CT Construction Digest Tuesday December 7, 2021
Wallingford wastewater plant project on time for April deadline
Lauren Takores
WALLINGFORD — The contractor performing upgrades to the town’s wastewater pollution control facility is preparing to ask for a time extension, but the new phosphorus removal system is slated to be up and running by the state’s April deadline, town officials said.
Upgrades to the water pollution control facility, 155 John St., have been in the works since 2011, when the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection introduced stricter phosphorus discharge regulations.
Several towns, including Wallingford, are required by DEEP to perform upgrades to municipal wastewater treatment plants to improve phosphorus removal systems.
Phosphorus is considered an environmental hazard because it causes algae bloom, which depletes oxygen in water bodies and poses a threat to wildlife, according to DEEP.
The new stricter limits take effect April 1.
Neil Amwake, Water and Sewer Divisions general manager, said during a Public Utilities Commission meeting last month that C.H. Nickerson, a Torrington-based environmental construction firm, is preparing a time extension change order.
Currently, the construction completion is slated for Feb. 17, but things like paving won’t be finished before the spring, Amwake said.
Nickerson already had extended the completion date by one week.
“You ask once, and you ask for the right amount of time,” he said, “so they really are double checking and triple checking how much time they're going to ask (for).”
He said the new tertiary phosphorus building is “on target” to be completed and operational by April 1.
Performance testing is slated run in January and February.
“Once we do the performance testing, we're going to keep the machines running,” Amwake said. “We're not going to shut them down for four to six weeks. We're just going to run them right until April 1, and just go right into the next phosphorus season.”
The phosphorus removal season is April 1 to October 31, but preparation begins March 1.
$86M project
The original contract sum was $45,507,000. After a change order, the price increased by about one third of 1 percent to $45,667,715.
The total cost of the entire upgrade project is $86 million. State grants and low interest loans have been applied to the phosphorus removal system.
The wastewater treatment plant is on a 153-acre site and empties into the Quinnipiac River.
The project includes a tertiary treatment process for phosphorous removal, two secondary settling tanks, a secondary pump station, ultraviolet disinfection and a post-aeration process, along with standby generation, site work and electrical upgrades.
Amwake has said there have been no significant upgrades to the plant since it opened in July 1989, other than adding a nitrogen removal process in 2005.
Nickerson has completed wastewater treatment plant upgrades for several Connecticut municipalities, including Meriden.
Road Crossing Construction Precedes Greenwich's Street Light Adaptation
KEN LIEBESKIND
"The crossings were excavated and all concrete foundations that hold up the steel poles for traffic lights were put in place," said Ross Rizzo, vice president of The NY-Conn Corporation of Danbury, Conn., the contractor on the job. "We dug the foundations 12 to 13 feet deep and poured the concrete and installed a rebar cage with eight anchor bolts. Then, we installed steel mast arms that were designed for each intersection."
He said the company used Takeuchi and Bobcat mini-excavators, John Deere backhoes and Altec pressure diggers on the job along with six-wheel dump trucks.
The job has continued, but with one major problem.
"The biggest issue is material delays due to COVID," Rizzo said. "We are still waiting for LEDs that are now scheduled for mid-December. We can't install the lights without that component.
"And there are always utility conflicts," Rizzo added. "We drill so deep in the ground and it takes coordination early on, which we did for this project."
Gabriella Circosta-Cohee, Greenwich senior engineer, said the old mast arms and controller boxes will be taken down after the new LED signal heads are installed and ASCT are operational.
"The installation of overhead fiber wires and connection will take place next, followed by the installation of the traffic signal heads and system integration," she said.
The project focuses on five signalized intersections on Arch Street: Arch Street & Railroad Avenue, Arch Street & Horseneck Lane, Arch Street and I-95 southbound, Arch Street and I-95 northbound and Arch Street and Steamboat Road/Museum Drive. Arch Street has an average traffic volume of 35,000 vehicles per day and according to the town, "Adaptive Signal Control Technology will detect and respond to heavy traffic volumes in a timely and efficient manner to improve the safety and movement of people and goods through the corridor.
