CT Construction Digest Thursday September 3, 2020
Torrington BOE holds public forum on school construction project
Emily M. Olson TORRINGTON — As Election Day approaches, the Board of Education is focusing its attention on another vote that will take place that day, a referendum on the proposed middle/high school construction project.
The board this week held a public forum on the project with architects from Kaestle Boos Associates speaking from the high school library. Kaestle Boos was hired by the school board to develop the project’s preliminary plans.
Of the questions the board received during the forum, many were focused on the impact of the $156 million project on residents’ property taxes, as well as asking why the old high school building, which would be demolished if the project were to be approved, couldn’t instead be renovated.
Board Chairwoman Fiona Cappabianca repeatedly stressed during the forum that the high school, which was build in the 1960s, needs a tremendous amount of work to become a viable facility. She and Kaestle Boos representatives also explained that for Torrington to receive the maximum reimbursement for a project from the state, building a new facility is a better option. Before the questions began, Jennifer Mengale and other architects from Kaestle Boos explained that the new building was designed based on an eight-year enrollment projection that showed that enrollment for grades 7-12 would be at its highest — 1,571 students — in 2021. “The state has calculations for reimburseent based on a certain square footage, based on enrollment,” Mengale said. “This helped us determine the target size for a facility for grades 7-12.”
Based on those calculations, the firm determined that a new building required 171 square feet per student, for a total of 268,641 square feet. “That’s the maximum alloweable reimbursement size,” Mengale said.
The concept for the new building is a combined middle/high school, with athletic fields surrounding the facility. “Keep in mind that this isn’t just a high school campus anymore,” Mengale said. “It’s a middle/high school.”
The high school and middle school students would be in separate wings of the building, with separate entrances and bus dropoff areas.
The school district’s central offices, now located on Migeon Avenue, also would be included in the new building in their own section with a separate entrance.
The high school portion of the new building is a proposed four-story structure, while the middle school area would be three stories. Shared spaces include a theater, kitchen and cafeteria. Each school section would have its own gymasium. Athletic fields also would change, with shared spaces for some sports and dedicated fields for others.
Torrington filed its application for funding with the state in June. If voters approve the project in November, construction would begin in March 2022, the old high school building would be demolished in July 2024 and the project would be completed by December 2024.
The school board was asked during the public question period how it determined that building new was a better option. “We studied the building and the cost of maintaining it,” Mengale said. “There would be replacement of walls and windows. We looked at the systems of the building — the plumbing system, the electrical system and structural needs. We looked at hazardous materials that might have been used. And we assessed the cost of repairing all those systems.
“The building was built in the 1960s,” she said, explaining that basically everything would have to be updated, from flooring, ceilings and bathrooms to heating systems, stormwater management and the fire alarm system. There also were compliance considerations with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Once a complete list was developed, according to Kaestle Boos, the cost to replace everything “all starts to add up,” Mengale said. “The state wants to see every single thing that will need to be replaced and repaired, and the reimbursement rate will be less.”
Other questions concerned whether school administration and guidance staff members would be shared between middle and high school students. Cappabianca said they would not.
In response to questions about tax increases, Cappabianca said the school board planned to post a full explanation of the impact on property taxes on the Board of Education website.
“There’s an entire bonding explanation coming on the website,” Cappabianca said. “The district will post the estimated tax increases to the mill rate.”
One of the final questions asked what the Board of Education would do if the referendum were to fail, and whether there was an option to “delay or do nothing.”
“There’s not an option to delay or do nothing,” Cappabianca said. “... Since we’ve started the (construction project plan) we’ve heard from students about things happening in the building, and some of the problems were reported back in the 1990s. Here we are, 20 years later, with the same issues, but worse deterioration.”
“We’ll go back to the Board of Finance and ask for money to fix this building,” Cappabianca said. “We can’t let it continue to go like this.”
Residents can see the preliminary project plans at thsbuildingproject.org and can email questions to buildingproject@torrington.org.
“We hope to keep the dialogue open,” Cappabianca said. “It’s a community decision.”
Plymouth will begin road work at the intersection of Route 6 and Route 72
Brian M. Johnson Starting the day after Labor Day, road crews in Plymouth will begin work at the Route 6 and Route 72 intersection installing a new water main.
The water main will connect that intersection to the Bristol town line on Route 6. Depending on the weather, Mayor David Merchant said that the project may take 3 to 4 months.
“We will not be closing the road during the day, but we will have some disruption that you all need to be aware of so you can plan accordingly,” Merchant said.
Route 6 will be closed from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Tuesday. During the nighttime construction, traffic will be detoured coming from Bristol on Route 6, down Bushnell Street to Makara to School Street to Route 72. It will be the reverse of that route for those coming from Bristol on Route 72 wanting to travel to Bristol on Route 6.
