CT Construction Digest Tuesday March 16, 2021
Smoother Rides Begin With World-Class Quality
Tilcon Connecticut, A CRH Company, paves the way to provide the traveling public a smoother ride while training its employees to remain attuned to quality-related procedures and practices.
By Flavia De Faria
The foundation for a successful and exceptional asphalt product requires all eyes on the prize – from weekly plant and pavement adjustment reviews to yearly training with sales personnel. Tilcon Connecticut (TCT), A CRH Co., plans and measures all the systematic actions necessary to ensure that a product or facility performs. "We are committed to excel and set high standards for our industry while delivering exceptional service through safety, quality, and professionalism," said Gary Wall, President of TCT.
TCT’s key to quality and safety focuses on training and developing every employee. This investment helps the company minimize problems and mistakes while strengthening its safety culture and operating at maximum efficiency. "I remember the first time I traveled to TCT to conduct training nine years ago and feeling that there was something different about the group," said Shane Buchanan, Asphalt Performance Manager at CRH Americas Materials. "Everybody worked well together, and they were all working towards a common goal – success."
Workforce Development and Training
TCT’s quality control department has a complete personnel qualification program to help employees remain attuned to quality-related procedures and practices. According to Kai Qualben, Quality Control Manager at TCT, the company offers all lines of business multiple virtual training presentations throughout the year. "We make sure to not only invest in our quality assurance personnel but also to provide our paving foremen, supervisors, and project managers the opportunity to obtain quality assurance certification through the Northeast Transportation Technician Certification Program (NETTCP)," Qualben explained.
The company believes that the way to achieve product excellence is to invest in its people from the ground up. The workforce development and training program also includes:
Detailed quality assurance on-boarding training;
Yearly quality and mix training with asphalt operators;
Participation in CRH Americas Materials’ annual hot mix asphalt (HMA) performance training, where companies from the northeast states gather together to discuss quality assurance; and
Workforce involvement and engagement in bulletins and industry updates from CRH Americas Materials National Asphalt Performance Team, which focuses on improving asphalt mix and production efficiencies and enhancing the quality of produced asphalt materials.
The sales team at TCT participates in regular training to stay up to date on the latest product offerings and changes in specifications. "The training allows the sales representatives to discuss products and solutions for our customers, which allow customers to be successful with any challenges they may face on the job site," said Bill Linehan, Commercial Sales Manager at TCT.
According to Buchanan, the company has a unique culture. Everybody understands how they can contribute to make the business better. "When the business has this perspective, they get a great product, a good job completed, and they create a great company," he added.
Pavement and Mix Quality
The quality control department performs tests in a timely manner and relays the information to the plant, maintaining a level of control conducive to producing good quality asphalt. The road to achieving asphalt excellence is challenging. Database software, which reports weekly updates on trends and statistical analysis, helps the company to maintain pavement and mix quality. TCT also conducts weekly management meetings to discuss performance on all active jobs and weekly meetings with technicians to discuss the challenges and successes of every project. The key to maintaining pavement and mix quality also includes:
Daily asphalt mix reviews with management and technicians;
Daily calls with paving coordinators, managers, trucking, plant, and quality control to discuss any project issues;
Weekly aggregate call with president, vice president, superintendents, and managers, to discuss all issues including quality;
Weekly aggregate and asphalt meeting with quarry, asphalt, and quality control personnel;
Weekly review of the company’s quality assurance performance with the management team; and
Quarterly testing of all aggregate properties.
These priorities help the company ensure the road surfaces laid down are the most efficient, long lasting, and safe for the public. "We put a lot of effort into growing quality awareness across our crews. The collaboration between all lines of business makes the quality of our products one of TCT’s greatest strengths," said Mark Pillsbury, Paving and Milling Manager at TCT. The company believes that quality roads cost less – less to build and less to maintain.
