$167 million Norwich wastewater plant project expected to start construction this fall

Matt Grahn

NORWICH — One of the biggest construction projects in Norwich’s history will soon be underway.

The Norwich Public Utilities wastewater treatment plant on Hollyhock Island will be replaced with a new upgraded building, with work beginning in the fall.

The new plant project went to out bid at the end of January and proposals are due March 29. Once a contractor is set, it's expected that the approvals will be given late spring, and construction is expected to start in the fall. It will be a three to five year build process, with the new system bring brought on line before the old building is demolished, Norwich Public Utilities General Manager Chris LaRose said.

“I’ve been here 25 years, and this is by far the biggest construction project we have,” he said.

Why now?NPU expects to spend $25 million on sewer and water work.

Old plant to remain functional during construction

The utility expects to spend at least $167 million on upgrading the Wastewater Treatment Plant on Hollyhock Island. Most of the existing plant will be demolished and replaced, except for the sludge building, which will be renovated instead, The Bulletin reported in Nov. 2021.

The plant will remain functional during construction, and adapt to other traffic on Hollyhock Island, which is why the project will take so much time. During construction, the work will continue throughout the year, but will be limited to the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. noise ordinance. Once complete, the plant will last at least 25 years, Wastewater Operations Integrity Manager Larry Sullivan said.

The build will start from the administrative building, and go out. Some of the features of the new build will include three new clarifiers, a disinfection station, and the headworks, which is the point of entry for wastewater and reduces odor. 

Other work related to the wastewater plant includes a new Rose Alley Pumping Station, and new wet weather combined sewer overflows treatment facility, according to an overview document from Norwich Public Utilities.

The current plant, which is almost 100 years old and last improved in the 1970s, needs to be upgraded because it does not meet current nitrogen emission standards and to maintain compatibility with the incinerators run by the Metropolitan District Commission in Hartford.

The incinerators are switching from treating the cake sludge the wastewater treatment plant currently makes, to liquid sludge, as the latter is easier to heat and requires less energy, and "the MDC is the only game in town" for processing sludge, Sullivan told The Bulletin in Nov. 2021.

The project will have funding through grants and loans. The loan is federal money from the Clean Water Fund, a 2% interest loan to be paid in 20 years, administered by the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. It isn't set in stone yet, but Sullivan is hoping for mid to high twenties for the grant percentage, which will also come from the Clean Water Fund.

However, there will still be additional revenue required from customers. There will be rate increases based on the project's total cost, an overview document from Norwich Public Utilities states.

Work on this plant not only benefits Norwich, but the nearby towns of Bozrah, Franklin, Lisbon, Preston, and Sprague, as they’re all connected to this wastewater system, and there are plans to expand Norwich Public Utilities' wastewater service, Communications and Community Outreach Manager Chris Riley said. 

“The more towns we can tie into it, the better it is for our customers, because that brings the cost down for the customers of Norwich,” he said.

Four contractors interested in the project

As of Friday, four large general contractors have expressed interest in taking on the project, and attended a required meeting. The contractor that will be awarded the job is the one that can satisfy all the parameters at the lowest cost, can secure the bonding, and has prior experience in large-scale projects.  Whichever contractor wins, they’ll be hiring local trades people to fill roles, from truck drivers to carpenters, providing more jobs to the area, Sullivan said.

The city purchasing agent and the design engineer from firm CDM Smith will also review the bids. CDM Smith and Norwich Public Utilities will keep personnel onsite through the project make sure things are correct, Sullivan said.

“There’s no valves opened, and no pipes closed or shut off until NPU operations signs off on it,” he said.

NPU will be getting the affordability analysis, bid numbers and EPA affordability requirements. After all this, the project will need approval from NPU’s board, and then the Norwich City Council, LaRose said.

Given the scale of the project, safety is a priority. The safety program for Norwich Public Utilities is thorough, and will be in full force as around one hundred trades people may be working at a time, using and working alongside cranes and other heavy machinery. The contractors will be subject to safety inspections, Sullivan said.

“Safety is the first priority, and that will be something reiterated in every meeting that takes place onsite and during construction,” Riley added.

