Fairfield applies to intervene in United Illuminating power line project

Jarrod Wardwell

FAIRFIELD — The town has applied to intervene in a United Illuminating petition to replace railroad power lines with monopoles that could be 95 to 145 feet tall and remove private acreage from local property owners. 

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick signed off Thursday on the application to become a party intervenor before the Connecticut Siting Council and requested a hearing to address the "unreasonable impacts to the natural resources" around the project.

UI plans to rebuild 8.1 miles of transmission lines from the Eversource-UI demarcation point in Fairfield to the Congress Street substation in Bridgeport, the utility company announced last year. It's the fifth phase of a larger project to rebuild 25 miles of transmission line from West Haven to Fairfield and aims to strengthen the reliability of the electrical grid and address the age and deterioration of the current transmission lines.

"I think that is also partially why they're thinking they can propose such a dramatic impact to our community, because they think probably they can defend it by the resiliency it will provide to the rest of the grid," said Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Leeper, who represents Fairfield and notified constituents this year about the project.  

UI spokesperson Sarah Wall said the company is focused on working with property owners, regulators and leaders from the community as a "good neighbor" throughout the project.

"UI’s core objective is to provide safe and reliable electricity to our customers, and the Fairfield to Congress transmission line upgrade is essential to exceeding our customers’ expectations of reliable power as we improve the system’s resiliency against storms and advance the clean energy transition," Wall said in an email.

UI submitted its application in March for the project to the Siting Council, which will grant final approval for the plans.

"The council is being asked to render a decision which will impact the substantive rights of many town residents," Fairfield's application reads.

UI will raise the transmission lines from the catenary structures holding the electrical wires to much higher monopoles that will stand between 95 and 145 feet high to the south of the tracks in Fairfield and north and south of the tracks in Bridgeport, according to UI's plans.

Leeper said UI will build some of the monopoles on private property, in some cases using up to 18 feet of space. Affected areas include South Gate Lane in Southport and Kings Highway.

Fairfield's application to intervene states the project could impact "scenic vistas" and "historic districts," remove trees, use herbicides, seize land, damage wetlands and harm property values. 

"The town will demonstrate that the UI design does not incorporate the best available technology for reducing the visual impacts of the facilities, in that the design fails to full consider the impacts to historic districts, property owners, natural habitats, neighboring property uses and nearby homes, businesses and municipalities," the application reads.

Fairfield would present information and experts to support alternative plans with "less visual impact" and cross-examine witnesses from UI at the hearing the town requested, according to its application. 

Town officials have been in contact with UI about the project since July 2021, according to state records. Leeper said the town missed the deadline to file as an intervenor but added in a Facebook comment that the Siting Council stated they were "very likely to grant it."

The Office of the First Selectwoman did not immediately return a request for comment about why the town missed the deadline to file.

Kupchick said during a Board of Selectman meeting last week she was unaware of any state deadline to file for intervention and "surprised" when Leeper contacted her about it earlier this month. She said town officials have conducted several meetings and "submitted tons of information" about the project in recent months. UI held public hearings in January for residents whom the project would "directly" impact, she added.

"We are super involved," Kupchick said at the meeting. "We want to be involved, of course. It's just I wasn't aware there was some deadline regarding intervening status."

Kupchick said she hired an attorney to submit the party intervenor application. Timothy Herbst of Marino, Zebell and Schellenberg, PLLC, a law practice based in Orange, submitted the application the document shows.   

Construction is set to begin in the first quarter of 2025 and wrap up by the middle of 2028 before "final restoration" trickles into 2029, according to information UI released.

Leeper said she has requested the Siting Council reconsider burying the power lines or at least keep the monopoles on the railroad, but the town's intervention would more likely negotiate the terms of UI's plans, such as monopole height, instead of outright canceling them. She said lower monopoles could potentially fit within the railroad corridor instead of crossing into neighbors' property.

She said underground transmission lines could protect power lines from the effects of severe storms powerful enough to topple poles but would likely cost as much as $1 billion because of the blasting needed to crack through granite in the ground. The monopoles would cost closer to $200 to $250 million, she said.

"That makes it much more expensive, but undergrounding just makes your power infrastructure, your lines, less susceptible to falling trees, less poles for car accidents let's say for example," she said.

Southington planners approve large warehouse on Spring Street

SOUTHINGTON – Town planners approved a 283,000-square-foot warehouse off Spring Street, although it’s not known what company will coming to Southington.

Johnson Development Associates received special permit approval last week for the project, which will take place at 99 Smoron Drive, a small street in an industrial area off Spring Street. The $45 million project will be built to attract a tenant next year.

While planners had some concerns about the effect of traffic from the facility, they said the developer had met the town’s regulations and that the single-building plan was better than another proposal for 12 different industrial tenants on the 60-acre property.

“Because it fits the regulations, we really are duty bound to approve it,” said Bob Hammersley, Planning and Zoning Commission chairman. “We don’t have that leeway.”

Warehouse builder looking for highway access

Tripp Bailey presented the company’s plan to the commission at its meeting on Wednesday. He said the company is building these types of warehouses throughout the country and markets them to companies that distribute or store products. Bailey said the company has built facilities for a meal delivery kit company, an electric vehicle home charging station company and an architectural design company.