Enhancing Mix Performance
From year to year, aggregates and mix designs may change slightly. To maximize quality, the company monitors quality results from prior seasons to enhance the upcoming year’s asphalt production. TCT’s quality control team is in charge of letting the crews know what they can expect every day from each project. "We evaluate each job individually throughout the season – All based on technician feedback and core results," said Qualben.
At the heart of the quality process and mix performances are TCT’s Newington lab (central laboratory). TCT’s central laboratory is the oldest AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) accredited laboratory in Connecticut to be run by a producer. "Our lab has the largest scope of asphalt and aggregate testing in Connecticut, second only to the Connecticut DOT lab and UConn’s Connecticut Advanced pavement laboratory," said Qualben.
Since 2004, TCT’s central lab complies with the published standards for AASHTO and the American Society for Testing and Materials, while having the capability to:
Verify both the testing apparatus and the operator under actual testing conditions;
Receive individualized reports with performance charts to track testing results over time;
Demonstrate conformance to specific national and international standards, and;
Get expert advice and first-hand feedback on laboratory best practices.
"We focus on developing construction techniques to increase the durability of our pavement and products while working as one team," said Doug DiPersio, Quality Control Supervisor at TCT. The focus on advancing the industry and investing in its workforce and facilities is the mission of TCT. The company prides itself on its safety, quality, and professionalism from crew to C-suite, from start to finish.
Now it's Biden's turn to schedule 'Infrastructure Week' Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias
Bloomberg With the American Rescue Plan signed into law, President Joe Biden appears ready to pivot to his next big idea: a recovery plan focused on infrastructure. And while the perennial concern about how to pay for it is already rising on Capitol Hill, members of Congress might want to worry a bit less about the how a bit more about the what and why.
Under President Barack Obama, for example, the federal government invested significantly in new streetcars, which now exist in many U.S. cities. These modern trolleys look cool. And because they don't require tunnels, viaducts or other grade separation, they are relatively easy to build. But in virtually every case, Obama-era streetcar lines got built by foregoing dedicated lanes. This avoided offending politically influential car owners while still allowing mayors to attend ribbon-cuttings and the Transportation secretary to tout the jobs created by all the new made-in-America trolley tracks.
Unfortunately, when you make a streetcar run in mixed traffic, all you've really created is an expensive bus. Except unlike a bus, a streetcar can't go around obstacles. So as an actual transportation service, a streetcar is an inferior product to the humble bus, and drastically inferior to the cheap-but-controversial step of creating a dedicated bus lane.
The great difficulty of infrastructure projects isn't just getting the politics right. It's that the technical design details matter enormously, and tradeoffs are difficult to avoid.
Years ago, Washington embarked on the construction of the new Metro train line, which after many delays and cost overruns will soon extend out to Dulles Airport. These kinds of airport connector projects are often a high priority for elites, who tend to travel a lot and thus have airport-centric views of the different cities they visit.
But these connectors tend to underperform in ridership, because linking an airport to a central business district doesn't actually serve the most plausible market: the people who work at the airport and have to go there five days a week. According to one analysis, the AirTrain projects at JFK and Newark airports cost about $100,00 per weekday rider. At that price, the government could just buy each of them an electric car.
The real problem in Washington, however, isn't the cost of the line to the airport. It's that there is only so much capacity in the tunnel under the Potomac River. Adding the new trains has made it necessary to run less frequently the other trains that use the tunnel. That means this huge financial investment in transit - $5.8 billion and counting - has already resulted in worse service for some people.
Highways pose fewer technical challenges of network design, and the U.S. is consequently better at building them. But America has been building highways for a long time, which means that the highest-value routes were all built long ago. Incremental investment in highways now means marginal, sprawl-inducing extensions.
America would get more value from maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. But federal funding flows through state transportation departments, and governors like to cut ribbons on new roads, bridges and the like. A moderate increase in the pace at which potholes get filled doesn't make for a good photo op.
None of this is to deny that the country has genuine infrastructure needs or that an injection of federal money could help with them.
