CT Construction Digest Tuesday July 25, 2023
Brookfield finishes pocket park in phase three of streetscape work; 'pleasant ambiance to downtown'
BROOKFIELD — Looking for a place to take a break from a busy day or to meet up with friends? Check out the town’s new pocket park, which was constructed as part of the third of six phases of a $12.4 million streetscape development project.
The third phase of the yearslong project, which has just been completed at a cost of $1.6 million, is the smallest of the six phases, Brookfield community development specialist Greg Dembowski said.
“We’ve created a new place for people to congregate and for walkers to sit," Dembowski said of the pocket park at 756 Federal Road in front of the Dunkin' Donuts Plaza.
"We put in some benches and … a bike rack and put a lot of trees and shrubs in,” he said. Visitors to the pocket park “can (also) go to a restaurant for lunch or for a cup of coffee.”
The rest of phase three was an extension of phase two and involved constructing 1,300 feet of roadway and 2,100 feet of sidewalks; adding 15 sidewalk lights; and reconstructing seven driveways.
“The town is pleased that phase three is completed. The residents have responded favorably because of all of the development and retail and commercial businesses that have come to our town — not just restaurants but we have a new medical center. We have a dental practice,” Dembowski said.
Additionally, he said, a grocery store called the Emporium Plaza will open next spring at 731 Federal Road. “That’s just another feature and benefit to what we’re doing,” Dembowski said.
“Brookfield’s streetscape design is consistent across all phases" of the project, which broke ground in 2017, he said. “The sidewalk lights, granite curbing, brick pavers and other amenities add a pleasant ambiance to our downtown.”
Angelo DaChuna, owner of Brookfield Cleaners & Tailors at 28 Old Route 7, said he's excited about all the changes the project is bringing to the area.
"To see all of the development of a supermarket ... is going to be wonderful for this area. All the mom-and-pop shops, the restaurants where you no longer have to go out of town," he said. "To have the sidewalks for pedestrians to walk across the streets and up and down Federal Road without having to worry about traffic, is phenomenal."
Pocket park, sidewalks
Dembowski said the pocket park extends across the street to the Still River Greenway, which is the second most walked trail in the state.
The pocket park is less than a half-acre, but it’s notable as the first public park area in the town’s center district, he said.
“It’s only been open now for a couple months,” Dembowski said. “Time will tell on exactly how much use it gets.”
The Brookfield Arts Commission received approval in this year’s budget to put an art sculpture in the middle of that park, and the town will put in lighting and an elevated pedestal area. “So, we’re going to make it somewhat of a feature in our town center district,” he said.
Other work in phase three involved adding sidewalks on both sides of Old Route 7; those on the west side can be used as an extension of the Still River Greenway.
Project delays, funding
Phase three was completed a full construction season later than planned, Dembowski said, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wanted to complete this project in 2022,” he said. “There were supply chain delivery challenges with getting granite and our sidewalk lights delivered.”
Additionally, phase four, which involves the north side of the Four Corners intersection, has been stalled for about a year.
“Phase four takes our streetscape design from the Four Corners intersection all the way to Newbury Village, where it’ll pick up the Still River Greenway trail to New Milford,” he said. “That project is now hung up because of a right-of-way easement that we have not been able yet to close on with one of the property owners along that route.” He declined to name the property owner.
For phase three, 84 percent of the funding sources came from the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program, called LOTCIP, and 17 percent came from the town.
Previous phases of the project were covered by the U.S. Transportation Alternatives Program, or TAP, the state’s Small Town Economic Assistance Program, or STEAP, and the state’s Local Capital Improvement Program, or LoCIP.
“With each phase, we are more efficient with the use of town funds,” Dembowski said. “Of the $3.1 million of town funds to be spent over the six phases, half of it was spent on phase one.”
What’s to come
Phase three will connect to phases five and six, which will add 33 roadside parking spaces when completed and “will provide even better pedestrian access to the Emporium Plaza and the rest of the town center district,” Dembowski said.
For phase five, the town is waiting for the state to approve a permit from OSTA, or the Office of the State Traffic Administration, which will provide a final design for intersection improvements at Laurel Hill and Federal Road, he said.