Two Weeks of Night Closures Scheduled for East Haddam Swing Bridge

Cate Hewitt,

EAST HADDAM — From Feb. 20 to March 3, complete closures of the East Haddam Swing Bridge on Route 82 are scheduled for Monday through Friday nights, with possible closures on Saturday and Sunday nights if inclement weather cancels work during the week. 

The bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. on those dates, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation. 

Updates on weekend closures will be available on Thursdays each week. Motorists can receive closure alerts by signing up here. 

During the night closures, traffic will be detoured to the I-95 Baldwin Bridge in Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, and to the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown and Portland. 

The closures began Jan. 4 for rehabilitation of the 110-year-old bridge and work is expected to be completed February 25, 2025, according to CT DOT. 

Pennsylvania-based American Bridge Company built the bridge in 1913 and was awarded a $55 million contract in June 2022 to repair and update structural and electrical components of the bridge. 

A cantilevered pedestrian bridge will also be constructed, adding $23 million to the $55 cost, according to a spokesperson for CT DOT. 

The state has estimated the two-year project will require 25 full bridge closures in addition to about 23 weeks of 24/7 one-way alternating traffic. From December through March in 2023 and 2024, passage through the bridge will be closed to boats taller than 25 feet. 

Luxury apartments, museums, retail and more in development proposal for East Hartford’s Founders Plaza

Michael Puffer

Goodwin University has dropped plans for a 32-slip marina in the Connecticut River, but East Hartford has good reason to hope for a much grander project mixing museums, luxury apartments, retail and medical office along the riverbank a little further north.

East Hartford Mayor Michael Walsh said developers pursuing a large mixed-use project at the Founders Plaza office park have “secured” the rights to the vacant former Bank of America office building at 99 Founders Plaza and the “Red Thread” building at 300 East River Drive. They also intend to build on surface parking around 111 Founders Plaza. 

Altogether, this yields a nearly 30-acre building site along the river, Walsh said  

“After 50 years of virtually no development on Founders Plaza, we will be able to densify that,” Walsh said.

The “Port Eastside” project is among 20 projects and initiatives contained within Walsh’s recently released “control tower” for 2023. Walsh would not disclose the developers behind the proposal but said they intend to unveil details of their plan in early March.

The proposal will require a blend of assistance from the Capital Region Development Authority, the town and state, Walsh said.

The town has already applied for a $5 million state grant to demolish an undisclosed portion of the standing buildings ahead of the redevelopment.

Walsh’s control tower predicts demolition beginning this spring and the project wrapping in 2026.

Walsh envisions Port Eastside’s amenities paired with assets on the river’s western bank, including the Connecticut Convention Center, Front Street arts and entertainment district, Connecticut Science Center, Riverfront Recapture’s parks and more. Together, these would create a greater draw for visitors and new development, adding to the vibrancy of the capital region.

“Whether it’s housing, whether it’s apartments, whether it’s retail and cultural assets, I think all of those would do well to sit on the banks of the river on the East Hartford side and really finish what started 20 years ago with Adriaen’s Landing, with Front Street and with Coltsville,” Walsh said.

Port Eastside could be a neighbor to a roughly 130-unit apartment development West Hartford-based developer Simon Konover Co. is contemplating for a 35.2-acre property at 341 East River Drive. This is another project on Walsh’s priority list.

Absent from that list is a 32-slip marina Goodwin University hoped to build alongside its riverside campus.

The state granted East Hartford $2 million last year to help defray the anticipated $4.5 million cost. The university hoped to use the marina to draw in a hotel and multifamily development alongside its campus. It has had to back off those plans after bids for the construction came in “many millions” over their anticipated budget, said Mark McGovern, Goodwin’s director of economic development.

McGovern said the university hopes to return to the marina-building plan at some point, but it would now have to be incorporated into a larger, mixed-use, development.

“We would like to redevelop our riverfront with a mixed-use project and we’re hopeful we can have a marina component to that,” McGovern said. 