“This will cause an inconvenience if you are traveling during these nighttime hours and will cause an inconvenience to the people living on these detour streets,” said Merchant.
Merchant said that, as an alternative, people can go down Clark Street in Bristol and come out on Route 72, which he said may be easier than using the residential roads in the detour.
“This nighttime construction will continue until they reach Kearney Street,” said Merchant. “Once they reach Kearney Street the construction will then be done during the day. The problem then will be another inconvenience; they will have to do alternating traffic because there will be only one lane. This one lane alternating traffic will continue until they reach the Bristol town line. Alternating traffic is sometimes as bad as a detour but again it is making the best of a bad situation.
During this phase of the construction, the businesses that are in this area will have a minimal interruption as a result of this construction. There will be Police directing traffic as well as flaggers on the side roads.”
Median crossover on I-84 set to go live early Friday
Andrew Larson SOUTHBURY — A bridge that carries Interstate 84 westbound over the Housatonic River will close for more than a year starting Friday.
Median crossings will direct westbound traffic onto the current eastbound side of the Rochambeau Bridge, allowing all four lanes of highway traffic to stay open while the bridge is replaced.
The crossings will be connected to I-84 westbound overnight Thursday into Friday, going live before 5 a.m. The switch was originally scheduled to occur overnight Wednesday into Thursday, but was postponed because the pavement was wet from rain, the state Department of Transportation said late Wednesday.
The lane markings will be repainted and I-84 eastbound traffic will be shifted further to the right of the bridge, which has extra wide shoulders.
The crossovers will be in place for about two years while the westbound bridge is partially demolished and reconstructed. Little impact on traffic is expected, but drivers may notice a slight shift while crossing the median.
Once the new bridge has been constructed, workers will realign the crossover and place both directions of traffic on the new bridge and repeat the process to reconstruct the eastbound bridge.
The project began June 15 and will be completed by December 2023. Construction will involve using work trestles and barges.
The state DOT’s contract for the work was awarded to Middlesex Corporation for $52 million.
Danbury, Summit developers seal tax deal for ‘city within a city’ project
Julia Perkins DANBURY — The plan to develop the mostly empty former Matrix building has taken another step forward.
City Council approved Tuesday evening a 10-year tax agreement that officials said is a win for Danbury and Summit @ Danbury, where developers envision a “city within a city” with apartments, commercial space and potentially a school.
“It’s a good thing for Danbury,” said council member Paul Rotello. “It’s a good thing for Danbury residents. It’s a good thing for the developer because things are moving forward.”The agreement would levy $860,000 in annual property taxes, charge the developer an additional city services fee for 19 years starting at $550,000 annually, and drop Summit’s appeal of Danbury’s assessment on its 99-acre property. After 10 years, the property will be taxed based on fair market value.
But some council members were worried the city could lose out on taxes if the value of the building grows tremendously as development progresses.
“I’m concerned with this that the buildings’ developers are going to turn something 1970-ish to gold and that we’re going to end up giving another developer (a) tax giveaway at a time when the city needs a stronger tax base,” said Frank R. Salvatore Jr., who was one of three council members to vote against the agreement.
Developers purchased the 1.2 million-square-foot former Union Carbide world headquarters in 2018 for $17.8 million after it sat mostly empty for years. The city has appraised the building at $45 million, however.
David St. Hilaire, the city’s finance director, said Danbury would lose out in an appeal, with a court likely deciding the value of the building was somewhere in the middle. Especially with the pandemic, courts would be more sympathetic to the developers, he said.
“We would have to take a hit on that,” St. Hilaire said. “There is no doubt. How much? It would hurt.”
Michael Basile, project manager for Summit Development, said it will be about 10 years for the building to be fully built out and leased.
“From day one, we said we’re here to work alongside the city and make this successful for everyone,” he said. “The way it’s (the agreement) been structured is really good because it benefits everyone.”The Danbury Zoning Commission has approved the master plan, but Summit is designing its planned 404 units before submitting the proposal to the Planning Commission, likely in mid-October, Basile said.
Construction on the apartments could start at the beginning of next year. Likely about 80 apartments would be built first.
“It would be a phased approach,” Basile said. “Granted, that could change. We might decide to build them all at once.”
A little over one-third of the 600,000 square feet of commercial space has been leased. Businesses have been hesitant to rent because of the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, but some New York companies and potential renters are interested, he said.
“We’ve got some really good active discussions going on with some tenants,” Basile said. “We’re hopeful we can get some of those signed up in the future, especially in this environment.”