“There is going to be a new traffic light in the turning lane. Until we get that final design approval from the (state Department of Transportation), we can’t finish our sidewalk design because the roadway configuration is going to be changing,” Dembowski said.
“We’ve been waiting now for a couple of months on the DOT to issue that final OSTA permit. Once we have that, we will immediately finish our design and probably this fall go out to bid for streetscape phase five.”
CTDOT Offers Text Alerts For Planned I-95 Closures, Blasting at Exit 74
Brendan Crowley,
EAST LYME – Drivers will have little notice before Interstate 95 closes fully in both directions in 15 minute intervals, twice a day, four days a week starting next Tuesday.
On Aug. 1, crews will begin blasting ledge along I-95 at Exit 74 in East Lyme to make room for another northbound travel lane as part of the $148 million rebuild at Route 161.
The interstate will be closed in both directions for 15 minutes twice a day between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, Connecticut Department of Transportation announced. The closures will continue for 6-8 weeks.
Blasting will be suspended on Fridays to avoid typically heavy beach traffic northbound on I-95.
DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said it’s not possible to give a narrower range of time for the blasting because the timing of each round of blasting depends on moment-to-moment conditions.
Drivers who want some notice can sign up for text alerts on the project website, which Morgan said will send out an alert about 30 minutes before blasting begins and the interstate is shut down.
During the blasting, rolling roadblocks will block off both travel lanes in each direction, and drivers will be directed to the detours by signs and an East Lyme Police detail.
Northbound drivers will take Exit 74, continue on Route 161 north which turns into Route 1, turn left onto Cross Road, left onto Waterford Parkway, and enter back on to I-95 northbound at Exit 75.
Southbound drivers will take Exit 75, follow Route 1 to Route 161 south, where they can enter back on to I-95 southbound.
Morgan said the blasting and lane closures have always been a part of the project plans. There was previous consideration scheduling one blasting operation a day, Monday through Friday, for 12 to 16 weeks, he said.
“We were able to work with the blasting company to do two operations Monday through Thursday, because the vehicle counts on Friday are so much higher,” Morgan said. “And that means we’re able to get the work done in 6 to 8 weeks instead of four months.”
Morgan said they would usually plan lane closures for overnight hours, but state law requires blasting to be scheduled during daylight hours.
“It’s not putting a stick of dynamite into a mountainside, this is coordinated drilling to remove just enough of the rock ledge for this extra travel lane, but you never know what’s going to happen,” Morgan said. “If something fell into the roadway or something washed away, this has to be done during the daytime so that it could be visible and cleaned up quickly.”
The project will flatten the grade along I-95, replace the I-95 bridge over Route 161, create new on- and off-ramps at Exit 74, and add additional lanes between exits 74 and 75. Construction began in April, and is expected to be completed in Spring 2027. The Department of Transportation awarded the $148 million project to Manafort Brothers as the lead contractor.
To receive text alerts that will give about 30 minutes of warning before the highway is closed, people can sign up on the project website.
Hydroelectric power, produced through carbon-free and efficient technology developed in the late-1800s to provide mechanical energy for mills, could see a rebirth, advocates hope.
As Connecticut inches closer to its 2040 deadline to procure all of its energy from zero-carbon sources, the state needs to diversify production, and some experts say that hydropower must become an increasingly important part of the energy mix if the Nutmeg State is going to meet its clean energy goals.
“You’re going to need a mix of zero-carbon resources in order to get to that goal,” said Lee Hoffman, chair of law firm Pullman & Comley, and former co-chair of the firm’s real estate, energy, environmental and land use department. “You’re going to need nuclear, you’re going to need wind, you’re going to need solar and yes, you’re going to need hydroelectric.”
However, for that to happen, hydro advocates say producers must be compensated more in order to sustain their businesses, and they complain that the state has largely ignored hydropower as a reliable clean energy source.
Duncan Broatch, a hydropower operator and chairperson of the Connecticut Small Power Producers Association, recently submitted a report to the state legislature that said 11 hydroelectric dams have recently shut down, causing the state to lose 8 megawatts of generation capacity.
An additional nine facilities are at risk of being decommissioned soon, a potential loss of another 10 MW.
