm all in favor of it," North River Street resident Glenn Lees said. "I haven't heard anything that I'm concerned about."
"I think this is an outstanding project," said Mary Ann Turner, a resident and chairwoman of the Economic Development Commission.
Developers were seeking a special permit to allow for a public easement that would replace the narrow existing road with a two-way road, which they would be responsible for maintaining, including during the winter months.
One of the main sticking points was whether the developers' proposal complies with local zoning regulations, with resident Karen Laplante arguing the development does not.
Assistant Town Planner Georgienna Driver, however, said the developers "satisfy all of the requirements" needed for the commission's approval.
She noted neither the fire marshal nor Health Department had any concerns presented to the commission, adding "we didn't find anything" related to non-compliance with local regulations.
Brown made his case for the commission to hold a vote Thursday, saying there are timelines related to financing and investors.
"The more time that passes, the more at risk a development becomes," he said. "Everything that's been presented tonight should be enough for this commission to render its decision."
Commission members ultimately voted 5-2 to keep the public hearing open and table the application until their next meeting July 24.
Prior to the vote, commissioners raised several questions about flood mitigation, sufficient parking, and snow removal. Developers answered each concern in detail to varying levels of satisfaction from commission members.
A traffic study focusing on five intersections in the surrounding area showed the development "will not have a significant impact to traffic" in the study area, said Mark Vertucci, senior transportation engineer for Fuss & O'Neill.
New York developer proposes massive data center in Bloomfield
Officials in Bloomfield say a New York-based developer is proposing to build a two-story, 1 million square-foot data center on land off of Griffin Road North.
Atlas Capital Group made a presentation of what town officials say was a "conceptual proposal" to Bloomfield's Planning and Zoning Commission in June for the data center. The project would be built on a vacant piece of land at 132 Griffin Road North, according to a press release put out by the town.
The facility would include over 900,000 square feet of space for data processing and a 127,000-square-foot substation.The proposed data center would create 40 jobs.
Jonathan Colman, Bloomfield's director of land use, said the proposal is still in its early conceptual stages.
"One of the questions we want to answer is what the future reuse for this building will be when the technology becomes obsolete," Colman said.
Company officials did not respond this week to a request for comment about the plans for a data center.
The nearest homes are located to the northeast of the property that Atlas Capital is looking to develop, he said. There is also a middle school located near the area.
Colman said the next meeting between Atlas Capital and town officials will be held later this month or early in August.
The property is a former tobacco field that developers had once proposed for a shopping center that was to have been anchored by a supermarket.
Although Atlas met with Bloomfield officials, the property owner is River Bend Development CT, a Bloomfield-based limited liability company, according to Colman.
Most of the properties that are part of Atlas Capital's real estate portfolio are either in New York City or California, according to the company's web site. The majority of those properties are either residential properties or mixed use complexes.
Efforts to develop more data centers in Connecticut have been met with mixed success.
Discussions of developing data centers along the Interstate 91 corridor in Wallingford first surfaced in 2021 with a proposal for a two-story 157,000 square-foot facility on a 57-acre tract off of Williams Road in an area behind the Hilton Garden Inn in that community. The company behind that proposal, Gotspace Data LLC also building a 313,672 square foot data center on a 205-acre site on North Farms Road bordering Meriden, Tankwood Road and Route 15.
Neither project came to fruition, in part because of community opposition. In Groton, that opposition resulted in a one-year moratorium on data center projects being heard by officials in that town. But in December 2024, Wallingford's Planning & Zoning Commission voted to allow for data centers in that town's Watershed Interchange District along Interstate 91.
Data center projects have also been proposed for Groton and Waterford, with the later being proposed for land adjacent to the Millstone Nuclear Power plant.
Fred Carstensen, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Business and the director of the state Center for Economic Analysis, said one reason none of these projects have moved to the construction phase is because the state lacks a comprehensive policy governing their siting and development.
"Connecticut is falling behind in the IT economy because of this," Carstensen said. That is concerning, he added, because of projections for flat employment growth or possibly a loss of jobs in Connecticut over the next several years.
"We need more of them," Carstensen said of data centers. "New York and Massachusetts are racing ahead in this sector."
Data centers are a vital component of the digital economy because of the growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing. And Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has voiced support for having more data centers in the state.
But Carstensen acknowledged that there is some opposition to data centers because they consume large amounts of electricity and require large amounts of water to cool computer infrastructure inside them.
Colman said one thing Bloomifield officials want to get more information on is "what the future is for these types of buildings when the technology inside them become obsolete."
Company abandons plans for 20-acre battery energy storage project in Killingly
Alison Cross
Killingly — The company behind a $400 million proposal to build the state’s largest battery energy storage facility in Dayville has withdrawn its application.
Windham Energy Center, LLC, suspended its plans to construct a 325-megawatt battery energy storage facility at 189 Lake Road — the site of the scrapped Killingly Energy Center fossil fuel plant.
In a letter to the Connecticut Siting Council last month, Kenneth Baldwin, an attorney for Windham Energy Center, said his client was withdrawing two of its applications. One requested that the council revoke a certificate for the canceled fossil fuel plant. The other asked the council to approve the construction of the battery facility.
Baldwin and four other representatives for Windham Energy Center and its parent company, the Israel-based Sunflower Sustainable Investments, did not respond to requests for comment regarding their decision to back out.
Windham Energy Center submitted its application for the battery facility in October. With a capacity of 325 megawatts, it would have held the state’s largest reserve of clean energy, but the project application could not move forward until the certificate for the defunct fossil fuel plant was revoked.
After months of proceedings, the council was scheduled to return a decision on the revocation by Aug. 5, when Windham Energy Center withdrew its requests.