But even on stuff that everyone wants to spend more on, such as rural broadband, it's worth asking: If states have great ideas for broadband programs, why aren't they undertaking them already? The benefits of faster, more reliable internet are perfectly real but overwhelmingly local. Subsidized buildouts that only pass cost/benefit muster if you're spending someone else's money are a dubious proposition.
The big exception here is clean energy. Anything the U.S. can do to boost the production of zero-carbon electricity - whether renewable, nuclear or emerging ideas like geothermal - has significant benefits. But Congress actually passed an ambitious energy bill as recently as December, so it's not clear exactly what's new here.
Perhaps an amazing infrastructure proposal of some kind will emerge. Precisely because U.S. transportation spending is so troubled, there is ample room for reform, and money can be the tool that makes reform possible.
But it's a very uncertain proposition. The genius of the American Rescue Plan is that despite its grand scale, its conceptual ambitions are modest. The overwhelming preponderance of its spending is either direct payments to households or a boost of existing federal funding to state and local entities. The federal government can start next week delivering on these promises to send Americans cash.
By contrast, promises of infrastructure - or even an "Infrastructure Week" - have a way of frustrating presidents. Obama's administration had an ambitious high-speed rail plan, and yet America still has no high-speed rail. And one of the running jokes of Donald Trump's presidency was how it kept scheduling, canceling and rescheduling "Infrastructure Week," right up until it ran out of time.
Their reasons and responses differed enormously, of course. But both of Biden's predecessors learned the hard way that, when it comes to infrastructure, actually getting something meaningful done is hard.
Bridgeport sewer upgrades could nearly triple fees by 2033
Brian Lockhart
BRIDGEPORT — A proposed $395 million upgrade of one of the city’s two sewer plants should be good for local water quality but may leave ratepayers feeling soaked by higher fees.
On Monday, the all-Democrat City Council is scheduled to vote on authorizing the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) to obtain a $276.5 million loan and receive $118.5 million in federal grants to expand capacity at the West Side wastewater facility.
The goal is to respond to state orders requiring that Bridgeport prevent partially-treated sewage from being released into local waterways and Long Island Sound during overflows. The funds would also begin designs for similar future work at the East Side plant.
In return, ratepayers could see gradual but steep increases in their annual bills over the next decade to help pay off the $276.5 million loan.
Lauren McBennett Mappa, the WPCA’s general manager since 2019, briefed the council’s budget committee on the project last week by teleconference. According to the summary she presented, the average household’s current yearly WPCA bill of $490 could jump to $816 by 2027 and $1,064 by 2033.
Mappa noted that the debt would be shared not just by residents but by businesses, hospitals and universities: “It gets spread out over a broader base, actually, than taxes do.”
She also characterized the estimated fees hikes as a “worst case scenario” that could be alleviated by operational efficiencies from the plant improvements and by other, future cost-saving efforts.
And, she argued, if Bridgeport does not proceed, it faces massive fines of “$25,000 to $50,000 per day” by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“We are under two consent orders from DEEP,” Mappa told the budget committee. “A consent order needs to be done. It’s an order.”
But the scope of the work has changed under Mappa. In 2018, before she was hired, the WPCA presented a $100 million plan to the council that Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration claimed might lead to “small ratepayer changes down the road over the next three to five years” but no “spike.”
Mappa referred to that $100 million from two years ago as a “placeholder.” She also claimed by investing more than anticipated in the West Side plant, Bridgeport would avoid at least $150 million in state-required work separating underground sewer and storm water pipes. That combined system is blamed for sewage overflows during heavy rains when the plants are inundated with storm water.
“If I can increase the capacity of the plant, I’m eliminating (spills of untreated wastewater) without separating the pipes,” Mappa said.
Though some members expressed alarm over the prospective new fees, the budget committee last week authorized Mappa and the WPCA to move ahead, forwarding the matter to the full council for final approval at its regular meeting Monday.