Meanwhile, he estimates that 47 undeveloped dams in Connecticut could be retooled as hydropower generators, if the economic situation makes the projects viable. That would create 27 MW of electricity — enough to power up to 24,300 homes annually.
Broatch said many hydroelectric dams are struggling because operators can’t afford to maintain their Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licenses, which require significant plant upgrades roughly once every 40 years.
Non-renewables reliance
Hydroelectric technology has existed for centuries. Hydroelectric dams convert the energy of flowing water into kinetic energy using hydraulic turbines. A generator converts the mechanical energy into electricity.
Hydroelectricity’s share of total U.S. electricity generation decreased from the 1950s through 2020, mainly because of increases from other sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In 2022, hydroelectricity accounted for about 6.2% of total U.S. electricity generation. About 7% of Connecticut’s electricity comes from hydropower, according to ISO-New England, which oversees the region’s electrical grid.
Fossil fuel-burning power plants, which use heat to generate steam that drives turbines to produce electricity, generate the majority of electricity in the United States, as well as in Connecticut. They became popular because they’re reliable and relatively inexpensive to build, according to the World Nuclear Association.
But they produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. Also, the earth’s fossil fuels reserve is being depleted.
Connecticut is heavily reliant on non-renewable energy sources. In 2022, most of the state’s electricity (52%) was derived from natural gas, second to nuclear (26%), based on data from ISO-New England.
In an effort to reverse that trend, in 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order setting the state’s goal to have a zero-carbon electric grid by 2040. Last year, it was codified into law.
Hoffman said five of six New England states have decarbonization goals between now and 2050.
“If those five states achieve their zero-carbon goals by 2050, we will need to roughly double our electric production in New England, and we will need to do so while replacing our current fossil fuel assets,” Hoffman said. “So, right now, the biggest producer of electricity in New England is natural gas. We will have to replace a significant number of natural gas-fired power plants as well as other fossil fuel plants, while at the same time doubling the overall production, and that’s a daunting task.”
The state has worked to provide incentives for wind and solar energy production, with many producers receiving about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity — more than six times as much as what small hydroelectric facilities receive, according to Broatch.
That puts hydropower producers at a major disadvantage. Broatch’s business, Summit Hydropower, operates a 100 KW hydroelectric facility in Dayville at a loss, he said.
The plant brings in gross revenue of about $11,000 a year and generates enough electricity to power about 80 homes, he said.
“How am I supposed to run and operate and maintain this thing for only $11,000?” Broatch said. “Your liability insurance policy alone costs $5,000. So, this is a real problem.”
Other New England states have programs that offer equitable energy rates for the purchase of hydropower. Those rates often match the retail rate charged by utilities, Broatch explained.
Because Connecticut doesn’t offer such a program, hydroelectric producers receive ISO-New England’s wholesale rate, which averages about 3 cents per kWh.
The low rates, on top of costly requirements, have created an economic crisis for the industry, Broatch said. He has been imploring the legislature to establish purchase rates in the range of 12 to 24 cents per kWh.
But two bills that would have mandated those higher rates died in committee during the recent legislative session.
Studying the issue
The state legislature this year did pass a bill signed by Lamont that will establish a task force to study and review the benefits of the state’s hydropower assets.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection offered support for the bill, saying “hydropower resources provide valuable support to the state’s energy needs and goals.”
Broatch opposed the legislation, urging the legislature to instead take action by setting higher rates for hydroelectricity.
He has support from state Rep. Tim Ackert (R-Coventry), a member of the Energy and Technology Committee, who proposed a bill during the 2023 legislative session that would have required electricity distribution companies to pay a monthly tariff for every kilowatt-hour of electricity received from hydropower facilities.
The tariffs would be paid directly to the operators of those facilities. However, the bill died in committee.
Ackert said local hydropower production will help the state lower its emissions, noting that hydroelectric generators are consistent and predictable compared to other energy sources, like solar, which depends on sunlight, and wind.
Also, Ackert said hydropower is environmentally friendly because it removes debris from the water. Hydroelectric dams typically employ fish passages that protect populations of migrating fish.
