Connecticut environmental officials recommend permit for State Pier work in New London

Greg Smith

State environmental officials on Friday issued a proposed final decision that would clear one of the final hurdles to the start of major construction on the $235 million State Pier upgrade project.

The decision recommends that the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection issue a final permit to the Connecticut Port Authority for work at State Pier on New London’s waterfront.

The planned work is a modernization and expansion project that initially will accommodate the offshore wind industry. The state has partnered with joint venture partner Ørsted and Eversource, the companies using the pier, to cover costs of the upgrades.

State Pier is composed of two piers: the Admiral Harold E. Shear State Pier and the older Central Vermont Railroad Pier. The DEEP permit sought by the CPA would allow for infrastructure work, dredging, installation of a bulkhead and filling in of 7 acres between the two existing piers to create what is referred to as a central wharf area.

The updated pier is a planned staging area with greatly expanded load capacity to support several offshore wind farms that Ørsted and Eversource have planned.

The news was welcomed by the CPA, which applied for the permit to DEEP and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May 2019, later made revisions and has plans to complete the project sometime next year.

"The Proposed Final Decision issued by DEEP today is a strong decision, based on the robust evidence on the record including expert testimony, and clearly demonstrates how the Hearing Officer's decision effectively considered the relevant statutory and regulatory criteria,” CPA Executive Director John Henshaw said. “We look forward to the Commissioner's timely issuance of the permits."

Friday’s decision, written by DEEP Hearing Officer Brendan Schain, adopts a previously released draft decision and is based on work by the Land and Water Resources division of DEEP’s Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse. The proposed work is regulated by state statutes that include the Coastal Management Act.

"The facts and conclusions reached in the Agreed Draft Decision, as supplemented herein, demonstrate that the proposed regulated activities, if conducted in accordance with the terms and conditions of the draft permit ... comply with the relevant statutory and regulatory criteria,” Schain wrote. “The determination is supported by a preponderance of the evidence in the record. I therefore recommend that the Commissioner approve the application and issue a draft permit as a final permit."

DEEP issued its decision over the objection of road salt company DRVN Enterprises, which was a tenant on State Pier but was displaced earlier this year. DEEP ruled that a hearing on the objection was “neither necessary nor required.” DRVN Enterprises owner and President Steven Farrelly was not immediately available to comment on the decision.

In addition to DEEP, the project was reviewed by the state Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Aquaculture, which determined work would not significantly impact a shellfish area.

One of the requirements in the decision mandates that the CPA maintain a 300-foot buffer between construction work and a peregrine falcon that nests on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge. The peregrine falcon is listed as a threatened species in Connecticut. Construction is supposed to stop if the falcon is observed near the work and the CPA is to hire a falcon monitor to evaluate the bird's behavior during breeding season for signs of stress associated with the work.

Schain, in his decision, addressed some of the controversy surrounding the use of State Pier solely by the wind industry for a period of time, along with some other topics raised by critics of the project.

“The hearing process is not a referendum on which types of cargo the Applicant should allow to pass through its facility, and this is not a forum in which to debate the relative merits of wind power as either a source of clean energy or a driver of economic development,” Schain wrote. “Indeed, it is the applicant who must select the activities for which it will seek a permit; I am tasked only with determining if those activities selected — and the manner in which they will be conducted — comply with relevant law.”

Ørsted and Eversource are contributing $70 million toward the construction project, a portion of which honors a $22.5 million commitment from Deepwater Wind, which Ørsted purchased for $510 million in 2018. Deepwater constructed the Block Island Wind Farm, the first operational offshore wind farm in the country and now operated by Ørsted.

Ørsted and Eversource have committed to paying the CPA more than $20 million over 10 years while at the pier. Ørsted and Eversource separately signed a host community agreement with New London earlier this year that provides an average of at least $750,000 per year to the city over seven years with provisions up to $1.5 million per year and possibility of an extension to the agreement.

New London will continue to receive payments, currently at $125,000 per year, from the state’s payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, program and $125,000 per year as part of the state’s agreement with the CPA and port operator Gateway Terminal.

Biden's infrastructure plan calls for fixing roads. Some states are still focused on expansion.

Ian Duncan, Michael Laris and Kate Rabinowitz, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - For all the ambition of President Joe Biden's infrastructure proposal - massive spending boosts on trains and buses and a push to get Americans into electric cars - its priority for the nation's road network is more basic: Fix them.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates a $435 billion backlog of rehabilitation needs, while an analysis of agency data by The Washington Post shows that a fifth of the nation's major roads, stretching almost 164,000 miles, were rated in poor condition in 2019. That figure has stayed mostly unchanged for a decade.