“We need to clean the water. Black Rock Harbor is a mess,” Councilman Scott Burns, a budget committee chairman, said last week. In his district, sewer spills have posed a continual problem.
Burn’s co-chairman, Councilman Ernie Newton, told their colleagues that the capacity issues with the sewer facilities are not going to go away: “Let’s keep in mind our plants are old (and), like it or not, everybody has to go to the bathroom.”
But the fee hikes are still controversial given the council has worked with the WPCA to reform the Authority’s aggressive bill collection practices, including limiting foreclosures on properties for overdue sewer bills.
“We definitely need an updated (sewer) system in our city,” Councilwoman Jeanette Herron told her budget committee colleagues. But, Herron added, “You know what we went through” to try to make it easier for cash-strapped residents to keep up with their WPCA bills and avoid property foreclosures.
“So I’m very concerned about this,” she concluded.
“I don’t know how we can ask people to take this on,” Councilwoman Maria Pereira, who does not sit on the budget committee but participated in last week’s teleconference with Mappa, said at that time.
Pereira spent the last several days lobbying her colleagues via email to delay Monday’s vote to better understand the state consent orders and meet with Bridgeport’s legislative and Congressional representatives about offsetting the higher fees.
Trumbull First Selectman Vicki Tesoro in a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media Friday also expressed concern.
For years, Trumbull, with no sewage plant of its own, has used Bridgeport’s. In 2016, the city and Trumbull entered into a new 10-year agreement which phased out a controversial discount that had been provided Trumbull’s ratepayers.
Tesoro told Hearst that Trumbull had “minimal information at this time about the (plant upgrade) proposal, which contains a very large increase.”
She said representatives from her administration would participate in Monday’s Bridgeport council teleconference and “it is my expectation that Trumbull will be at the table in the future.”
The last major work on Bridgeport’s sewage treatment plants occurred in the 1990s, also under Ganim, who originally served in office from 1991 until 2003 and was re-elected in 2015. In fact, Ganim in 2000 touted the improvements in one of a handful of television spots promoting Bridgeport.
“It used to be fish were dying and sludge was ruining our shores,” the mayor said in one 2000 advertisement. “In Bridgeport, we’ve cracked down on pollution. We’ve invested millions to clean up sewage and protect our water.”
Like now, that work was not voluntary and was required by Connecticut environmental officials.
Mappa told the budget committee last week that the 1990s-era improvements did not go far enough: “To be perfectly honest, when they were upgraded — 26 years ago for the West Side, about 22 on the East Side — it wasn’t a true upgrade. All they did was paint the outside of the house. They really did. We need to provide Bridgeport with upgraded plants that take care of Bridgeport with capacity and 21st century treatment so we’re meeting all our regulatory goals.”
Bristol will sponsor a building trades apprenticeship program
Susan Corica
BRISTOL – The city will sponsor a building trades apprenticeship program next year as part of the planned renovation of City Hall.
Building Pathways is an apprenticeship training program “which takes people who are typically underrepresented in the building trades and exposes them to various aspects,” said Katherine Mamed, executive director of the United Labor Agency, of which the program is a part.
Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu explained that Building Pathways is a “collaborative apprenticeship readiness program that prepares candidates for the union apprenticeship application process. This is an unpaid program for anyone 18 years and older. They will visit and train in a variety of trades, and then have the opportunity to choose the trade that is the best fit for them.”
“Some of the certifications the participants will receive include OSHA 10, First Aid/CPR, Trench Excavation, Confined Space, MC3 National Building Trades Certification and Green Awareness in Construction Certification. The skills that are covered include construction basics, blueprint reading and measurements, rigging and signaling, financial literacy and safety training,” she said.
Since the city will be embarking on a renovation plan for City Hall next spring that will utilize a large number of trades there can be site visits to the project by Building Pathways participants, Zoppo-Sassu said.
“It will also give us time to raise the $25,000 needed for the program, as well as ensure that we are still not under Covid precautions which would dilute the program if it was transferred to online learning. The $25,000 will pay for the two instructors, laptops for the students, and safety equipment required for the program,” she said.