"ASCT will maximize the efficient use of green time at intersections, minimize queuing onto the I-95 mainline during heavy commuter peaks, heavy volume days, and incidents on I-95, and optimize progression through the closely spaced intersections along Arch Street."
"Greenwich's use of ASCT is the first of its kind in the area and is synch-based on cameras that will detect cue lumps in traffic, the length of cues at each intersection and formulate the signal duration for red and green lights," said Circosta-Cohee.
Rizzo added, "It's one of the first times it's been used to coordinate signals to keep traffic flowing and Arch Street is very busy because of its proximity to I-95."
Greenwich is using McCain ASCT adaptive software on the job, which the company said "generates optimal signal timing parameters across an arterial network by adjusting cycle lengths, phase splits, and offsets based on prevailing traffic. It provides a suite of synchronization strategies to improve operations and mobility."
"Synchronizing lights with ASCT on I-95 ramps in a heavily traveled area will save on congestion and improve air quality by eliminating wait time," said Circosta-Cohee.
Construction began on the Arch Street job in August 2020 and street light street installation will be completed in February 2022. The budget for the job is $2,197,393 with most paid by a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant. The town of Greenwich will pay for part of the job that includes design fees of $554,000 and inspection fees of $282,000. CEG
Inquiry underway over top prosecutor’s hiring of OPM official’s daughter
The administration of Gov. Ned Lamont has retained former U.S. Attorney Stanley A. Twardy Jr. and two other lawyers from the firm of Day Pitney to investigate “possible improprieties by state employees and possibly others.”
Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. said Thursday a focus of the inquiry is the circumstances surrounding his hiring of Anastasia Diamantis, the daughter of Kostantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, one of the budget officials whom Colangelo had been lobbying for help in securing raises, recently obtained emails show.
Colangelo said he and the Division of Criminal Justice welcome the inquiry.
“There was never any impropriety in the hiring of Miss Diamantis or any of my executive assistants, and the division is eager to see the matter resolved,” Colangelo said.
Kosta Diamantis simultaneously was deputy secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, an unclassified political position, and the director of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review, a classified job with civil service protections.
On Oct. 28, Diamantis was removed from the OPM position by the governor’s office and suspended with pay from the school construction post. Rather than accept the suspension, Diamantis retired.
Emails obtained by the CT Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act show that Anastasia Diamantis was hired as Colangelo unsuccessfully pressed state officials, including Diamantis, for help securing raises for prosecutors to address what he called longstanding disparities compared to public defenders and others.
They also show that Anastasia Diamantis, a state employee since 2015, had a part-time job with a school construction management company for several years. She kept the job for at least 14 months after starting on July 3, 2020 as a $99,000-a-year executive assistant in Colangelo’s office.
When Colangelo hired her, she had been employed for nearly five years at the Department of Rehabilitation Services, first as an executive secretary to the commissioner and then as a disability claims examiner assistant. She has a master’s degree in elementary education from Fairfield University and a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Sacred Heart University.
Questions were first raised about her hiring in a column published Oct. 1 by The Hartford Courant. The emails obtained by CT Mirror provide previously unreported details about Colangelo’s lobbying for raises and Anastasia Diamantis’ second job with the construction company, Construction Advocacy Professionals, which represents owners in overseeing construction.
Colangelo said his hiring of Anastasia Diamantis posed no conflict, nor should it create the appearance of one, because the Department of Administrative Services is the authority for establishing compensation plans for the Division of Criminal Justice, not OPM.
“I did not have any concern about that,” he said.
Still, it was Kosta Diamantis who informed him in writing on May 21, 2020, shortly before his daughter applied for the criminal justice job, that due to fiscal constraints, the OPM could not support his request. Colangelo continued to make his case for the raises to Diamantis and OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw after Anastasia Diamantis started work for him in July 2020.
In an email on Aug. 31, 2020, he told Kosta that the pay scale was depressing the number of applications for state’s attorney: There were only five for openings in the Hartford and Stamford-Norwalk judicial districts.
