Road to Recovery: Rebuilding CT's infrastructure CLICK FOR VIDEO

CONNECTICUT, USA — Connecticut's infrastructure is in need of a makeover. Ask residents, and they say the state's highways and roads mean traffic headaches.

"95. 95 is terrible. I used to work down in Stamford and going there was a nightmare every day," said Greg Laflamme of Middletown.

Drivers describe the roads as having cracks, rough surfaces, and potholes.

"At this point, it's kind of a joke when I drive there I'm like swerving because I like to know exactly where they all are so I'm kind of like weaving in and out," said Madeline McGrail of Newington.

It could be costing you a lot too. According to TRIP, a national transportation research non-profit, the average Connecticut driver spends about $711 a year on vehicle operating costs, because of the state's road conditions.

"Wasting gasoline, idling your engine, sitting in traffic. And wear and tear on your vehicle," said Garret Eucalitto, Deputy Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

When it comes to CT bridges, TRIP says 248 bridges are considered structurally deficient. Due to some much-needed improvements on rail lines, trains are moving slower than decades ago. 

In fact, a recent White House report gave Connecticut's infrastructure a grade of C-.

"62% of Connecticut's major roads are in poor to mediocre condition, and 62% of Connecticut's bridges were built before 1969 with a 50-year lifespan. So, we're in pretty rough shape," said Don Shubert, president of the CT Construction Industries Association.

The DOT has some projects lined up to fix many of these issues, and the key to making them happen sooner rather than later could come in the form of President Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure package.

"Without that, all we'd be able to do is just patch things and keep things going with a state of good repair keeping it a baseline standard of safety but with these additional funds that might be coming forward with the American Jobs Plan we can not only fix it, we can fix it better and fix it for the future," said Eucalitto.

FOX61 got an exclusive look at the plans, which include rebuilding crumbling infrastructure to reduce backups on major highways like I-84 in Danbury or I-95 in Fairfield County.

"If we can extend some of the exit lanes and kind of reduce some of that back up where people are trying to exit or get on-ramp onto the highway, it makes it safer, it reduces crashes," said Eucalitto.

That safety aspect may be the most important. According to the DOT, 2020 was the deadliest year in decades on Connecticut roads. The DOT looking to not only make the roads safer for drivers but everyone around them too.

"Installing crosswalks, high visibility crosswalks including countdown heads," said Eucalitto. "Having better lighting, and installing bike lanes where there's a lot of bike traffic as well," he said.

Perhaps the biggest theme among the projects, updating the state's infrastructure as a whole.

"As we replace our infrastructure that's falling apart, we're going to replace it with more modern systems," said Shubert.

Part of modernizing the state's infrastructure is making our streets smarter. Replacing outdated traffic signals with new ones, with technology that allows them to not only communicate with newer cars but also with each other, so you don't have to be stuck in a red light any longer than you have to. It is starting on the Berlin Turnpike.

"If there's really light traffic, they're going to talk to one another up and down the entire Berlin Turnpike and adjust their timing patterns based on the traffic levels," said Eucalitto.

While federal aid would help make it all possible, state lawmakers say we can't just depend on that money, and the time to act on a state level is now.

"Our Special Transportation Fund is rapidly approaching insolvency. We desperately need more dollars in order to bring our infrastructure into the 21st Century," said State Sen. Will Haskell, co-chair of the transportation committee.

"I would like to see anything that comes out be worked on a bipartisan basis that will result in the least amount of cost for Connecticut residents," said State Rep. Devin Carney, ranking member of the transportation committee.

Making the improvements now would have a lasting impact down the road.

"Build for the next 100 years. This is our opportunity to do that," said Eucalitto.

Ansonia rock crushing business could move if zone change approved

Eddy Martinez

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ANSONIA — Residents battling a rock crushing facility on Riverside Drive say the city and facility want to change zoning regulations in an attempt to retroactively allow the business to crush rocks.

City officials disagree, saying Burns Construction Inc. is legally running its facility but wants to change the regulations to allow it to move its rock crushing to another part of its property, away from neighbors.

“This is the correct process. We're very happy that Burns stepped forward to do this,” said City Attorney John Marini.

Burns Construction Inc., the owner of the property, is represented by attorney Barry Knott who is planning on filing for a zoning text amendment either by the end of May or the beginning of June, according to Knott.

Neighbors and the city disagree on what the amendment will do.

Marini said the application will allow the city to implement more restrictions on the legally operating facility and take residents’ concerns into account.

Resident Brian Perkins, who has been a vocal critic of the business, disputed Marini’s explanation.

“If they claim it's legal and it's deemed legal, there should be no reason to amend anything,” he said.

Perkins grew up in Ansonia and returned in January after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He said he was aware of the rock crushing facility but recently got involved in opposing it after speaking to neighbors of the property.

Neighbors have argued against the property’s current use for more than a year, claiming that rock crushing on the Riverside Drive site was found to be in violation of zoning laws as far back as 2002. On Oct. 2, 2002, the city’s then-zoning code enforcement officer ordered Complete Construction, which used the site, to discontinue such work, they said.

Complete Construction has since gone out of business and sold the site to Burns Construction in 2019. The site is near the vacant Ansonia Copper and Brass complex.

Burns was given a permit to operate in February 2020. The property is industrially zoned and is operating as a contractor’s yard. Rock crushing is a permitted use, the company said.