Yet more than a third of states' capital spending on roads that year, $19 billion, went toward expanding the road network rather than chipping away at the backlog.

The hunger for new roads reflects a desire to connect growing communities and battle congestion at the local and state levels in a nation where most people rely on cars. That appetite for expansion is clashing with new transportation priorities in Washington that seek to bolster existing highways while promoting other modes of travel.

Transportation experts say building more roads and highway lanes is environmentally unsustainable and does the opposite of what's intended - adding to traffic levels over time rather than reducing congestion. Biden's infrastructure proposal and a Democratic-led road-funding bill that would shape rules for federal aid to states are seeking to shift the focus to trains and bus networks, rather than personal vehicles.

Biden's infrastructure plan, which would cost about $2 trillion, includes a $50 billion fund to improve 20,000 miles of streets and highways, making them safer for pedestrians and bicyclists while ensuring accessibility for wheelchair users. The plan proposes a similar approach for 10,000 bridges, backed by $40 billion.

Congressional Democrats working on renewal of a transportation funding bill to establish rules for aid to states say they want money directed toward fixing highways rather than adding new lanes. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said state and local transportation departments have been biased too long in favor of highway expansion.

"There is a phenomenal amount of work that needs to go into just rebuilding what we have," he said.

The push to accommodate growth is playing out across the country, particularly in areas seeing an influx of new residents. Political leaders and drivers often push for highway expansions, seeing them as the best way to speed commutes - a reason that's often used to justify spending.

Matthew Hardy, program director for planning and performance management at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said state leaders must balance paying off road project loans, maintaining current infrastructure and expanding capacity.

"They've got to take care of what they have, but there's always this tension," he said.

Some states already are prioritizing rehabilitation: Federal Highway Administration data analyzed by The Post shows that 11 allocated less than a tenth of their road spending to expansion in 2019, the latest year for which data is available. Rhode Island spent nothing on new capacity as it pushed to address what a state official called a half-century of neglect to its roads. (The District of Columbia also spent nothing on expanding road capacity.)

Eight states allocated more than two-thirds of their spending to expansion. Among them is Washington, where the transportation chief warned of an annual maintenance and preservation shortfall amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Washington state officials say their experience illustrates the risks of pumping money into expanding roads and skimping on rehabilitation work. The Post's analysis shows the state as the eighth worst in the country for its share of roads in poor condition, at 27%. At the same time, more than three-fourths of the state's spending on roads went toward expansion - fourth highest in the nation.

Roger Millar, the state's transportation secretary, said his agency spends less than half of what's needed to keep existing infrastructure in good condition and prevent costly deterioration - falling $925 million short. That includes maintenance, such as filling potholes, and what he calls preservation, such as painting a bridge's deck so the steel does not rust. Meanwhile, billions of dollars' worth of new roads and other projects are funded by a 2015 hike in the state gas tax.

"We're perceived as builders of stuff, and we're really good at building stuff," Millar said. But upkeep has fallen short. "That's a lot like putting a 20-year roof on your house, fully intending to replace it in 40 years. You know, your furniture is going to get wet."

State Sen. Steve Hobbs, a Democrat who chairs the transportation committee, said Washington state has sought to tackle a maintenance backlog even as road funding has been squeezed by a drop-off in gas tax funds and ferry revenue. He said the mismatch between new road spending and unmet maintenance needs also is a function of the state's growth.

New Census Bureau numbers show that the state's population grew 14.6% between 2010 and 2020, one of the fastest rates in the nation. But the consequences of forgoing maintenance can be dire, Hobbs said, pointing to the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge, a major corridor shut for safety in March 2020.

"Part of the problem you have is just the rapid population increase that's happened over the last 10, 20 years and the need for infrastructure that matches that," Hobbs said.

While Democrats want to prioritize federal aid to states seeking to improve the nation's most dilapidated roads, Republicans say funding decisions are best left to state transportation officials. Justin Harclerode, a spokesman for Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee, said the need to maintain existing roads is clear; he cited the recent closure of a bridge carrying Interstate 40 across the Mississippi River.

But, he added, Graves "doesn't believe it's a good idea to handcuff states by taking away the ability to add capacity, if that's a critical need for them."

Transportation for America, a policy organization that advocates for more spending on road maintenance, concluded in a 2019 report that many states were continuing to build new roads regardless of whether they could afford to maintain them. The problem compounds over time, according to the group, which estimated that each lane of new road adds $24,000 in annual maintenance costs per mile.