“Kosta, Here are the number of applicants that we have had. We really need to correct the not moving from 35 to 40 hours for this group,” Colangelo wrote. “You can see how it has hurt the number of applicants. I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss this with you.”
Administration silent on scope of inquiry
It is unclear if Twardy’s inquiry reaches beyond Diamantis’ hiring by Colangelo.
The state’s contract with Twardy, which was signed Nov. 15, offers scant detail about the scope of work: “The contractor will serve as outside legal counsel to conduct a factual investigation on behalf of the Office of the Governor regarding possible improprieties by state employees and possibly others, and, as requested, to provide legal analysis and recommendations for possible further actions.”
The contract was capped at $75,000 and anticipated Twardy conducting 12 to 15 interviews, without identifying the subjects, though it referenced directions to come: “A more detailed description of the services will be provided in a ‘Statement of Work’ to be provided separately.”
The Lamont administration declined to provide the statement of work, citing attorney-client privilege, or discuss the inquiry in any detail.
Kosta Diamantis, a former Democratic state representative from Bristol who was hired for the school construction job in 2015 and took on the additional OPM job in 2019, said Thursday he believed the paper trail of emails and other documents showed there was no undue influence in the hiring of his daughter.
He offered no opinion of who might be interviewed.
“I haven’t the foggiest idea why they would waste that much time and energy when the emails speak for themselves,” Diamantis said. “My question in rebuttal would be, ‘What is in the emails that suggest I did anything improper? Which I did not. And so my next part of that is, so if it’s not improper, then they want to dig further to ask questions, so that they can find something improper?”
He has retained a lawyer, Norm Pattis, who could not be reached for comment.
Diamantis exited state service with a scorching assessment of the governor’s senior staff, and the governor’s office indicated that retaining outside counsel was intended to show impartiality.
“Independent counsel was retained in order to ensure a complete and thorough review, free of any potential claim of partiality,” Max Reiss, the governor’s communication director, said in an emailed statement. “This independent inquiry is ongoing. The Office of the Governor will not have further comment as this is an ongoing review.”
In an interview with the CT Mirror on the night he retired, Diamantis criticized the governor’s top aides: Paul Mounds, the chief of staff; Josh Geballe, the chief operating officer; and Nora Dannehy, the general counsel. He complained they disrespected McCaw, the OPM secretary.
Twardy’s contract was signed by Attorney General William Tong, not Dannehy or anyone else in the governor’s office. Dannehy, however, is listed as the contact for the office of the governor.
Twardy also was the chief of staff to former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who served from 1991 to 1995.
“I welcome any review of the hiring process because I know the outcome will allow us to move on and continue our focus on the very important work that the division does every day to serve the citizens of Connecticut,” said Colangelo, who oversees a division that employs more than 500 people.
OPM, where Diamantis was influential, had no authority to either create the executive assistant position given to his daughter, nor could it unilaterally address Colangelo’s complaint that the salaries of prosecutors were not changed when the state shifted them from a 35-hour to 40-hour work week decades ago, Colangelo said.
The commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services and McCaw, the secretary of OPM, would have to sign off. But OPM is seen as a place where hiring, the domain of DAS, can be slowed, especially in times of fiscal difficulties.
Colangelo said OPM played no role in authorizing the executive assistant position that went to Anastasia Diamantis.
“The executive assistant positions were created through DAS with the Division of Criminal Justice,” said Colangelo, who took over leadership of the division in January. “They were effective on March 13, 2020. They were created way before I even met Anastasia.”
She emailed her resume to Colangelo on June 9, 2020. She referenced a previous conversation, saying, “Attached please find my resume, per your request.”
About two weeks earlier, it was her father who gave Colangelo bad news about the compensation plan.
“OPM currently estimates a General Fund deficit of $620 million in FY 2020, $2.4 billion in FY 2021, and likely more than $3 billion in FY 2022, based on current consensus estimate of the long-term effects of the pandemic on the state’s economy and revenues,” Diamantis wrote Colangelo on May 21. “We are, therefore, unable to pursue your request for increased compensation, at this time.”
