Avangrid promotes natural gas vet to lead United Illuminating, CT operations

Alexander Soule  Avangrid has promoted Frank Reynolds to lead its United Illuminating and natural gas operations in Connecticut and Massachusetts — but reporting to his predecessor who stays on to focus on his larger role as CEO of Avangrid Networks.

Separately Tuesday in a possible $4.3 billion transaction, Orange-based Avangrid announced plans to acquire PNM Resources, which has nearly 800,000 utility customers in New Mexico and Texas. Avangrid would assume $4 billion in PNM debt as part of the deal. Hearst subsidiary Fitch Ratings issued an update Wednesday maintaining its “BBB+” outlook for long-term debt owed by Avangrid, calling the company “well positioned” with a manageable risk profile.

Avangrid and Eversource face another round of questioning beginning Wednesday from the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority over their response to Tropical Storm Isaias in early August, with prolonged power outages blanketing the state.

In its own hearing in August separate from PURA deliberations, the Connecticut General Assembly members praised Avangrid Networks CEO Tony Marone for United Illuminating’s planning and response to Isaias.

Not all were pleased with the utility, however, including Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim who complained the company was not responsive to the city’s pleas to prioritize power restoration to elevator apartment buildings with elderly residents. Gov. Ned Lamont subsequently signed a “take back the grid” act to allow PURA to weigh past performance by Avangrid and Eversource in the rates they are allowed to charge.

On Tuesday, Avangrid Networks reported a $94 million profit for the third quarter, up $6 million from a year earlier, with the company indicating storm restoration costs wiped out profit gains it would have otherwise tallied as a result of rate increases in its service territories.

Reynolds is now president of Avangrid’s electric and natural gas utilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts, which include Southern Connecticut Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas and Berkshire Gas. Under Marone who in turn reports to new Avangrid CEO Dennis Arriola, Reynolds will have 1,500 employees under his management providing services to 765,000 customers.

Reynolds has led Berkshire Gas since January 2019, also holding the role of vice president of gas integration. Earlier in his career, he worked for Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas, which are two of the state’s three big natural gas utilities along with Eversource.

He retired in 2004 from the U.S. Army National Guard with the rank of major.

Avangrid did not state immediately whether Isaias prompted any consideration of assigning an experienced electric utility executive to lead the Connecticut operations, and whether Reynolds has experience in leading a large-scale emergency response. Reynolds has familiarity with the company’s overall grid operations, having spent several years leading an “asset management” function within Avangrid with responsibilities including oversight of electric transmission and distribution planning and reliability, including tree removal and pruning.

In addition to United Illuminating, Avangrid owns New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric upstate, whose CEO Carl Taylor came through the electric utility side of the business; and Central Maine Power, whose CEO Doug Herling previously was Avangrid vice president of electric field operations spanning Connecticut, New York and his native Maine.

Reynolds grew up in Bloomfield and holds an undergraduate degree from Central Connecticut State University and an MBA from the University of New Haven.

Fort Trumbull is preferred site for future New London community center

Greg Smith  New London — Fort Trumbull has emerged as the most practical place to build a community recreation center.

That is the opinion of Brailsford & Dunlavey, the firm hired by the city to explore potential sites and develop an actionable plan for a regional recreation center. The company performed a market analysis and ranked five sites, finding Fort Trumbull to have the most available land, fewest construction hurdles and lowest projected costs.

Brailsford & Dunlavey envisions a 67,000-square-foot facility located on a 7-acre city-owned waterfront parcel that the city has marketed for years to developers without success. Details of the facility, along with choice of a final site, are still under development but could include a two-court gymnasium, a 6- to 8-lane swimming pool, fitness center, multipurpose rooms and other elements that could include an outdoor ropes course, tennis courts or ice rink.

The city also has expressed its interest in using the facility as headquarters for the city’s recreational departments and its programs.

Representatives from Brailsford & Dunlavey presented its finding to the City Council earlier this week and to residents at a town hall-style virtual meeting on Wednesday. More than 60 people attended Wednesday’s meeting. Suggestions included a community garden, outdoor lounge area, amphitheater and eatery. A completed plan is expected to be presented to the city by year’s end and will include input from a community center task force and community members.