In a letter, Melanie Bachman, the executive director of the council, told Windham Energy Center that if the company were to revive the project and submit an amended proposal, it would require the company to restart the process with new applications.
The proposed energy storage facility would have sat on roughly 20 acres of a 63-acre parcel at the Lake Road site.
Jonathan Milley, a spokesman for Windham Energy Center, told The Day in February that the site would have supplied enough electricity to power 325,000 homes — more than 20% of the state’s housing stock — for 2 hours.
Milley said it would lower energy costs by storing purchased power from the Millstone Nuclear Power Station and Brayton Point Renewable Energy Center when prices are low and deploying the energy when prices are high.
In 2021, the General Assembly set a target of deploying 1,000 megawatts of energy storage in the state by Dec. 31, 2030. To date, the Connecticut Siting Council has approved roughly 110 megawatts of storage.
Environmental advocates have championed battery technology as essential for storing and delivering energy from wind, solar and other energy sources, but the systems have also faced criticism for their potential fire risk if batteries are damaged or overheat, a phenomenon known as thermal runaway.
Research has shown that these fires can emit toxic gases and run the risk of explosion. Once a fire starts, the only option is to let it burn out completely.
This will go down in flames’: Fairfield County towns seek to derail Eversource’s sale of Aquarion
Leaders in Fairfield County are ramping up their opposition to the pending sale of Aquarion Water Co. to a nonprofit, quasi-public entity for roughly $2.4 billion.
In January, Eversource Energy announced that it would sell its water subsidiary, Aquarion, to the newly created Aquarion Water Authority (AWA).
Eversource has said it expects the deal to close in late 2025. But if opponents have their way, the sale won’t happen at all.
As the sale awaits approval from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, the Connecticut Metropolitan Council of Governments (MetroCOG) has hired former Aquarion CEO Charles Firlotte as a consultant in an effort to derail the sale.
An evidentiary hearing before PURA is set to begin next week.
“They’re going to have to put on a PT Barnum road show to convince anyone this has a benefit to the customer,” Firlotte said in an interview with the Hartford Business Journal. “And I think that is where this will go down in flames.”
MetroCOG, along with the Western Connecticut Council of Governments and five municipalities – Fairfield, New Canaan, Ridgefield, Westport and Shelton – have secured intervener status in the case.
On July 1, the interveners filed with PURA a “motion to correct a deficient application,” which claims Aquarion’s application for the ownership change erroneously names AWA as the acquiring party in an attempt to mislead the public.
The deficiency “would be fatal to the application,” if not corrected, the motion states.
“They fronted Aquarion Water Authority as the acquirer, which is just a piece of fiction, because the Aquarion Water Authority is nothing more than an enabling piece of legislation,” Firlotte said. “And I believe they have done this deliberately to confuse the public.”
The “enabling piece of legislation” refers to a change, which the legislature approved during a hastily called special session last summer, to the charter of the Regional Water Authority (RWA) allowing the acquisition to occur.
RWA is a nonprofit, quasi-public water utility that serves 14 towns and cities in south central Connecticut, including New Haven.
Following the sale, AWA and RWA will share executive leadership, but will exist as distinct, standalone entities.
On July 8, RWA filed a response to the interveners’ motion, denying their claim that RWA is the “controlling party” in the transaction. The interveners’ claim ignores the statutory framework governing the transaction, according to RWA.
“Rather than identifying any valid ‘deficiency’ in the joint application, the public intervenors raise a contrived (and incorrect) factual dispute and effectively seek a premature ruling from PURA on the substantive merits of the joint application,” the filing states.
If approved, the deal will be financed through AWA’s issuance of tax-exempt bonds.
Firlotte says that debt will ultimately be repaid by AWA customers, leading to higher rates.
“I think what they’re really trying to do is shift the risk from the shareholder to a captive customer body,” Firlotte said. “If this were a private entity buying Aquarion, the difference between the rate base and the price paid – the acquisition premium, if you will – would never be put on the backs of the customers, because their economic regulator, in this case, PURA, would not allow that.”
However, RWA contends that the sale will help stabilize rates because, as a nonprofit, AWA can obtain lower-cost debt financing than a for-profit company. Over time, that means AWA can invest in the water infrastructure at a lower cost, proponents say.
Fairfield County towns are also concerned about the loss of tax revenue from Aquarion’s conversion to a nonprofit. Many towns collect millions of dollars in property taxes from the company.
Critics fear AWA will be able to indiscriminately increase water rates, as it would no longer be supervised by PURA.
The sale of Aquarion has invoked a longstanding debate about whether utilities operate more effectively as investor-owned entities or as nonprofit groups.
It’s unusual for an investor-owned company to be sold to a quasi-public entity, Firlotte said, and RWA epitomizes the reasons why a nonprofit model doesn’t work.
He said RWA charges rates that are about 30% higher than Aquarion’s. RWA would not confirm that figure Friday, but said there are “multiple reasons that rates vary by utility.”
PURA expects to issue a proposed final decision on Aquarion’s application by Oct. 22.
The evidentiary hearing is set to begin Thursday at PURA’s headquarters in New Britain. The interveners include 25 municipalities, the state Department of Public Health, the Office of the Attorney General and Save the Sound.
In addition, the National Association of Water Companies has secured intervener status and plans to provide a national perspective about the performance of investor-owned utilities in comparison to government-run entities.
Connecticut Water Co., a subsidiary of investor-owned H2O America, based in San Jose, California, has also obtained intervener status.
Bridgeport-based Aquarion provides water service to 57 municipalities and owns eight reservoir systems in Connecticut.