In an interview Thursday, Colangelo said the paucity of applicants to his office has worsened.
“This became critical for me when we were filling the New London state’s attorney position,” he said. The division received three applications, only two from candidates who met the qualifications.
Colangelo said he would continue to seek higher compensation for prosecutors.
A part-time job in school construction
Colangelo said he was aware of Anastasia Diamantis’ part-time job with the construction management company and that outside employment is permitted.
Antonietta DiBenedetto-Roy, the owner of the construction management company, said Diamantis had worked for her on projects in Rhode Island, in part to avoid any potential conflict with her father’s role in overseeing construction grants. Emails show, however, that at least on a few occasions, the younger Diamantis helped the company with documentation on a Connecticut project.
Diamantis is no longer employed by DiBenedetto-Roy, but she declined to say when Diamantis left.
Anastasia Diamantis did not respond to requests for comment.
Some of Diamantis’ private-job emails became state records because they were copied to her state email address. The last email she sent on behalf of Construction Advocacy Professionals was dated Sept. 17, 2021 and related to a list of Rhode Island school and finance contacts she assembled for the company.
But Anastasia Diamantis was copied on an exchange of emails between her father and DiBenedetto-Roy regarding state documentation on the Birch Grove Primary School project in Tolland in July 2019, a project fast-tracked to replace a school with a crumbling foundation undermined by pyrrhotite, a mineral that expands when exposed to moisture. Her father said he could not recall why he copied her.
She also twice exchanged emails with DiBenedetto on the Tolland project in September 2020, each time during the state work day.
On Friday, September 4, 2020, DiBenedetto asked her to prepare a spreadsheet listing the subcontractors of the Tolland school’s general contractor, D’Amato Construction of Bristol. Diamantis sent her the material at 3:23 p.m. the following Tuesday. Two weeks later, Diamantis answered another email about documentation on the Tolland project.
“It might have been something she was just helping me with, filing of documentation,” DiBenedetto-Roy said. “Because she was strictly working for me in Rhode Island.”
A chat with the Commissioner of Transportation
Jim Cameron
Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Joe Giulietti has a holiday gift for rail commuters… and maybe a lump of coal for the stockings for highway speeders.
Once a year I get a sit-down with the commissioner. We’ve known each other for many years since his days as President of Metro-North. He knows I always ask him the tough questions but once told me “You’re always fair, Jim,” a comment that brought a tear to my eye.
So when I asked him when train service was going to get faster, he didn’t blink… or over-promise.
“My boss (the governor) keeps asking me the same question. We’re still doing the modeling,” he said. And while a few months ago he promised a 10-minute faster ride “by next year,” Metro-North trains are still slower and running less frequently than just a few years ago.
But while the railroad crews are still “playing Whack-a-Mole” with trouble spots, any hopes for expanded service and more express trains probably won’t happen “until the spring,” says the commissioner.
Stats show overall weekday ridership is topping out at 53% of pre-COVID numbers. But a handful of rush hour trains are up to 75%. And new technology allows the railroad to know on a minute-to-minute basis just how crowded each train is. He said that he has plenty of spare rail cars so that CDOT’s partner, Metro-North, is quick to add cars to increasingly crowded trains.
But while service or speed may not be increased, neither will the fares. “We are having no discussions about fare increases,” said the commissioner. Neither does it seem that peak fares will be returning anytime soon, at least not until service improves.
What is still under consideration are new discount fare plans. Though he wasn’t specific, such things as a discounted 30-trip ticket have been discussed previously.
Rail and signal enhancements on the diesel-only Waterbury branch line will mean expanded service but not new cars, at least not yet. The CDOT request to the tiny rail car industry for new cars proposals brought a dismal response, but the agency is working on other ways of modernizing the fleet.
And when the MTA’s $11 billion East Side Access project opens Grand Central to Long Island Railroad trains in December 2022, Commissioner Giulietti hopes that some New Haven line trains will then access Penn Station “the first day ESA opens.”