Labor shortages, inflation vex civil contractors, but optimism remains

Jen A. Miller

Federal infrastructure funding is rolling out more slowly than expected, inflation is cutting into public works budgets and skilled labor shortages are resulting in lost work — nonetheless, civil contractors and engineers are positive about the industry’s outlook, Dodge Construction Network’s Civil Quarterly 2023 Issue 1 report found. 

The data and analytics firm also dug into BIM trends and surveyed its audience about something new in this issue: mental health. Here are some highlights from the report.

Labor shortages mean work turned down, but optimism is up

Finding skilled workers is a persisting problem in construction, and per a new analysis by Associated Builders and Contractors, looks set to worsen as a large swath of workers reach retirement age. The Dodge report goes into this problem in more detail. Of civil contractors surveyed, 72% said they struggled to hire skilled workers; since the second quarter of 2021, that number has hovered around 70%. 

Labor gaps are affecting project timelines as well as how much work contractors and engineers can take on: 58% of civil contractors said they are turning down work due to a shortage of skilled workers, up from 50% in the fourth quarter of 2021. This labor shortage may “impact the degree to which the U.S. can fully capitalize on the extra infrastructure funding that has been allotted,” according to the report.

As workarounds, companies are asking workers to do more, putting in higher bids, and/or letting schedules run long, according to Donna Laquidara-Carr, industry insights research director at Dodge Data & Analytics.

“But is it going to choke the pipeline? I think contractors are too committed to getting work done to see that happen,” said Laquidara-Carr.

She is buoyed by the fact that, despite rumblings of a recession, of civil contractors surveyed, 26% expect a significant increase in revenue, and 14% expect a significant increase in profit margins within the next 12 months. That’s more optimistic than the third quarter of 2022, where those numbers stood at 20% and 11%, respectively.

BIM and digital twins gain popularity

Construction is notoriously slow to adopt tech, but the use of BIM and digital twins is growing. Dodge found that 78% of civil engineers use BIM, up from 66% in 2020. Those percentages are lower among civil contractors: 60% don’t use BIM at all. 

Usage rate also depends on the size of the civil contractor, with 63% of large contractors using BIM, 41% of midsize contractors and 14% of small contractors. For small contractors, BIM use actually declined from 20% in 2020.

BIM is still not commonly used on infrastructure projects, according to the report, even though it has the potential to transform civil work. Dodge found that most civil contractors and engineers have had owners request BIM models, even if it’s not a common experience. Only 6% of contractors and 13% of engineers reported that this happens on more than half their projects. 

Interest in digital twins is increasing and driving owner requests, said Laquidara-Carr. Digital twins, representations of a physical asset or system which enables virtual interaction, can be used not only in the construction process but also by owners for operations and maintenance after project completion. 

“Contractors are very driven by what their owners are looking for,” she said. Right now, going from BIM to digital twin is nice to have, but “if this takes off with owners, they are going to be expecting digital delivery.” 

New focus on mental health

For the first time, Dodge Construction did a deep dive into mental health in the civil engineering and contractor world — a problem that disproportionately impacts the industry. Because of the pandemic, construction has become more willing to discuss and address suicide, addiction and other mental health challenges, according to Laquidara-Carr.

“Mental health is starting to be an area that the construction industry is really paying attention to,” said Laquidara-Carr. She also found a “deliberate acknowledgment of opioid use and the fact that companies can’t just ignore it.” 

The report found that 53% of large civil contractors provide some kind of resources for mental health, and of those, 19% made addressing mental health issues a priority. Those numbers are lower as the size of the company shrinks: 41% of midsize civil contractors have resources to address mental health as do only 20% of small civil contractors.

Respondents’ most-used mental health resources are employee assistance programs, which provide information on where to find mental health websites and programs. Despite their investment, few surveyed believe that any of these strategies work. While stigma about seeking help persists, Dodge found that 59% of civil engineers believe that company leadership visibly prioritizing mental health would reduce that stigma. 

These discussions, actions and awareness are “a positive sign for the construction industry and bodes well,” said Laquidara-Carr. “Even though it’s not ‘mission accomplished,’ it’s being on the right path.”