Bids for two new Norwich schools range from $102 million to $133 million

Daniel Drainville

Norwich — School Building Committee Chairman Mark Bettencourt said Tuesday the bids the city has received to build two new elementary schools are within the funding amount approved by voters.

The bids, which are available on the city's bidding portal, show that the lowest possible cost for 26 categories of work to complete the Greeneville and Stanton elementary schools, including sitework, demolition, heating, venting and cooling, is $102 million. That estimate, calculated by adding the lowest bids submitted in each of the 26 categories, does not include the cost of Downes Construction, the construction manager for the two schools, and Construction Solutions Group, the project manager for the $385 million project to build four new schools and renovate two buildings. It also does not include the cost of architectural design or woodwork, a 27th category which did not attract any bids.

The highest possible cost for the two schools, based on the initial bids, is $133.2 million. It would be unlikely for the city to choose all of the most expensive bids.

Bettencourt said some of the bids were higher than expected, while some where lower, but all fell within the various contingencies included for each of the schools. Bettencourt could not provide the contingency numbers on Tuesday.

Work to build the new Stanton and Greeneville schools is expected to begin this spring. The second two new schools, Uncas and John M. Moriarty, are in the early stages of being designed. The plan also calls for Teachers' Memorial Global Studies Middle School to be either renovated or replaced, and for the former Samuel Huntington Elementary School to be converted into a central office and adult education building.

Stanton, Uncas and Moriarty will be built on the grounds of the current schools while they continue to operate. Once the buildings are finished, the old schools will be torn down and used to create playgrounds and athletic fields. Greeneville will be built on the site of the demolished Greeneville School and adjacent land on Golden Street.

Bettencourt said Downes is currently in the process of reviewing the low bids with the contractors who submitted them, establishing a guaranteed maximum price for the work.

"Then we'll know exactly where we stand," he said, adding he hopes firm numbers will be ready by the next building committee meeting on April 15.

Bettencourt added that certain work that was more costly than expected could be rebid, as well as the architectural woodwork.

Other aspects of work that attracted bids included plumbing work, communications systems, electrical systems, fire alarms and security.

The bid period lasted nearly two months.

A bid tabulation sheet posted last Friday on the city's bidding portal shows all the contractors who submitted packages, along with their base bids in the 27 categories of work. Overall, there were more than 90 bids for the different areas of work.

Naugatuck offers incentives for businesses impacted by downtown construction

Andreas Yilma

NAUGATUCK — Borough officials are exploring an incentive plan to help downtown businesses make it through another seven months of construction work that has torn up Church Street and kept customers away.

Utility companies last March began to dig up Church Street for various utility projects including sanitary sewer, storm water, gas and underground electric and communication. Work will continue into October. 

Brady's Pub & Restaurant owner Ray Kloc said all of the construction has been poorly planned and has definitely been keeping people from coming downtown. 

"It's been horrible," Kloc said. "The whole plan, the way they're doing it, doesn't make any sense. There's absolutely no parking. They don't even make it easy for you to get from the parking lot across the street." 

Mayor N. Warren "Pete" Hess is proposing the town use its Tax Incremental Financing funds and the significant interest it has earned to help businesses which look to stay. 

"My thought would be not that we award anyone for anything that happened but we could consider setting some money — I'll say $200,000 or $300,000 — something like that from our interest to stabilize and incentivize businesses that are going to stay, remain, improve," Hess said. 

Hess said the infrastructure work resolves storm water and sanitary sewer issues that have plagued the west side of the borough for years and has created havoc in the downtown area when there is a heavy rainfall in a short period of time. 

"The biggest problem that some of those businesses are going to have is increases in rents from their landlords because the properties are all going to be more valuable and have higher rental value," Hess said. 

Public Works Director Jim Stewart said workers are now putting in the concrete underneath the new proposed brick sidewalks which will include granite curbing. Once they finish the lower end of Church Street, they will move work to in front of the Town Green and then the Maple Street Bridge that will have a new surface similar to the existing bricked crosswalks. The town was also doing some utility work before March of 2024, he added. 