On the highway side, traffic is worse than before COVID, both in delays and danger. “It used to be that people drove 20 miles over the speed limit,” he said. “Now they drive 50 mph over the limit.” Accidents are frequent and often deadly at these “horrific speeds.”
So CDOT is about to launch three pilot programs in work zones with speed-enforcement cameras. Sometime “before the spring” anyone speeding in these work zones will be ticketed automatically at a fine of up to $200.
The nation will soon be awash in money from the recent infrastructure bill with $30 billion designated for Connecticut and another $100 billion up for grabs in competitive bidding. But to write the grants and prepare the engineering to qualify for that money, CDOT needs to deal with its brain drain.
Almost 400 senior staffers at CDOT have retired this year with more expected to leave next year before pension rules change. In addition, the agency needs to hire 200+ staffers just to handle the new infrastructure projects. Commissioner Giulietti says his recruiters are visiting universities and even high schools to find and develop talent.
“These are good paying jobs,” he says. “ And they’ll be around for 20 to 30 years” as we rebuild our roads and rails.
Jim Cameron is Founder of the Commuter Action Group, advocates for Connecticut rail riders.
48-unit, mixed-use apartment redevelopment proposed near Blue Back Square
Some prominent Greater Hartford developers are looking to transform two West Hartford offices into a single, mixed-use residential and commercial building.
Avner Krohn, Brian Zelman and Richard and Zach Korris — who together own the two existing buildings as Farmington Avenue Acquisitions LLC — submitted plans to town officials on Friday outlining a 48-unit structure that would be put up at what is now 920 and 924 Farmington Ave., near the Blue Back Square shopping center.
The developers said the proposed building would have 40 one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom units. The ground floor would be used as commercial space, they added, and 61 parking spaces would be set up outside to serve residents and visitors.
Current plans do not include a restaurant for the ground floor, according to Richard Korris. Instead, the space could be occupied by up to three different commercial tenants, Korris said.
Krohn, the chairman and CEO of New Britain-based Jasko Development, said the project will give renters easy access to an amenity-rich section of West Hartford without having to rely on a car to get there.
“If approved, this new community will offer residents convenient, walkable access to a wide range of services — restaurants, shops, gyms, groceries, dry cleaners, healthcare, movies, the library and many more — just a few steps from their front door,” Krohn said.
“As the gateway to West Hartford Center, this community will be the first structure most see when they come to the area,” added Zelman, the principal of West Hartford-based Zelman Real Estate. “We believe we’ve designed our building to help serve as an desirable entry point to our town center.”
According to town property records, the land where the new development would be built is currently occupied by two structures — a 13,650-square-foot, single-story office building at 920 Farmington Ave. and a 12,240-square-foot, three-story building at 924 Farmington Ave. used for offices and storage space.
Farmington Avenue Acquisitions LLC purchased both addresses for a little over $1.6 million each, town records show.
Carlos Mouta outlines $72.8M mixed-use development in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood
Developer Carlos Mouta’s vision for a $72.8 million transformative apartment and retail development in Hartford's Parkville neighborhood may soon get a $3.5 million boost from the Capital Region Development Authority.
Mouta is seeking a $3.5 million CRDA loan to clean lead paint, asbestos and other hazardous materials and pollutants from the building and property at 237-245 Hamilton St.
The proposal was introduced to the CRDA’s Housing & Neighborhood Committee Friday. It needs approval from the full CRDA board.
Mouta said he plans to build 189 apartments in the 236,000-square-foot building. He is also planning 80,000-square feet of mixed-use space for startup businesses, along with amenities such as “Zoom rooms,” a gym, a beer garden and a small grocery store.
“It’s going to be a great addition to that area,” Mouta said. “I am responsible for about 250 [apartment] units in that area.”
Mouta grew up part of a working-class family of five in a Cape-style house on Kibbe Street, a short distance away from the Hamilton Street building he bought three years ago. He said he feels a sense of obligation to the neighborhood, and that this is a project that needs to happen for the area's success.
Mouta has renovated several large properties in the area. Among his creations is the popular Parkville Market.
Mouta said he is working to confirm $24 million in historic tax credit backing from state and federal historic preservation offices.