One of the criteria for the project is “every New London resident should be accommodated regardless of their ability to pay,” said Brailsford & Dunlavey representative Andrew Lieber. “We want to make sure that New London residents come first, and we’re going to be thinking about how this facility operates in a way to ensure that happens.”

One of the biggest priorities expressed by Mayor Michael Passero, the City Council and residents has been sustainability and affordability. The recreation center is being designed as a regional draw with standard membership fees to help subsidize fees for low income residents.

Projected costs of the project have not yet been discussed publicly, but Passero has said that finding a regional partner is key to funding such an ambitious project.

Fort Trumbull, in documents presented to the city by Brailsford & Dunlavey, ranked first in a list of five potential sites. None of the other sites met the 4-acre minimum size needed to accommodate the complex and parking.

The city-owned municipal parking lot at 126 Green St. ranked lowest among the five contenders and is not considered to be a viable option. Also considered was a 2.4-acre parcel at 234 Bank St., home to Coastal Digestive Care Center, and a 3.4-acre wooded section of city-owned Bates Woods Park adjacent to the high school.

Rounding out the list of contenders was the 3.4-acre former Edgerton School property on Cedar Grove Avenue, which was once owned by the city and the proposed site of both a community center and housing complex. The 120 Cedar Grove Ave. property, along with three adjoining properties, are listed for sale for $800,000.

The Edgerton property ranked highest outside of Fort Trumbull because of its accessibility and size. Fort Trumbull, considered to be the lowest cost option, “has a clearer path to timely development,” said Brailsford representative Katie Lutton. On the downside, the Fort Trumbull site is harder to get to than other sites and sits in a flood plain.

Councilor John Satti said he favored the Bates Woods site, calling Fort Trumbull “prime real estate,” and not in a central location.

“New London already has enough non-taxable land,” Satti said.

Felix Reyes, the director of the city’s Office of Development and Planning, said the community center could be a companion to other developments at Fort Trumbull.

Other residents have suggested Ocean Beach Park and Crystal Avenue as places to consider.

Bridgeport resumes sidewalk work halted over FBI probe

Brian Lockhart  BRIDGEPORT — The city is re-launching a sidewalk repair program it halted over a year-and-a-half ago because the contractor was named in a subpoena from an FBI probe into local government.

The City Council on Monday, after being advised by municipal counsel that it could otherwise be sued by the company, in a nearly unanimous vote agreed to allow G. Pic and Sons Construction to resume fixing a list of sidewalks that were part of the local firm’s original three-year contract.

That $3 million deal was supposed to have run from February 2017 until February 2020.

“We have breached a contract — that is the truth,” Municipal Attorney Lisa Trachtenburg told council members during Monday’s teleconference. “We are trying to fix that breach.”

A spokesperson for G. Pic did not return a request for comment Tuesday.

Federal authorities in February 2019 subpoenaed four years’ worth of City Hall’s dealings with G. Pic and two other area companies as part of an investigation into allegations of too many no-bid contracts issued by the Department of Public Facilities.

The subpoena, coupled with some outstanding questions at the time about G. Pic’s pricing, led the council’s public safety committee that spring to pause the sidewalk work to review and potentially rebid the work.

However, the matter never moved forward and had been in limbo until recently when public facilities proposed allowing G. Pic to resume the sidewalk repairs before the temperatures get too cold to do so.

In a letter to the council Monday, Trachtenburg outlined the rationale for returning to the status quo. She noted how “to the best of our knowledge, information and belief” no one from G. Pic had been accused or charged with any wrongdoing related to the FBI probe.

In contrast, that federal investigation — it was subsequently revealed in April 2019 — also focused on 2018’s search for a police chief. And as a result, last month then-Chief Armando Perez and then-Personnel Director David Dunn were arrested for conspiring to help Perez become top cop with a five-year contract. Both men resigned and on Oct 5 pleaded guilty.

