Torrington residents say school project should use local workforce, have Planned Labor Agreement

TORRINGTON — Residents want to be sure the Torrington School Building Committee is using every advantage it has to hire local workers for the $159 million construction project, which is in the early stages since voters approved it in November 2020.

During the Board of Education’s recent building committee meeting, people concerned with using out-of-state contractors and subcontractors for the multifaceted project spoke up, saying they want the committee to establish a Planned Labor Agreement with the contractor. The PLA would require that 25 percent of those hired for the project are local companies and employees.

“Torrington is a community desperate for good jobs,” she said. “If we are building in Torrington, we should be employing Connecticut workers and create good, local jobs for Torrington residents. There are already hundreds of building tradespeople in Torrington.”

Hoehne said the reputations of herself and others who promoted the project to get it passed were on the line, if the committee “makes a decision that wastes taxpayer money.”

“Building projects using a PLA are done on time, and come in under budget,” she said. “Before the (project vote), we talked about creating a community center, something we could all be proud of. Imagine if we could use those extra tax dollars to create something.”

Corey Vailey, a Torrington High School graduate, also urged the committee to use local workers. And resident Gary Simick, a member of Local 478, the Union of Operating Engineers, said he has worked all over Connecticut.

“A PLA could guarantee local workers,” he said. “Our tax dollars are paying for this school, and we should be paying local workers. Bring quality help in and you’ll get a quality project out. It’s what you guys should do.”

Bill Finch, former Bridgeport mayor, also spoke on behalf of PLAs. “Keep the money in the community,” he said. “You’ll never regret it.”

But Chris Fryxell, president of the Connecticut Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, said PLAs don’t work well in many cases.

“If a PLA is not used, all qualified workers get the chance to work,” he said. “PLA would use all union-only workers. There’s job site fairness. ... This would be a prevailing wage job. As far as a project being on time and on budget, there’s no magic contract that guarantees a project will be done on time. PLAs repress competition, and you’ll get more bids without one.

“The only thing a PLA will ensure is that 100 percent of the workforce on the project is union labor,” he said. A PLA “ will not provide a more cost-effective job, a safer job, a better product, or any value whatsoever to the taxpayers of Torrington. The only beneficiary is the unions.”

He said that hiring local workers is a “reasonable goal” but that a good faith effort to hire local can be built into a contract. “It doesn’t have to have a PLA,” he said.

Joe Toner, president of CT Building Trades, and Kimberly Glassman, president of the Foundation for Fair Contracting, also shared their opinion about hiring local workers and establishing a PLA

“One of the big misconceptions is that unions push contracts,” Glassman said. “All of them employ thousands of workers, and they also support PLAs.”

“A PLA is a pre-hire agreement between the municipality and the building trades, and the only way to ensure resident requirements, and resident participation,” Toner said.

Derby-Shelton Bridge will remain open during spring upgrades

Brian Gioiele 

SHELTON — The long-discussed work on the Derby-Shelton bridge over the Housatonic River will begin this week.

The state Department of Transportation announced last week that the repair and reconfiguration of the bridge — primarily intended to improve access for both cyclists and pedestrians — will start April 1.

The proposed work, according to state officials, includes the moving several utilities and an overall realignment of traffic with a final configuration of three 11-foot travel lanes, two sidewalks — 5-foot and roughly 8-foot — and a 10-foot bike lane.

The parapets will be built to meet new safety standards with the current historic shape and finish. The existing lighting will also be upgraded and include decorative light standards.

Emergency Management Director Michael Maglione said Bridge Street, between Howe Avenue and Route 34 in Derby, will be open for two-way traffic.

Mohawk Northeast, Inc. Construction, which won the $6.3 million contract for the work, will maintain a minimum of one 11-foot travel lane in each direction during construction.

“Mohawk has shown a willingness to work on the bridge following the best safety measures possible while helping to maintain a normal traffic flow,” Maglione said.