The neighbors said that the permit issued in February 2020 was illegal. In October 2020 they were prepared to complain about the noise, fumes and dust from the business at a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting but were told they had the wrong place — complaints should be made in Superior Court.

So the neighbors, who had formed the Westwood Association to fight the property’s use, hired Milford attorney Kevin Curseaden to do so. He filed a complaint in Superior Court in November 2020 asking that the neighbors be allowed to make a formal complaint before the zoning board.

The court set a Dec. 8 hearing date but rescheduled the case at least twice. “The court essentially froze the legal proceedings until the fall to give Burns Construction time to do this,” Marini said.

As part of the fight against Burns, Perkins created a change.org petition titled “Tell Ansonia’s Zoning Enforcement Officer to Uphold the Law and Stop Illegal Rock Crushing” which, as of May 14, has drawn 135 signatures.

He’s taken to social media and posted a video that criticizes the rock crushing facility as well as the city’s response to complaints. The video, released on May 9, includes a recording of the noise at the facility. He has also written a letter criticizing the city government that was published by local media.

Leonard Marazzi, who lives near Burns Construction, characterized the amendment as an attempt to placate the residents without telling residents what changes will be made.

Curseaden said that he’s not sure what exactly the text amendment will allow, but said the city is favoring the company, despite stating they want to work with the residents.

“They say they're trying to work through it amicably and they hear the people's concerns, but really what happened was they illegally issued a permit for this use,” he said.

The city has maintained that Burns is legally using the property.

Barry Knott, attorney for Burns Construction Inc., said the amendment would let Burns change the location of the rock crushing operation within the company’s property. This would satisfy all sides, he said.

“Fortunately, the site is so big at 46 acres that we have ample room to segregate the rock crushing facility from neighboring properties. I'm in the process of preparing that regulation,” he said.

Knott said that the concerns over the legality of the rock crushing stem from a misunderstanding of zoning regulations. The zoning amendment is a way for all sides to come to a resolution without going to court, he said.

Knott said that he’s been a zoning attorney for 46 years and has always faced some form of opposition, so knew he was going to get pushback.

“I'm not surprised about the petition, and I'm not particularly concerned about it,” he said.

Wage theft' rampant in Stamford construction business, carpenters' union claims

Veronica Del Valle

STAMFORD — Members of the state carpenter’s union, carrying banners and passing out flyers to passersby, Monday urged legislators and Stamford officials to “stop wage theft,” to “stand up to tax fraud” and to take a closer look at the city’s booming construction economy.

A dozen members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners rallied in front of the Stamford Government Center — in company with a giant inflatable pig and a fat cat holding a worker in a neck grip — to publicize what they said were deliberate ploys of some contractors to underpay their taxes by misclassifying their workers.

Stamford, they said, is among the worst offenders.

“Part of that is because of Stamford’s growth,” said Miguel Fuentes, a member of the union’s local chapter. “But part of that is because it has been accepted as a business practice.”

The carpenters’ union has made what it describes as construction industry tax fraud into one of its cornerstone issues. Local chapters across the country have protested to ask for greater government accountability on certain construction practices. But the union says it thinks Stamford — a city that often touts its growth — should hold a magnifying glass to itself in particular.

They point to data that show that nearly half of Department of Labor violations in the state since January were for Stamford worksites.

Connecticut enforces labor laws in part by issuing Stop Work Orders, also called SWOs. If the department finds that workplaces, like construction sites, violate labor laws, it can force the employer to stop business operations entirely.

About half of all SWOs issued by the state Department of Labor from 2021’s first months were for Stamford worksites, according to Department of Labor spokeswoman Juliet Manalan. The state gave out 41 SWOs during the first quarter of the year, and 21 of those sites are in the city.

A request for comment from the mayor’s office was not returned as of press time.

The Department of Labor can serve a business a SWO for misrepresenting employees or providing false information to insurance companies, among other reasons.

Sometimes, businesses fail to secure workers’ compensation insurance or count workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Or companies pay workers under the table to understate the number of employees on their payrolls, according to the Department of Labor website.

Some employment and labor laws do not apply to independent contractors, which loops them out of certain legal protections typically given to workers.

“If you’re told what to do and how to do it, you’re an employee, and you should get a W-2,” said Matthew Capece from the national Brotherhood of Carpenters. “Construction employers with employees tell them what to do and how to do it. But to save money on their labor costs, they treat them as independent contractors and pay them off the books.”

He pointed to the Internal Revenue Service’s attempted to charge FedEx $319 million in back taxes in 2007 for misclassifying its more than 13,000 drivers as independent contractors.

“All those costs that should have been paid but were not are piled onto the legitimate employers, the good construction employers that are paying everyone as they should,” Capece said. “Their costs go up, and they lose work to the people who break the law. That’s how you have the growth of these illegal practices taking over construction markets.”

By Caprece’s estimates, 20 percent of the construction workforce is either inappropriately classified or outside of the payroll. Companies do not have to pay employment taxes for independent contractors, and the workers aren’t eligible for overtime pay, hence the union’s “wage theft” slogan, he said.

A 2020 study completed by economists at Allegheny College, Michigan State University, and Harvard University estimated that the federal government loses $1.83 billion in income tax through construction worker misclassifications. Workers lost another $946 million in overtime pay.

Ernest Pagan, a member of the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, said he is most concerned about what wage theft means for local workers. Misclassifying workers means they earn less money, money that some families depend on to survive, he said.

“In a lot of situations, this is the ladder to the middle class,” Pagan said.