CT Construction Digest Thursday March 31, 2022
AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE STATE BOND COMMISSION MARCH 31, 2022
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The state is poised to approve more than $150 million for dozens of Connecticut communities, helping Bloomfield to build a new library, Hartford to improve Pope Park and West Hartford to replace high school tennis courts.
The Bond Commission on Thursday is expected to authorize grants that will aid Glastonbury, Rocky Hill, East Hartford, Vernon, New Britain, Manchester, Wethersfield, Middletown, Mansfield, East Windsor, Hebron, Portland, East Haddam, along with others.
In cases like Bloomfield, the grants will be just a supplement to local tax dollars. But in West Hartford and some other communities, the aid will pay for an entire project.
West Hartford is on track to get $3 million, the estimated cost of refurbishing all 24 tennis courts at its two high schools.
“The tennis courts at both Conard and Hall high schools are in rough shape and the time to replace them has finally arrived,” state Sen. Derek Slap said after Gov. Ned Lamont announced the state’s funding plan. “We all know how important recreation is for the physical and mental health of adolescents and adults.”
Mayor Shari Cantor on Tuesday noted that the project potentially benefits everyone in town, since the courts are open to residents when they’re not in use by the schools.
“They’re a huge community asset and they’re decades old - they’re in desperate need of repair,” she said. “The students will directly benefit, but it helps everyone. This is important to the well-being of our entire community.”
The state is also planning to put $1 million toward the cost of modernizing Bloomfield’s library system. By a 2,716 to 549 vote in November, Bloomfield residents approved spending up to $29.1 million to replace the Prosser Public Library in the town center and expand the McMahon Wintonbury Library near the Windsor line.
The library staff has said the projects will create more floor room with an emphasis on separate children’s areas and teen spaces.
The plan is to add study spaces, additional parking and community meeting areas too. The buildings will also be more energy-efficient and accessible, according to the library.
Drawings presented last month by TSKP Studio, the architectural firm handling the projects, also show small cafes at each building.
Glastonbury is in line for $2 million to help with preserving open space. The town has committed more than $30 million toward buying conservation land, much of it former farmland.
In 2020, voters approved replenishing the community’s open space acquisition fund, which had been depleted. Glastonbury’s state legislative delegation put out announcements this week praising Lamont for authorizing the aid.
“It’s reassuring to know even more of Glastonbury’s open spaces will be preserved and protected for us all to enjoy in years to come,” Sen. Steve Cassano said.
Hartford’s Pope Park is scheduled to get a share of $7.5 million for Hartford’s neighborhood and streetscape improvements. The city plan to add lighting, new splashpads, improved landscaping and traffic safety improvements.
Among the other communities scheduled to receive aid:
Vernon $2.5 million to restore the Fox Hill Memorial Tower; Portland $500,000 towards replacing the Portland Secondary School track; Wethersfield $3 million toward improving townwide street lighting, public parking and the library; Mansfield $834,000 to modernize town hall; East Hartford $556,000 to expand Intercommunity Healthcare;
Also Hartford $3 million to expand the Blue Hills Civic Association facility; Hartford $750,000 to complete the GreenWalk at Bushnell Gardens; Middletown $2 million toward the redevelopment of 545 Main St.; New Britain $1.08 million toward energy efficiency work at the New Britain-Berlin YMCA; Manchester $500,000 for improvements at Laurel Marsh Park;
Also East Windsor $800,000 for parks improvements; East Haddam $1.4 million for a new athletic complex; Rocky Hill $500,000 to modernize the Old Forge Road Bridge; New Britain $500,000 for its Main Street Connection program; Middletown $500,000 to study a connector between the Air Line Trail and the Farmington Canal Trail; Hebron $2 million for a backup electric generator for RHAM High School.
I-91 bridge in Hartford named '2022 Bridge of the Year'
A bridge in Hartford has won a national award for its design work and use of materials.
The National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA) has announced Wednesday that the Interstate 91 Interchange 29 Exit Ramp Flyover Bridge – recently finished last year in an attempt to ease traffic in the area – won the 2022 Bridge of the Year award.
The bridge and ramp connect the Charter Oak Bridge and Interstate 84 east. The flyover bridge was part of the state’s $240 million Charter Oak Bridge project. The project's goal is to make various improvements to reduce congestion and improve safety in Hartford, East Hartford, and Wethersfield.
The organization said the bridge features a two-lane, high-speed ramp that showcases a "novel approach" to bridge building, using a triple I-girder straddle bent to help eliminate critical fracture points after long-term use, also lowering long-term inspection costs.
"The triple I-girder straddle bent cap is a highly innovative and very effective solution," said Prize Bridge Award Judge Domenic Coletti, PE, principal bridge engineer at HDR. "It took advantage of steel's benefits all around."
The state Departments of Transportation in Texas and Georgia, which both typically rely on concrete straddle bents, are closely examining this steel alternative.