The mayor said this is a 12 week program that meets twice a week for a half a day each time. She said the job placement rate for participants was part of what attracted her to the program.
Mamed said Building Pathways has recently finished “our first class through our partnership with the City of New Haven, and within two months we had 71.4% of our graduating class working. So to finish that class just before the holidays and be able to have that many people working so quickly I think is just a testament to the fact that you have people who want to work there are jobs.”
These are typically people that don’t have opportunities elsewhere to learn about trades that others might be familiar with from growing up on a farm or knowing someone who does that work, she said.
This is a great program to incorporate into the renovation, where participants can go, “not to be hands on but to watch what’s happening during a real live project,” Zoppo-Sassu said.
“It’s a great program and I’m excited about it,” commented City Council member Brittany Barney.
Critics of State Pier project rally outside the Capitol to decry economic losses
Julia Bergman
Opponents of the plan to develop State Pier into an offshore wind hub, led by Steve Farrelly, whose salt distribution business was based at the pier for the past seven years, rallied outside the state Capitol Monday to illustrate the business and job loss they say will result from the development.
“As much as the wind industry is important to us moving forward with renewable energies, what we do is important too. All these jobs here are important. All these people supporting their families are important,” said Farrelly, owner of DRVN.
Farrelly was joined by his employees, the longshoremen who’ve long provided labor at the pier, and contractors who have relied on DRVN for their salt supply.
“There should’ve been more of a collaborative effort to make it work for everybody, not just the strong and powerful,” Farrelly said.
Parked behind Farrelly, as he spoke on the north side of the Capitol, was a dump truck with a trailer carrying a large sign, painted red, white and blue, with the words “Save the CT State Pier” and “Stop the Monopoly!" Dozens of trucks, some of them operated by DRVN, lined the streets around the Capitol.
“I’ve got some hard decisions to make over the next 90 days to see if I can stay in business," Farrelly said.
DRVN operated out of State Pier until February when the company had to vacate the premises in preparation for construction to start at the pier.
John Henshaw, executive director of the Connecticut Port Authority, said in an emailed statement Monday that DRVN has known since last year that it had to relocate given State Pier will be a construction site for the next two years.
"The Connecticut Port Authority has stated publicly and consistently since March of 2020 that the State Pier would not be able to accommodate salt after 2020 because of a planned reinvestment in that facility for future growth,” Henshaw said.
The port authority granted DRVN several extensions over the past year in order to give the company time to sell its remaining inventory, Henshaw said.
Last year, Danish offshore wind company Ørsted and the utility company Eversource entered into an agreement with the state and port authority for $157 million in upgrades to use the pier as a staging area in support of its planned offshore wind farms. The latest estimate shows the project is now expected to cost more than $200 million.
Following the agreement, tenants at the pier were told they had to make plans to vacate the facility, and the longshoremen were notified that they would be out of work when construction began.
Peter Olsen, the former longtime president of the International Longshoremen's Association 1411, said the last of the longshoremen were laid off recently. Many are having a hard time finding work, he said, adding that to date, Gateway Terminal, which operates the ports in New London and New Haven, has not offered to employ any of the longshoremen in New Haven.
Several contractors who have purchased salt from DRVN said at Monday's event that if the company goes out of business, their bottom line would be impacted.
"There's a lot of small contractors that provide public safety for municipalities, state buildings, colleges," said Mike Lenares, co-owner of Lenares Landscape & Design in Newington. "The lack of competition is going to impact the market."
Gateway said through a spokesperson Monday that it is "committed to working with all of Connecticut's salt suppliers to ensure that the state will have ample salt supply."
The company sells salt to private contractors out of the New Haven port, while Morton and Champion, which are based at the port, serve the Connecticut Department of Transportation and municipalities.
The statement also notes that Gateway tried to help Farrelly find an alternate location for his business.