Work will begin on the northern side of the structure and progress to the center of the bridge and finish with the reconstruction of the southern parapet. Access to and from the Derby Greenway will be maintained except during the actual construction of an upgraded access point, officials said.

Mohawk’s bid was almost $1.5 million below its pre-bid estimate on the work, completion of which should be November 2023, officials said.

“I am pleased we were able to secure the funds, and I want to thank the Bond Commission for its assistance in making this grant a reality,” state Rep. Jason Perillo, 113, said. R- Perillo acknowledged the assistance of Rick Dunne, Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments executive director, and Jim Ryan, formerly the president of the Shelton Economic Development Corporation, for “their invaluable assistance in moving this project forward.

“The Derby-Shelton Bridge has tremendous historic value,” Perillo said. “It was built in 1918 and is one of only a dozen concrete arch bridges in the state. It originally carried two sets of trolley tracks in addition to the vehicular lanes.

“This work will help restore the bridge to its original historic feel and will complement in-process redevelopment projects in downtown Shelton,” Perillo said.

The project is designed to create an aesthetically pleasing public space along the Derby-Shelton Bridge and provide an attractive gateway that is pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly to the downtown areas, according to Dunne.

Initial funding to get the project started was obtained through the efforts of Perillo and fellow state Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria along with former state Reps. Themis Klarides and Linda Gentile.

The project design was performed by AECOM under contract with NVCOG. Details include the replacement of bridge parapet walls, the removal of existing lighting and replacement with period-style light, colored LED “up-lighting” that will accent the archways and parapets from below the bridge, a second travel lane for traffic heading to Derby, new pavement and curbing, and the shifting of the travel lanes to accommodate wider sidewalks on the south side of the bridge and a cycle track.

The project marks the second major element of a three-part plan developed by the NVCOG to improve traffic flow and pedestrian experience connecting Derby and Shelton, Dunne said.

“Beginning with the expansion of the Atwater Bridge crossing of the Naugatuck River on Route 34, which was completed in 2017, the three projects span two rivers from the east bank of the Naugatuck River through downtown Derby and across to the west bank of the Housatonic River at Canal Street in Shelton,” Dunne said.

The final phase, Dunne said, is a complete reconstruction of Main and lower Elizabeth streets in Derby, which will be advertised for bid by July 2021. The Main Street project is expected to be completed in 2024.

The Derby-Shelton Bridge project will also offer connectivity with the existing Housatonic Riverwalk trail network in Shelton and the Naugatuck River Greenway in Derby. The project limits will extend from the Bridge Street intersection with Main Street in Derby to the west end of the Derby-Shelton Bridge and along the southeast ramp to Canal Street.

Bridgeport council gets tour, more info on $395M sewer upgrade

Brian Lockhart  

BRIDGEPORT — Lauren McBennett Mappa is hoping to seal the $395 million deal.

On Friday Mappa, who manages Bridgeport’s outdated wastewater treatment system, led a handful of City Council members on a tour of the West Side plant. She will also participate Saturday morning in an online “workshop” to answer outstanding questions that legislative body has about a proposed $395 million facilities upgrade.

“I hope I get the chance to really educate the council about what’s involved and why we need it,” Mappa said in an interview.

A divided council earlier this month tabled a vote authorizing the Water Pollution Control Authority obtain a $276.5 million loan and receive $118.5 million in federal grants to expand the West Side plant’s capacity and design a future overhaul of the East End treatment site.

The city is under orders by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to make infrastructure fixes to stop partially-treated wastewater from being released into local waterways and Long Island Sound during heavy rains, when storm water infiltrates and overwhelms Bridgeport’s sewer system. A state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection representative is scheduled to participate in Saturday’s meeting.

What gave several council members pause was the prospect of a spike in user fees over time. After holding bills steady for several years, the WPCA increased the average household’s current yearly sewer cost to $490. And under what Mappa has called a worst-case scenario, that amount would rise to $816 by 2027 and $1,064 by 2033 to help pay back the $276.5 million loan.