"What they're seeing in front of their stores right now is a borough project but what I think they've been complaining about in the past was 100% utilities that for things that had to be done bur right now is the borough project," Hess said. 

Deputy Mayor Rocky Vitale said he thinks that the hardest part is going to be the measure of damages, almost like an insurance when businesses shut down. 

"To me, it's not nearly as much as about losses because we didn't cause any of those losses, those were caused by the utilities," Hess said. "It's more about, to me, taking an existing business and saying, you know in the next year, you're going to stay and you're going to prove to us you're going to stay." 

Buiness owner Kloc said a few businesses have already closed their stores on Church Street and relocated elsewhere including Team Image and Little Black Dress. 

"It doesn't seem like work is moving very fast and I don't think the plan was well done," he said. "Obviously it needed to happen. There was a lot of outdated utility lines that had to get replaced but it seems like they're ripping the same spot over and over again and it doesn't really seem to be a big sense of urgency on their part to get it done and they haven't really taken account, they don't seem to try to accommodate the businesses at all." 

Hess said the town will put a group of talented people together to move forward with the incentive program as town officials look to have something more formalized. 

The borough board initially approved in 2022 to select Kleinfelder Northeast, a national engineering firm, for the final design of storm water and sanitary sewer upgrades and streetscape designs for Church and Maple streets. 

The engineering firm is partnering with Richter & Cegan Inc., a landscaping, architecture and planning firm, for the streetscape portion of the project. 

CTDOT to discuss future of transit and transportation in CT. ‘So much is changing,’ officials say

Sean Krofssik

The Connecticut Department of Transportation is starting what they hope will be an annual tradition.

The CTDOT is hosting the inaugural 2025 Transportation Showcase on April 1 at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford. The two-hour event is free to the public and starts at 8 a.m.

“It’s almost a monthly occurrence where a different group or organization will invite our commissioner or someone from our agency to serve on a panel or give a keynote address to the construction industry or the building trades,” CTDOT spokesperson Josh Morgan said. “We thought we should talk about what is happening here in Connecticut and host our own panel or our own showcase. That was the genesis of where this began.”

The discussions will be about everything involving transportation in the state and will include a panel including Marian Andoh-Clarke, the Hartford Chamber of Commerce’s director of small business development, CTDOT commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, Capital Region Council of Governments executive director Matt Hart and the Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate director of resilience planning John Truscinski. Arthur Guzzetti, the American Public Transportation Association’s vice president of mobility and public policy, will be the keynote speaker.

“The Transportation Showcase will bring together industry leaders, policymakers and innovators to explore how infrastructure investments will shape the future of transportation in Connecticut,” said Benjamin Limmer, CTDOT bureau chief of public transportation, said. “We look forward to exploring how enhanced public transit can drive economic growth, strengthen communities and create a more sustainable and accessible Connecticut.”

Morgan said the CTDOT is putting support behind this event to make this information available to stakeholders and the public.Read More

“It seemed like a good opportunity to launch here in 2025,” Morgan said. “We are going to be talking about what is happening right now on transit and transportation here in Connecticut, as well as some of the things the state is working on and thinking of working on.”

Some topics include how to make trains operate faster, improving travel time, investments into bus services and micro transit services to help with connections near train stations.

“Even if someone is not a daily driver or transit rider, the food that they are going to eat is going to come via our roads and rails. The goods and the clothes that they are wearing come from our roads and rails. Transportation touches everything and everyone. That will be a key focus of the showcase.”

Registration and breakfast are from 8 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. The keynote speaker and panel will follow. The panel will be moderated by WNPR’s ‘Where We Live’ host Catherine Shen and the showcase will appear on a future episode.

“We hope people will take the opportunity to come out and listen to the experts and stakeholders speak about how important mobility is for people in their day-to-day life,” Morgan said. “So much has changed and so much is changing in the area and it’s important that we have an event like this. We would love for this to be a successful event and would love to turn it into an annual celebration of transportation in Connecticut.”