Once that is confirmed, Mouta said, he can continue work to secure $10 million in funding from opportunity zone investors and another $20 million to $30 million in traditional bank loans.
Mouta said he plans to use CRDA funds to clear hazardous materials at the property over a period of three to four months. That work would start as he is securing other sources of funding.
Mouta said he hopes to begin construction in early spring.
Portions of the development could be ready for occupancy in 18 months, with the balance of the project completed in 24 to 30 months after launch, Mouta said.
“It’s a significant project and it’s critical long-term to the success of the Parkville area because it’s such a dominating structure,” said Michael Friemuth, executive director of the CRDA.
One of the most sought-after retirement homes in the state is welcoming an expansion to its New Britain campus valued at over $11 million.
The Jerome Home/Arbor Rose assisted living community recently broke ground on a 19,000 sq. ft. facility, to include 20 new apartments for memory care residents and a state-of-the-art wellness center.
The estimated completion date is Oct. 2022.
“We hope to start moving people in during fall of next year,” Jerome Home/Arbor Rose Executive Director Lori Toombs said.
The not-for-profit home, located at 975 Corbin Ave., is affiliated with Hartford HealthCare. It offers skilled nursing, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, memory care, residential care, independent and assisted living.
There are currently 16 memory care units in Arbor Rose.
“We have a waiting list for memory care so it’s great we’re going to be able to offer 20 more units with this expansion,” Toombs pointed out.
She was joined by colleagues, the Board of Trustees and the construction team at a recent groundbreaking ceremony outside the facility.
Longtime trustee Harry Mazadoorian is looking forward to the future of Jerome Home/Arbor Rose.
“We’re very pleased with how it’s going,” he said of the project, which was delayed more than a year due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The U.S. News & World Report recognized Jerome Home/Arbor Rose on its Best Nursing Home List based on nationwide ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
“People want to live here; they love living here,” Toombs said. “They know we are one of the best places in the area and that’s why we are able to expand.”
The new wellness center will feature services and programs for short-term rehab and outpatient care as well as a GoodLife Fitness program.
John Manning, chairman of the Board of Trustees at Jerome Home/Arbor Rose, put his stamp of approval on the project.
“We started this many years ago and it’s good we’re finally seeing shovels out there moving dirt around,” Manning pointed out.
The project’s architect is Gerry Frank, founding partner and President of Bechtel Frank Erickson Architects, a firm based in Lexington, Mass.
“I have a long history with this place,” said Frank, who was also the architect of Arbor Rose, located on the Jerome Home campus.
“This is very exciting for us,” Frank added. “What’s fascinating to me is the way Jerome Home has grown over time. You can see it reflected in the architecture. It’s almost like a college campus now.”
The history of Jerome Home dates back to 1932 and was one of the first assisted living facilities for the elderly. In the 1970s a skilled nursing unit was added and the home expanded again in 1990. Arbor Rose was completed in 2008.
Jerome Home acquired several homes in deteriorating condition located along Hamilton Street, which were demolished to allow for the expansion. A large parking lot is also being constructed.
Memorial Boulevard Bridge reopening Monday
BRISTOL – City Hall announced that Memorial Boulevard Bridge would be reopening with detours to be removed this coming Monday for traffic patterns to once again resume normally.
Construction on the project started in June. The creation of parapets and sidewalks will continue along with decorative elements throughout the winter season and on into spring, said city officials. Some closures may occur temporarily as work is done.
Cyclists and drivers are encouraged to remain vigilant as construction continues.
Officials said the bridge is slated to be reworked to honor veterans as well as the city’s clock making heritage with motifs in league with those themes. Discusses were made with the Bristol Board of Parks Commissioners as well as the Bristol Veterans Council.
The bridge was rehabilitated as it had been gradually degrading and is receiving a facelift as officials have often referred to it as an entrance to the city’s downtown.
Trademark Contractors was awarded the project for over $2.5 million. Funding for the project was provided through the state’s bridge program with 50% match of funding municipal and federal dollars through a “progressive reimbursement” process back to the city.