While the council’s budget committee backed the $395 million project, some of the full council’s members argued they wanted an opportunity to learn more. So Mappa helped organize the Friday and Saturday events.

The council, according to its president, Aidee Nieves, will then be expected to reconsider the $395 million request at its next meeting April 5.

“They can vote however they’re gonna vote,” Mappa said Thursday. “But I want them to understand what they're voting for. How badly we need it. We’re past ‘shelf life’ here.”

Though all 20 were invited, only five council members, according to Nieves, showed up Friday: Herself, Scott Burns, Jorge Cruz, Ernie Newton and Maria Pereira, along with state Rep. Jack Hennessy.

Nieves said the tour only reinforced her support for the plant overhaul, noting they were shown equipment “from back in the ‘70s.”

“That’s not effective use of infrastructure,” Nieves said. “This needs to be done.”

And Cruz concluded, “It needs serious work. ... I’m looking forward to supporting it (the project).”

Hennessy said afterward, “We have to do this construction. It’s definitely needed in order to improve water quality.” But, he added, “I’m absolutely not in favor of rolling the expense over to ratepayers already paying too much. My concern is to get federal and state dollars to pay for this.”

Councilman Marcus Brown was unable to attend but said he hoped Saturday’s discussion would focus in part on efforts to obtain other sources of funding, noting the benefits to Long Island Sound. “This is Long Island Sound,” he said. “It’s not owned by the city of Bridgeport. Why should we be the only ones footing the bill?”

The WPCA’s $395 million proposal would also impact Trumbull. For years, that neighboring town, with no sewage plant of its own, has used Bridgeport’s plant. In 2016, the city and Trumbull entered into a new 10-year agreement which phased out a controversial discount provided Trumbull’s 10,300 customers.

Jorge Estrada, Trumbull’s public works director who used to hold that position in Bridgeport, testified before the council this month that there were “informal conversations” over the past year but Trumbull never received “official notification a capital project of this magnitude is moving forward at this time.”

Construction will face a labor gap of 430K workers this year, ABC says

Jenn Goodman 

• Construction companies will need to hire at least 430,000 more workers this year than they employed in 2020, according to an average-growth analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released this week by Associated Builders and Contractors. 
• Under a higher-growth rate scenario, the number of additional construction workers needed in 2021 could swell to nearly 1 million, ABC said. Last year the industry employed 7.8 million workers.
• In addition, construction spending is likely to reach $1.45 trillion in 2021, up 1.3% from 2020, according to the release. The analysis also revealed that every $1 billion in construction spending generates an average of at least 5,700 construction jobs. 

Dive Insight:

The ABC study backs up recent findings from other groups that show a labor crunch is in the making for construction this year. For instance, the 2020 Marcum JOLTS Analysis of construction data released earlier this month found that despite coronavirus-induced layoffs, construction employees are becoming harder to find and more expensive.

As the industry bounces back from pandemic-related downturns, contractors in some regions are struggling to find labor and wages have risen to record levels, the Marcum report said. In January 2021, average hourly earnings of construction employees reached their highest level ever, $32.11, and average weekly hours worked rose to their highest level since 2019's third quarter. 

"When the pandemic began, some thought (and hoped) that the massive job losses observed in March and April would mitigate the skilled labor shortages that have frustrated construction firms for years," wrote Anirban Basu, Marcum's chief construction economist and author of the report. "That simply hasn't happened to any meaningful degree."  

The ABC analysis also found that last year's nominal construction spending rose 4.8% as employment fell 6.3%. This was due to several factors, ABC said:

• A spike in building materials and labor costs, attributed to shortages and supply chain disruptions.

• A change in the mix of construction work which included more residential construction, a segment that saw some of the largest cost increases due to an uptick in lumber prices.

• A labor supply reduction that encouraged faster than usual adoption of labor-saving technology by builders.

• Improvement in the scheduling and logistics of building materials delivery.

• Increased use of prefabrication and modularization.

• A decrease in the number of smaller, less efficient construction companies as they went out of business.