FirstLight Power Resources owns one of the state’s largest hydroelectric facilities, located along the Housatonic River in New Milford, with a 29 MW capacity – enough electricity to power about 18,850 homes.
It pumps water into Candlewood Lake, which was created specifically to store water that is used to produce electricity. It releases the stored water to generate electricity during peak hours.
But most of the hydropower producers in Connecticut are small operators like Broatch. Without legislative action, Broatch said he fears more will shut down.
“I really should be decommissioned, but I just can’t,” Broatch said. “I don’t have the heart to do that. So, I’m not doing that right now. I have confidence in our legislative system, and I’m going to keep working with them on getting equitable rates from hydro.”
Texas developer hopes New Britain mixed-use redevelopment is one of many in Hardware City
After sitting vacant for more than 20 years, a historic New Britain industrial property will soon have new life as a mixed-use residential development that city officials hope is one of many in the recently created Barrio Latino corridor, named after the predominantly Hispanic residents and businesses surrounding Arch Street.
The Bennett Building, at 266 Arch St., is being redeveloped into 10 apartments and commercial space that will house three new businesses, including a cafe, restaurant and distillery.
Following clean up and remediation efforts and then construction, the apartments and new cafe are expected to debut in November.
The redevelopment is being led by Spencer Tracy, an upstart developer from Texas who has relocated to New Britain to work on the project. He’s also going to be operating the three commercial businesses, employing a unique vertically integrated business model.
New Britain officials say the development is a win for the city. The property has a rich history as a former home to a fabric cleaner and clothing manufacturer, but it’s been vacant since 1988.
The exterior of 266 Arch St., New Britain.
Returning it to productive use will grow the city’s tax base and add vibrancy to the Barrio Latino corridor, which was established in 2016.
The project is also the latest in a string of mixed-use residential developments planned or completed in New Britain, a blue-collar city of more than 73,000 residents that has embraced the adaptive re-use of old office and industrial buildings into new downtown housing.
“There’s a slow transformation of our Barrio Latino (neighborhood) that is happening building by building, and 266 Arch Street is going to be a kick-starter for this,” said New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart. “Arch Street is a gateway for downtown. … To be able to enhance and revitalize Arch Street means a lot for the expansion of the downtown district.”
Property history
According to city records, the building at 266 Arch St. was erected in 1911 by the Bennett family, founders of Union Laundry Co. The clothing and carpet cleaning business operated until the 1960s, was sold to the Pavano family and then was home to a clothing manufacturer and other retail businesses for decades.
“A lot of New Britain residents, from Italian and Polish families, worked there in the clothing factory — the building has a lot of history,” Stewart said.
The building became fully vacant in 1988, before it was purchased by a church, which for years let the property sit vacant. The city took ownership in 2011.
Stewart said the city years ago made a list of all city-owned properties, and began putting them on the market in 2016 and 2017 to gauge investor interest.
Tracy bought the Bennett Building in November 2019 for $204,000.
“I’ll never forget it — (Tracy) walked into City Hall and he had a cowboy hat on and spurs on his cowboy boots,” Stewart said. “And now he actually lives in downtown New Britain. He wants to complement the work we’ve been doing down on Main Street and kind of bring that up Arch Street.”
Mixed-use revival
Tracy in January 2019 flew to New Britain from his Texas home to advise one of his development colleagues and friend, Southington resident Arif Fezaj, regarding a land purchase in the city. After the two toured New Britain, Tracy found 266 Arch St., and fell in love with the site, he said.
He closed on the purchase 11 months later.
When complete, the building will have 10 townhouse-style, two-level apartments, a coffee house on the Arch Street ground-level entrance, and a restaurant and distillery on the rear of the property that faces Glen Street.
The building will include a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments; three will be affordable. The distillery will make grappa, an Italian brandy-style hard liquor, while the restaurant and cafe will have Latin-themed menus to reflect the neighborhood’s heritage and culture.
Tracy said he plans to open all three of the commercial businesses rather than try to find outside operators.
That’s a unique business model for Tracy, who has worked on small-scale real estate developments, but doesn’t have experience running a restaurant, cafe or distillery.