Morgan said the showcase has already reached their registration goal but is speaking with the venue about increasing capacity. To register for the event, visit the showcase website.

The construction materials most at risk for tariffs

Sebastian Obando

Steel and aluminum prices have jumped sharply since the turn of the new year, and more volatility could be on the horizon.

Contractors are bracing for a new wave of tariffs set to take effect April 2, this time on certain material imported from Canada and Mexico — such as steel, aluminum and lumber. Though reports indicate the Trump administration could roll back the ultimate scope of this action, contractors say just the threat of tariffs can have an immediate impact on material costs.

That’s why that looming deadline on Canadian and Mexican imports has already sparked concern across the construction industry, particularly around reinforcing and structural steel, curtainwall systems and Canadian lumber, said Steve Stouthamer, executive vice president of project planning for Skanska USA Building.

Here, Stouthamer talks with Construction Dive about the materials most at risk, tariffs’ impact on budgets and negotiations and steps contractors can take to minimize financial exposure.

CONSTRUCTION DIVE: Which construction materials do you expect will see the greatest price volatility due to tariffs?

STEVE STOUTHAMER: The materials being impacted the most are products made from steel and aluminum.

For example, reinforcing steel used in concrete, structural steel used in the building frame, aluminum curtainwall and window wall systems used in the building envelope, piping and ductwork used in mechanical and electrical systems and many building mechanical and electrical equipment components.

Steel prices have increased 15% to 25% since the beginning of January and aluminum is also up 8% to 10% from the beginning of January. The Trump administration has indicated Canadian lumber will be included in the reciprocal tariffs which are set to take effect on April 2. Lumber has already seen a significant increase, 10% to 15% in cost, in anticipation of this tariff.

How might these tariffs affect project costs and timelines?

We are in the early stages of helping our clients understand the order of magnitude cost impacts we see based on current tariffs and those will vary based on the type of project and the material composition of those projects.

At present, we are not expecting a near-term impact on project timelines. If there is a considerable shift to onshoring manufacturing, supply chain schedules could be constrained, but this is not like the situation we experienced during the pandemic where the supply chains were impacted by global shutdowns. 

At the moment, the broader Mexico and Canada tariffs on products protected by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are suspended until April 2.  Upon resumption, it is our current understanding that 25% broad tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada would stack on top of the all-country steel and aluminum tariffs of 25%, resulting in a 50% levy.

With the latest tariff suspensions, it is unclear if this will ultimately be the case. We will be monitoring the situation in the weeks ahead.

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How do you see tariffs affecting negotiations with owners and developers?

Tariff cost impacts will put pressure on project budgets. Many of those are already challenged by the significant period of escalation experienced post-pandemic.

We are only a few weeks into the tariff executive orders so it’s too early to comment with certainty as to how contracts will be impacted or negotiated. Our approach will be to engage with our clients and discuss the most cost-effective ways to manage the tariff risks.

Do you expect issues with tariffs to be temporary or a long-term factor that construction firms need to adapt to permanently?

It’s too early to comment on this.

History would suggest that even when tariffs are removed and trade agreements are reached, costs don’t just return to previous levels.

What policy or industry efforts could help mitigate the impact of tariffs on construction firms?

Estimating professionals will need to take deeper dives into their projects to understand product volumes, sources and tariff impact to assist clients in better understanding the financial impacts of tariffs and potential alternative products and product sources.

Strategic supply chain teams, such as our own at Skanska, will need to remain closely connected to the supply chain and major fabricators of steel and aluminum products as well as other key construction materials that will be impacted by tariffs. It is essential to have this connectivity so that companies such as ours can continue to advise clients and industry partners on the best strategies to mitigate the impact of tariffs.

Projects can benefit by investing additional time into the mapping of the specified materials for the project to determine their source, if those sources are impacted by tariffs and whether alternative products and sources could mitigate financial risk.