Trachtenburg in her letter to the council also said the law department consulted with private counsel James DeVita, hired last year to assist Bridgeport in responding to the federal inquiry. Trachtenburg wrote that DeVita was “not aware of any information that would require the city to cancel or not honor” its contract with G. Pic. She also said the federal government had not taken any position on whether Bridgeport should resume conducting business with the contractor.

“In addition it is our understanding G. Pic has been performing work for various other Connecticut municipalities, as well as for the state,” Trachtenburg wrote.

While her letter did not specifically conclude Bridgeport could face a lawsuit from G. Pic were the city not to honor the re-start the sidewalk repairs, Trachtenburg emphasized that possibility when addressing the council Monday.

“We have not fulfilled our obligation on our end of the contract,” she said.

The sidewalk program was created by Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration in 2016 as a temporary pilot initiative that would expire once the $3 million was spent. Under the program’s terms, the city would cover half the costs of repairing hazardous private sidewalks if the property owners agree to pay the balance. The goal was to try to reduce the number of trip-and-fall lawsuits filed against Bridgeport over damaged sidewalks.

In January 2016 a jury ordered the city pay a 73-year-old woman $416,000 for injuries she sustained from a fall.

According to the city, there are about 50 property owners on the pending list awaiting the work to resume.

Rochambeau Bridge Reconstruction Project Under Way

Ken Liebeskind  The reconstruction of the Rochambeau Bridge, which is actually two adjoining bridges in Newtown and Southbury, Conn., began on June 15 and will continue until December 2023.

The Middlesex Corp. of Littleton, Mass., is the lead contractor in the $52.87 million job that is being financed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT). Andrew Walter, a Middlesex project manager, said crossovers have been completed that redirect lanes on the eastbound and westbound lanes of the current bridge and they will begin to build trestles that will precede the demolition of the bridges before they can be rebuilt.

The Rochambeau Bridge carries I-84 over the Housatonic River and the reconstruction will require a work trestle and barges for work that will be done over the water.

Christopher Zukowski, a CTDOT project manager, said demolition and new construction will require a work trestle for approximately two-thirds of the structure and barges for the remaining one-third, where the water depths are greater.

"We will build the trestle from the shore to the water before we begin demolition of the first superstructure," he said. "We are constructing an access road on the east and west sides of the bridge with the surplus excavated earth generated by these roads being transported to a TRSA [temporary reuse stockpile area] located on state property. By providing a location for the soil to be stored on state property, we can avoid the expense associated with sampling, testing and potentially having to dispose of the soil."

He said the trestle will consist of multiple bents, supported by 24-in. round steel piles that are driven into the soil and tested for their capacity based on their friction with the surrounding soil.

"Demolition will begin on the westbound structure once the trestle has been installed," he said. "It will progress first by removing the bituminous concrete overlay, followed by the removal of the concrete deck. This will be achieved through the use of a Caterpillar 349 excavator equipped with a slab crab bucket. The deck and parapet sections will be snapped off with this large excavator. The supporting rebar will be torch cut as needed."

Once the demolition is completed, both sections of the bridge will be reconstructed. Modification of concrete piers and abutments is required as the new substructure must be widened to accept the new continuous steel plate girders, which will support the new superstructure of the bridge," Bukowski said. "The new 8-inch thick concrete deck will then be formed and poured, followed by installation of a cold applied membrane. A bituminous wearing surface will then be installed."

The job will take three years and is being done to maintain bridge traffic.

"It is a long duration project because each structure is done independently, so the impact to the public is minimal," Bukowski said. "Two lanes in each direction will be maintained with lanes closed only at nights for new steel delivery."

The department of transportation is thrilled that the use of crossovers through the median are possible on this project, he added.

"This technique will reduce the impact to the traveling public by maintaining the two travel lanes in each direction through the work zone for the entire duration of the project. We understand there is a cost associated with slow or stopped traffic and try on every project to include new and innovative ideas and techniques to reduce or eliminate delays to the public."

Subcontractors on the job include Eastern Bridge Works of Pleasant Valley, N.Y.; KTM Electrical Construction of Orange, Conn.; and Warning Lights & Scaffolding Service of Hamden, Conn. CEG