"DRVN had ample opportunity to pursue alternative locations in eastern Connecticut and New Haven with Gateway's assistance, but they were not interested in collaborating with us," the statement says.
Kevin Blacker, a longtime critic of the State Pier deal, said the rising cost of the project, the ongoing investigation by Connecticut’s attorney general into the port authority, as well as news reports and audits showing financial mismanagement at the agency in recent years, all point to a need to restart the negotiations.
“The solution is the deal needs to be rebid. It was made by the port authority. The port authority is corrupt,” Blacker said.
Blacker noted that no legislators were present at Monday's event. "That speaks to volumes to what we’re dealing with," he said.
CT’s unemployment rate edges down as officials point to hopeful signs
Liese Klein
he state’s unemployment rate edged lower in January to 8.1%, even though employers shed 100 jobs during the month, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor (DOL).
The unemployment rate was down 0.1% from December. Meantime, state labor officials revised its December job loss total to 4,600.
Statewide employment is now 127,300 positions lower than a year ago at 1,570,700 jobs.
Connecticut has recovered a little more than half (166,800) of the 292,400 jobs lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Even as Connecticut’s jobs recovery remains slow, state officials expressed optimism for the coming months as more people receive vaccines and more of the economy continues to reopen.
“Job posting data shows that ... thousands of employers are trying to hire,” DOL Acting Director of Research Patrick Flaherty said. “There is pent-up demand across market sectors... We believe there will be strong economic growth as a result.”
Private sector jobs were up slightly, with retail, transportation, education and health jobs increasing. Retail has gained 82% of jobs it lost during the pandemic, according to the DOL.
Seven other industry super sectors declined in January, including information, construction and mining and professional and business services. The Hartford labor market area lost 400 positions for the month.
A separate report showed 4,000 new job postings each week in Connecticut.
A new analysis by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics also found that Connecticut’s unemployment rate during the peak of the pandemic last year was slightly higher than previously estimated, the DOL reported.
Torrington riverfront project gets final OK
BRUNO MATARAZZO JR.
TORRINGTON — The City Council on Monday gave final approval to the construction of a 60-unit apartment complex along the Naugatuck River that city leaders believe will “change the landscape of Torrington.”
The two 5-1 votes by the council authorizes Mayor Elinor C. Carbone to sign a 95-year lease with developer Pennrose, which seeks to construct a four-story apartment complex on the two-acre vacate property. The other vote allows the mayor to sign a tax abatement to phase in property taxes over 15 years.
City Council member Paul E. Cavagnero was the lone vote against the project.
Carbone said she hopes to complete the closing by the end this month with Pennrose starting construction in April. Construction would eliminate the parking lot built in 2014.
“All around, I’m so pleased with this and I’m so convinced that this changes the landscape of Torrington,” Carbone said.
The vote caps the end of more than a decade of discussions and studies on how best to redevelop the city’s riverfront, which was once a hub of manufacturing, to something that will attract young professionals.
The plans show an L-shaped building in the Franklin Street parking lot along the Naugatuck River. Access roads for residents will be on Franklin Street, across from Center Street, and around the corner on Franklin Drive.
The site was home to Torrington Manufacturing Co. until 2010, when the buildings were demolished.
There will be nine three-bedroom units, but most will be two-bedroom apartments. Of the 60 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, 75% will be affordable housing, including 12 units of federally subsidized Section 8 housing and 25% will be market rate.
A year ago, the project received $1.35 million yearly federal low-income tax credits for 10 years from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority to help fund its construction.
Currently, remediation of PCBs and other contaminants on the site is nearing completion.
The city is using state grant money to fund the remediation.
Initial costs brought cleanup money to well below the $1 million in environmental cleanup grant money the city received from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Another 50% was available if the city needed and it did when additional contaminants were discovered. The DECD approved an additional $400,000 to cover the remaining cleanup costs.
“It’s all covered,” Carbone said.
At the end of the 95-year lease, the building will revert to the city where the city can take control or sell the building.