“A very wide array of tenants can occupy these buildings,” he said.

Usually such companies decide to lease a building about three months before they need to move in. With construction time of more than a year, Bailey said his company builds the warehouse before knowing who’ll move in.

“The only way to provide that space is to build speculatively,” Bailey said, which entailed some risk on the part of Johnson Development. “If we just waited for a build to suit tenant before we started construction, the likelhood is that this project would sit for years waiting for that needle in a haystack tenant willing to wait for two years.”

The Smoron Drive site, part of a former farm, was ideal due to its close proximity to the Queen Street exit of Interstate 84.

Effects on traffic

Opposition to the plan from neighbors focused mostly on traffic, although some were concerned about the noise from the warehouse as well.

Area opponents worried about adding traffic to the Spring Street and Queen Street intersection, which can get backed up with the existing traffic. They were also worried that trucks might go through residential areas to the west and take the West Street exit to I-84.

Cynthia Lombardo, a Spring Street resident, said there’s already problems with the noise of braking trucks. Her house shakes when they go by, she said, on their way to existing businesses. Adding a warehouse would make the problem worse.

“It is going to affect you and everybody else that uses Spring Street and Queen Street and West Street,” she told commissioners. “They are going to use West Street.”

Engineers representing Johnson Development said the projected traffic would cause issues at the Spring Street and Queen Street light, but said it could be fixed by adjusting the timing on the traffic signal there. That’d require approval from the state, which engineers believed would be granted.

Lou Perillo, the town’s economic development coordinator, said trucks were unlikely to take the longer route to I-84 via West Street since time and wear and tear on vehicles is the main expense in trucking. He expected the vast majority of traffic to head to Queen Street.

Southington can’t prohibit trucks driving from a facility in town from using West Street, town leaders said.

A better alternative

Mark Lovley, a local developer and an owner of the property, said he’d planned to build a 12-lot industrial subdivision before Johnson Development suggested their plan. He preferred the single building that company proposed, saying it was likely less traffic and less impact to undeveloped area.

Perillo said in an industrial zone, much more intrusive uses are allowed by law.

“Is it perfect? No,” he said of the warehouse plan. “Is it a lot better than other things that could go there? Sure.”

Commission members approved the project with only one member, Democrat Christina Volpe, voting in opposition.

Peter Santago, a Republican, said there were few options.

“We have to weigh in on what’s in front of us, legally,” he said. “It’s an industrial facility in an industrial zone.”

Nearly 7% of US bridges in poor condition

Julie Strupp

Thirty-six percent of all U.S. bridges, more than 222,000 spans, require major repair work or replacement, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s 2023 analysis of the U.S. DOT’s National Bridge Inventory database. 

Based on average cost data that states submitted to the DOT, ARTBA estimates it would cost over $319 billion to make all needed repairs. By contrast, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act designates $40 billion in federal money over five years for bridge repairs and replacement.

Bridges newly rated in poor condition this year include I-345 over I-30 and US 75 Dart Rail in Dallas, the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge in Seattle and the Route I‐678 span over Flushing Bay Promenade in New York City.

Dive Insight:

Happily, there are 560 fewer bridges in poor condition than last year. Over the past five years, the share of bridges in fair condition has continued to grow as the percentage of spans in poor or good condition declined. Thanks to increased federal investment, there is more money available to address these gaps — but many states are not taking full advantage, ARTBA’s analysis showed.

States currently have access to $10.6 billion in IIJA Bridge Formula Program funds to help make needed repairs, and another $15.9 billion will be available in the next three years. These funds have helped support over 2,060 bridge projects in the construction and repair pipeline, according to the ARTBA report. Another new IIJA bridge program, the Bridge Investment Program, has an additional $12.5 billion for projects that will be awarded through 2026.     

However, as the end of fiscal year 2023 approaches on Sept. 30, states have committed $3.2 billion — just 30% — of available bridge formula funds to 2,060 projects, with $7.4 billion still coming, according to ARTBA. Only eight states have committed more than two-thirds of their bridge formula funding to specific projects, while 31 states have committed less than a third of available money as of June 30.

In 2023, nearly half of all U.S. bridges — 48.9% — were in fair condition, while bridges in poor condition make up 6.8% of the overall inventory.  

Other bridges newly rated in poor condition this year include:

NC 58 over the Intracoastal Waterway in North Carolina.

I‐84 White Salmon over the Columbia River in Oregon.

State Route 51 Northbound in Sacramento, California.

LA 27 over the Intercoastal Waterway in Gibbstown, Louisiana.

US 21 Southbound over Beaufort River in South Carolina.

PR 53 over Grand De Patillas River in Puerto Rico. 

SH 146 over Clear Creek and Shipyard Drive in Texas.

In an interview with Scripps News, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said there has not been sufficient funding for bridge repairs for many administrations, which has created a massive backlog.

“We’re taking historically large steps, but the work of reversing probably 40, 50 years of degradation or underinvestment is going to be more than a couple of years’ work,” said Buttigieg. “The important thing is right now we are moving it in the right direction so that instead of getting worse, it’s getting better.”

A 2022 Congressional Research Service report said it would take 20 years to eliminate the backlog of ailing bridges — but only if Congress maintained high funding levels.