“We’re developing everything, and we own everything, so we’re doing the restaurant, cafe and distillery,” said Tracy, noting that he’s tapped Fezaj to be his head distiller. “We’re going to try it and see if we can build out a business that’s vertically integrated. If we can get it to work, we’re going to replicate it in other cities throughout the United States.”
Tracy has worked on a few housing-related projects in the past, but nothing of this magnitude. His first venture was renovating a multifamily property in Washington, D.C. He did a similar project several years later involving a Yale sorority building in New Haven, he said.
Tracy said he plans to acquire other New Britain properties in need of redevelopment.
Working with the city
The 266 Arch St. building is within New Britain’s tax increment financing (TIF) district, so the project qualified for loans through that program.
New Britain Director of Planning and Development Jack Benjamin said that between the low-interest TIF loan and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants, the city has helped guide about $750,000 in funding for the approximately $6 million project.
The site is also on the state’s historic property registry, making it eligible for certain state tax credits.
“Like with most developments, we have to piecemeal incentives and opportunities together in order to help make it a reality when doing a historic rehabilitation,” Stewart said.
And remediation was certainly needed at the site, according to Tracy. When he purchased 266 Arch St., the roof had collapsed and parts of the building were dilapidated.
MDC plans to raise $85 million for new water, sewer projects. Here is what they are.
The Metropolitan District Commission plans to raise nearly $85 million to help pay for more than 75 water, sewer and other projects, some entering new phases and others expected to launch this year.
Greater Hartford’s regional water authority, whose largest member municipality in Hartford, said capital improvements include close to 20 new projects that will get started in 2023.
A major share of the new funding — $32 million — is for sewer projects. MDC said about 10%, or $13 million, will go to upgrades at the Hartford Water Pollution Control system on Brainard Road that treats wastewater for five MDC members. The municipalities include Hartford, Bloomfield, West Hartford, Wethersfield and Newington.
Sewer rehabilitation projects in the first phase of the Hartford “Large Diameter” project represent about $14 million and involve the relining of existing pipes.
Some of the stretches involved include: Broad Street from New Britain Avenue to Capitol Avenue; Park Street from Babcock Street to Lafayette Street; Lawrence Street from Park Street to Capitol Avenue; and Capitol Avenue from Park Terrace to Broad Street. Also included: Edgewood Street, Westland Street, Enfield Street and Vine Street.
The Hartford projects are separate from the $85 million drawn from the state Clean Water Fund and other sources for a pilot program that will address sewage overflows in streets and basements in Hartford’s northside, where residents have been chronically impact by flooding for decades.
Flooding again intensified with an extended period of heavy rain in the past couple weeks.
The state funding will be applied to 12 projects proposed by the MDC to increase protections from sewer and storm water flooding and backups in North Hartford, with the projects estimated to cost $170 million in total.
Water projects, which total $38 million, include water main replacement project such a Church and Nott streets and Dix and Chauncey roads in Wethersfield; Whiting, Whitney, Brookfield, Melrose and Laurel streets in East Hartford; and Newington Road in West Hartford.
MDC said high-grade ratings from both Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings will assure that MDC receives “favorable interest rates when it issues bonds to finance its capital projects,” according to Scott W. Jellison, the MDC’s chief executive.
The sale of bonds is expected July 27.
“These upgrades demonstrate our prudent fiscal management of our member towns and ratepayers’ resources and ensure the lowest possible borrowing costs for our investments in our infrastructure,” Jellison said, in a statement.
Moody’s affirmed Aa2 rating on the MDC’s outstanding clean water revenue bonds and upgraded its Aa3 rating on its outstanding and upcoming general obligation bonds to Aa2, while maintaining its stable outlook for all rated debt.
Moody’s reported that its ratings reflect “MDC’s solid financial performance” and lists the MDC’s credit strengths to include an ample water supply, treatment capacity and healthy financial operations, according to an MDC statement.
S&P affirmed its AA rating on the MDC’s outstanding clean water revenue bonds and its outstanding and upcoming general obligation bonds, while maintaining its stable outlook for all rated debt. S&P upgraded its rating on MDC’s revenue bonds in 2022.