The organization also praised the use of a specific kind of steel. The steel used for the flyover bridge was uncoated weathering steel. The NSBA said the patina, or weathering, that happens over time after the steel is exposed to the elements protects the structural steel from corrosion.
The NSBA said the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) has used this type of weathering steel since the early 1960s and some of the state's oldest bridges are still in very good condition 55 years later.
"It's fitting that the inaugural Bridge of the Year Award goes to a first-of-its-kind project," said NSBA Senior Director of Market Development Jeff Carlson. "The I-91 Interchange 29 Exit Ramp Flyover Bridge marks the beginning of a new approach to eliminating fracture critical elements by providing load path redundancy--one that has already made an impact beyond Connecticut's borders."
The American Institute of Steel Construction and the National Steel Bridge Alliance has recognized outstanding bridge design since 1928. Eight bridges won Prize Bridge Awards in the 2022 competition.
Tweed New Haven opponents hold forum on concerns about airport, expansion
EAST HAVEN — Neighbors and opponents of Tweed New Haven Regional Airport again voiced their concerns and frustrations over the airport and its expansion plans, this time at their own forum Tuesday night.
“Tweed Talk” focused on Avelo Airlines’ growing service at the airport, as well as plans for a new terminal on the East Haven side of the airport and a runway extension.
The airport sits in both New Haven and East Haven.
The forum, held at Hagaman Memorial Library and on Zoom, was organized by 10,000 Hawks, a volunteer group committed to preserving the coastline and wetlands and maintaining the health of the neighborhood, mainly focused on the Tweed expansion, saw more than 67 virtual attendees and roughly 120 people in the library.
State Rep. Joseph Zullo, R-East Haven, and Andrew King, who works in communications for Avports, which operates Tweed, also attended.
Group members raised issues including pollution, wetlands and flooding, noise and vibrations, and economic impacts.
Gabriela Campos of New Haven spoke about the environmental impact assessment being conducted as part of the expansion plans. If the community wants to have a voice in the process they must speak up now, according to Campos.
Campos encouraged all attendees to write letters as part of the process.
“Usually, the people that write letters to the EA (environmental assessment) are not people like us,” Campos said. “We’re democratizing the process and that’s what’s really exciting.”
Some complaints concerned sound and vibration reportedly from the airport, with some residents reporting cracks in their walls from the loud sounds of planes overhead and vibrations.
The federal Aviation Administration uses a day-night average sound level, also known as a DNL, to reflect “a person's cumulative exposure to sound over a 24-hour period, expressed as the noise level for the average day of the year on the basis of annual aircraft operations,” according to the agency. “FAA has adopted DNL 65 dBA as the threshold of significant noise exposure, below which residential land uses are compatible,” according to the agency site.
According to Campos, some East Haven residents have reported higher readings.
Lynne Bonnett, who spoke about issues with the ozone and particulate matter, both of which she said could negatively affect health, said some residents have complained about odors of jet fuel, as well as pollution and asthma issues.
Bonnett, who was chosen to be on Project Advisory Committee for Environmental Assessment, said 10,000 Hawks tried to get the airport to partner with them to apply for a grant to get monitors along the perimeter of the airport to see what neighbors are exposed to, but the airport did not agree.
“The air monitor that the EPA process is using is three miles away and it’s upwind so it’s not going to pick up the pollution from the airport,” Bonnett said.
Lorena Venegas spoke about wetlands and flooding issues in town, urging people to write letters to the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees wetlands on the federal level, and the Environmental Protection Agency in hopes those agencies can funnel information to the FAA.
Venegas also spoke of concerns related to water runoff from the airport area and how wildlife could be affected.
She asked where that water would go, and alleged that the distribution of endangered plant species and their density had not yet been studied.
“Are you going to be putting in water holding tanks like we do in these developments on Hemingway or at a mall?” Venegas asked. “But if you displace water, you need to put the water somewhere else. Are you going to carry it through Morris Creek and are those tidal gates good enough? Are you going to create a pond because water once you move water, it’s going to find a way around and that’s what’s happening here, so we have a gap of information.”
In addition to quality of life issues, East Haven resident Patrick Rowland said while local officials tout economic benefits of the airport such as jobs, they are ignoring negative economic effects such as lower home and property values.
Following presentations by members of the volunteer group, residents spoke about their issues concerning the airport, including how low the planes fly by their homes, questions about zoning, pollution and where the local representation was.
An organizer introduced Zullo, who said his number one priority is East Haven residents’ quality of life.
“I think somebody made the analogy earlier about buying something; you don’t go and buy a car without doing the research,” Zullo said. “I’m not going to buy anything ’til we know the facts, ’til we have all the information, because nobody else would so why would we?”
Zullo added that he does not have the documents people are looking for and that the airport does, but he said residents deserve and need to have the information.
“I will start reaching out to (Tweed New Haven Airport Authority Executive Director Sean Scanlon) on a regular basis to find out what what information requests are not fulfilled and why they’re not fulfilled,” Zullo pledged. “I’m happy to try to be a vessel for anybody who needs information to try to get that.”