For decades, researchers have found that when roads get wider, people tend to drive more, ultimately canceling out any gains in speed. Susan Handy, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California at Davis, said traditional tools for forecasting traffic demand to assess the benefits of new construction do not effectively take that into account.

Researchers noted that traffic eventually increases by about the same percentage a road is widened, so boosting the size of a road by 10% will lead to about 10% more travel. Handy was part of a team that developed a calculator to forecast that effect in California, and its use was recommended by the state transportation agency last year.

Handy said officials across the country need to consider other ways to tackle congestion, potentially through tolls and parking fees but especially by investing in alternatives such as mass transit. The Biden plan eschews new fees on drivers but does call for a $165 billion expansion in funding for rail and other transit.

Despite a push in the nation's capital for multimodal transit options, state transportation funding across the country is heavily tilted in favor of cars. The tide has shifted in some states toward boosting the existing road network, mirroring the goals of the new administration.

Mississippi transportation leaders determined a decade ago that they could not afford new roads and highway lanes, adopting a policy of dedicating money to preserving roads already in place.

"It was a better spending of our dollars," said Jeffrey Altman, the state's acting transportation director.

Mississippi ranks 11th from the bottom for the condition of its roads, with almost 27% rated as poor. It still spent 38% of its money on expansion in 2019 - but Altman said the state received federal grant money in recent years to back new construction.

The focus is rehabilitation. Letting Mississippi roads deteriorate would drive up the costs to fix them in the long run, Altman said, and would risk causing damage to vehicles. Altman said the state still faces a financial shortfall to repair roads but noted the legislature created a lottery in 2018 to provide up to $80 million in annual transportation funding - money that was plowed into maintenance.

In Rhode Island, which federal highway data indicates has the worst roads in the country - with half rated in poor condition - records indicate that officials spent nothing on expansion in 2019.

Charles St. Martin, a spokesman for the state's transportation department, said many of the worst roads are not under state control. But he said officials have worked since 2015 on a $5 billion campaign to address what he called "50 years of unprecedented neglect."

"Expanding our state road system will not be a priority until the infrastructure is in a state of good repair," he said.

Most states report the condition of their roads using the international roughness index, a measure of how many inches a vehicle's suspension moves as it travels along a section of road. The bigger the moves, the higher the score and worse the condition.

Highway administration records have limitations. Millar said spending on a project that serves a rehabilitation goal while boosting capacity could be classified as an expansion. And condition data counts only the length of roads, not how many lanes they have - which is important in determining how expensive they might be to fix.

Figures tracked for larger roads suggest that the busiest are generally in better condition. Meanwhile, figures for minor local roads are not included in Federal Highway Administration data.

In Washington state, lawmakers are waiting to see what help they could receive from the federal government as infrastructure funding dominates debate in the nation's capital.

Hobbs, the state transportation committee chairman, introduced in this year's legislative session an $18 billion transportation funding package that included an infusion into road maintenance and preservation while limiting new construction to 15% of spending. The passage of that 16-year plan also is key to an ambitious carbon-pricing effort the legislature passed to address climate change by raising billions of dollars while reducing emissions.

The package was voted out of committee, but lawmakers decided they would pause to see how Biden's infrastructure push fares, Hobbs said, "so we can layer on top of it."

UConn breaks ground on what is expected to be 'one of the finest on-campus hockey arenas in the country'

Mike Anthony

STORRS — This was, first and foremost, a sunny celebration for a winter sport, with a crowd of 250 gathered in a far corner of the southwest portion of the UConn campus to officially break ground on a $70 million hockey arena.

So, it was about the future — about longstanding plans coming to fruition, the latest state-of-the-art facility to be erected along Jim Calhoun Way and what lies ahead for Mike Cavanaugh’s men’s team and Chris MacKenzie’s women’s team.

“Once all the Earth is moved and the construction has been finalized, this space will be occupied by one of the finest on-campus hockey arenas in the country,” athletic director David Benedict said, kicking off an hour-long ceremony that seemed to symbolize something greater.

As the mingling played out and speeches rolled on, it was clear that Saturday was also about a return of a certain campus vibrancy that is the glue to such ambitious architecture and athletic initiatives.

The people came in shorts and T-Shirts as the temperature reached 90, out of a pandemic’s shadows and into the heart of what Benedict calls UConn’s “Olympic Village.” With the very top of Gampel Pavilion visible over a hill, campus dignitaries stuck shovels into dirt, beginning work on the final piece to a puzzle built around the recently-opened Rizza Performance Center, which houses numerous sports.