Use Of Bond Proceeds $84,755000
|
Water Projects |
Amount Authorized |
Previously Bonded / Grants / Contributions |
Bonds This Issue |
Authorized But Unissued |
|
2012 Dike Penetration and Correction Installations |
$764,000 |
$106,000 |
$658,000* |
$0 |
|
2012 Radio Frequency Automated Meter Reading |
$5,000,000 |
$4,317,000 |
$682,000* |
$1,000 |
|
2013 General Purpose Water |
$3,860,000 |
$3,718,000 |
$111,000* |
$31,000 |
|
2014 Radio Frequency Automated Meter Reading |
$5,000,000 |
$1,771,000 |
$2,662,000* |
$567,000 |
|
2014 Water Treatment Facilities Upgrades |
$2,300,000 |
$2,233,000 |
$11,000* |
$56,000 |
|
2015 Water Supply Improvements |
$3,000,000 |
$1,519,000 |
$650,000* |
$831,000 |
|
2017 General Purpose Water Program |
$2,000,000 |
$1,859,000 |
$132,000* |
$9,000 |
|
2018 General Purpose Water Program |
$2,000,000 |
$1,957,000 |
$29,000* |
$14,000 |
|
2018 Paving Program & Restoration |
$4,000,000 |
$2,674,000 |
$1,236,000* |
$90,000 |
|
2018 Water Treatment Facilities Infrastructure Rehabilitation, Upgrades & Replacements |
$2,200,000 |
$1,738,000 |
$155,000* |
$307,000 |
|
2019 Water Main Replacement Program |
$11,300,000 |
$10,557,000 |
$743,000* |
$0 |
|
2019 Water Pump Stations and Equipment |
$300,000 |
$104,000 |
$179,000* |
$17,000 |
|
2019 Water Supply Infrastructure Rehabilitation, Upgrades & Replacements |
$2,200,000 |
$1,150,000 |
$746,000* |
$304,000 |
|
2019 Water Treatment Facilities Infrastructure Rehabilitation, Upgrades & Replacements Including |
$1,900,000 |
$349,000 |
$1,311,000* |
$240,000 |
|
2020 General Purpose Water Program |
$1,000,000 |
$621,000 |
$378,000* |
$1,000 |
|
2020 Water Main Replacements, Hartford and Wethersfield |
$12,500,000 |
$10,808,343 |
$969,000* |
$722,657 |
|
2020 Water Pump Stations Upgrades and Equipment and Water Tank and Basin Rehabilitation, Re |
$800,000 |
$708,000 |
$92,000* |
$0 |
|
2020 Webster Hill Area Water Main Replacement, West Hartford |
$10,400,000 |
$4,474,651 |
$2,898,000* |
$3,027,349 |
|
2021 District-wide Water Main Replacement Program |
$15,000,000 |
$6,511,000 |
$8,441,000* |
$48,000 |
|
2021 General Purpose Water Program |
$1,200,000 |
$833,000 |
$344,000* |
$23,000 |
|
2021 New Park Avenue Water Main Replacement, West Hartford |
$3,400,000 |
$2,850,000 |
$360,000* |
$190,000 |
|
2021 Paving Program and Restoration |
$2,000,000 |
$1,972,000 |
$27,000* |
$1,000 |
|
2022 General Purpose Water |
$2,200,000 |
$1,341,000 |
$693,000* |
$166,000 |
|
2022 Paving Program & Restoration |
$3,400,000 |
$1,232,000 |
$1,629,000* |
$539,000 |
|
2023 General Purpose Water |
$4,000,000 |
$0 |
$3,500,000* |
$500,000 |
|
2023 Levee Protection - Water |
$263,000 |
$0 |
$263,000* |
$0 |
|
2023 Paving Program & Restoration |
$5,250,000 |
$0 |
$4,831,000* |
$419,000 |
|
2023 Water Treatment/Transmission Improvements |
$1,000,000 |
$0 |
$500,000* |
$500,000 |
|
2023 WTP Infrastructure Rehabilitation, Upgrades & Replacement |
$4,500,000 |
$0 |
$3,500,000* |
$1,000,000 |
|
Total Water Projects |
$112,737,000 |
$65,402,995 |
$37,730,000* |
$9,604,005 |