Also completed and open are Morrone Stadium (soccer), Burrill Family Field (softball) and Elliot Ballpark, where on Saturday Jim Penders’ baseball team clinched the Big East title with a 10-2 victory over Seton Hall in the regular season finale. Admission to the game was free. Elliot was buzzing like ballparks should in late-May. Campus was alive with a mood that was more 2019 or 2021 than 2020, a little we’re-back moment for a state shaking free of COVID-19 shackles.

“I can’t tell you, just to interact with people, and see people at events, how much of a change in my personal psyche has taken place just in the last three days,” Benedict said. “Today is just an unbelievable day.”

The 97,300 square-foot hockey arena will have a capacity of 2,600, plus standing room. Construction is expected to take approximately 18 months and the building is expected to be ready in Fall 2022 for the start of the 2022-23 season. The process has seen numerous design iterations and various budget expectations in the eight years since Cavanaugh and MacKenzie were hired in 2013.

“I wasn’t brought here to build a dot.com,” said Cavanaugh, whose new five-year contract was announced Friday. “I’m here to build a blue chip company. … Not only will this arena help us attract top-end, elite talent. More importantly, it’s going to provide a vehicle for our players to maximize their potential and get to their dreams in life, which for most of them when they get here is to graduate and proceed to the NHL. Every kid we recruit, I want those to be their goals.”

The arena will be constructed in the parking lot adjacent to Freitas Ice Forum, which was built in 1998, dedicated in 2005 and, while functional for some purposes, falls well below current college hockey standards and Hockey East Association expectations.

“The league and member schools showed a great deal of patience and understanding as we embarked on the process of making this facility a reality,” Benedict said. “Sometimes things take a little longer than we expect. But I can assure you, the wait will be worth it.”

Freitas replaced an old outdoor rink that only people of a certain age would remember. The construction of UConn’s arena begins after Sacred Heart held a groundbreaking for its own $70 million facility.

“Are we really here right now?” MacKenzie said. “We’ve been talking about building a rink forever. I see the shovels, and now I believe it. This is just a great day for our program and our university. This is a game-changer type of day. We try to be excellent in everything we do.”

The crowd on hand for the event spread across the parking lot and eventually gathered under a tent. In attendance were many current and former hockey players, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma and many other influential figures, including Doug Elliot and Tony Rizza, the alums who made the major donations toward construction of nearby facilities.

“Another transformational project,” Benedict said. “Anyone who walks or drives on Jim Calhoun Way will be reminded of our institutional strength and the bright future that lies ahead.”

Peter Werth, whose name is on the basketball training facility, the Werth Family Champions Center, recently made another massive donation to the university — $7.5 million, with $2.5 million of that earmarked for the hockey arena. Werth has given more than $37 million to UConn, $15 million to athletics.

Naming rights for the hockey arena are available for a donation of $10 million. At least $20 million for the arena will come from donations, with the remaining $50 million coming from the sale of revenue bonds and university funds.

“Look at the profile of the student-athletes who come here,” said Dan Toscano, Board of Trustees chair. “Some 600. It’s a meaningful, powerful group — and the commitment to excellence they bring, in the classroom, in their competition fields, and the diversity they bring us. It’s a huge asset to this university. It’s difficult to value, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. They’re not just athletes. They’re student-athletes. They’re ambassadors for our brand, they carry it well and it just makes this a better place.”

Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf was among the guests to participate, as was UConn’s new interim president, Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, the CEO of UConn Health.

“Athletics is so important to the University of Connecticut, and I would say the whole state of Connecticut,” Agwunobi said. “The athletics district that we’re occupying now is incredibly impressive … and has become a source of great pride on campus. Needless to say, this is a great day for UConn hockey, it’s a great day for the University of Connecticut and it’s a great day for all of us.”

Auriemma was part of the wave of people that made its way from the groundbreaking ceremony to the baseball game a couple hundred yards away. He chatted in a reception area just beyond the fence in left field before the first pitch.

“When we were recruiting kids to come to school here, there were an awful lot of kids who took a look at the facilities and compared them to their high school facilities and were disappointed,” Auriemma said. “Disappointed initially, because this was supposed to be college and supposed to be taking a step up. But then, as it was said (by Cavanaugh during the ceremony), they came for the people. The guys that Jim Penders put in the pros wouldn’t trade their experience for a million years or a million dollars, but they didn’t come here for the facilities.

“They might now, but certainly not then. It’s about the people. And now you’ve got the facilities, and the people. So you have a chance to get that kid that loves you and loves the people, but also wants the best opportunity to be great. That’s what we’re giving them.”

Bristol's solar panel array project gets closer to completion

James Drzewiecki

BRISTOL - As July approaches, the solar panel array project gets closer to completion.