CT Construction Digest Wednesday April 13, 2022
NEWINGTON — Hundreds of drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians die every year in crashes in work zones nationwide, including three such fatalities in Connecticut last year.
And in 2020, there were nearly 900 accidents in work zones with four fatalities in the state, according to the University of Connecticut’s CT Crash Data Repository.
As construction season begins each spring, the industry honors those killed and raises awareness of work zone accidents and deaths. This year, the annual National Work Zone Awareness Week runs from April 11 through April 15.
“In 2020, there were 774 fatal work zone crashes across the nation, resulting in 857 deaths,” DOT Commissioner Joe Giulietti said at the kickoff event at DOT headquarters Tuesday morning. “Out of the 857 fatalities, 117 were work zone workers.”
Work zone workers include DOT staff doing the construction, police officers and state troopers monitoring and ensuring the safety of the work zone and tow truck drivers assisting at the work sites.
In Connecticut DOT’s history, 37 workers have been killed on the job in work zone accidents. A memorial featuring ribbon-wrapped orange construction cones is in the DOT lobby year-round as a constant reminder of the risks that workers face daily.
While many drivers view the orange cones and barrels signifying construction as a nuisance, since January 2020, there have been 1,650 crashes in work zones in Connecticut, involving 3,273 vehicles and 4,167 people, according to UConn data.
Early data from the UConn’s crash repository shows that in 2021 there were 748 crashes in work zones resulting in three deaths.
“With the approach of the highway and roadway construction season, now is that time. We have to remind everyone of the importance of paying attention to the approach and drive through work zones so that motorists and our roadway workers are safe,” Giulietti said. “Maybe the number of crashes went down, but the horrific crashes are up.”
Connecticut’s DOT has a committee dedicated to raising awareness about work zone safety. It has organized the week’s events since 1999, according to DOT.
During the awareness week kickoff event, Giuletti read a proclamation from Gov. Ned Lamont, who was unable to attend since recently contracting COVID-19.
Those in attendance included Amy Jackson-Grove, Connecticut division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration; Mike Ellesio, director of fleet operations for AAA Northeast; and Naugatuck Police Officer Danielle Durrette with K-9 officer Indy.
For construction workers and police officers stationed at highway work sites, the roads are their offices, said Vincent Stetson, director of public works in South Windsor.
“Imagine looking up from your work to see a minivan traveling through the work zone, with the driver never looking up from their phone or realizing they never hit a flagger. That is enough to cause very frayed nerves among the crew members,” Stetson said.
“When an impaired drivers goes barreling through the work zone, 15-pound traffic barrels go from being helpful tools to projectiles hurtling through the air toward our employees,” he said.
Of the nation’s 857 fatal work zone crashes, 37 percent involved speeding, and 170 pedestrians or bicyclists were killed, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Stetson and DOT road workers offered tips on how to ensure a safe drive through work zones.
Texting, using social media, speeding and not obeying the orange signs leading up to construction zone are key factors in causing many of accidents, Stetson said.
“Traffic jams become even more dangerous when road rage engages two strangers that cannot seem to merge into one lane in the work zone,” he said. “These are not just numbers on a spreadsheet, they are funerals, children that no longer have fathers or mothers, and spouses that must figure out how to have a future now on their own.”
Smaller events and campaigns will take place this week to encourage drivers to recognize work zones and to be patient during delays.
On Wednesday, DOT and organizations around the country will participate in Go Orange Day, by wearing orange in support of work zone safety, according to a DOT statement. The public is encouraged to join in the campaign by posting online with the hashtags #NWZAW #ObeyTheOrange and #GoOrange4Safety.
At noon Friday, DOT encourages all residents to join the nation for a moment of silence to honor and remember people killed in work zone crashes.
“Do not value the like button on your Facebook or Instagram feed more than your fellow humans working in the roadways,” Stetson said in closing. “You will have the thanks of a child, spouse, brother or sister that has their family member come home safely as your reward.”
Winsted gets $1.8 million grant for street improvements, other projects
WINSTED — A grant of $1.8 million, part of the state’s Department of Economic & Community Development’s Communities Challenge Grant program, was recently awarded to Winsted.
“These funds have been awarded in a specific effort to continue revitalizing Winsted’s Main Street, (which) has seen a great deal of growth and success in recent years,” said Town Manager Josh Kelly.
The grant, called the “Winsted Pedestrian Experience Transformation,” will include $800,000 for sidewalk replacements downtown; $829,604 for repaving the Bridge Street intersection; $70,500 for brownfield remediation; $20,000 for signs on Main Street; $80,000 for panels for a walking tour; and $18.750 for murals and other public art.
The total award is $1,818,854, plus $1.2 million in private and local funding, for a total of $3 million in the downtown corridor, Kelly said.
For the brownfield remediation, Winsted and Miller Crossing Willow will “adaptively remediate and reuse the property on 35 Willow St. to house new businesses/offices,” according to Kelly.
“The grant review process was highly competitive, with 52 total applications and requests totaling over $200 million,” Kelly said.
Kelly said only 12 communities received an award, and only $45 million was awarded in total. Joining Winchester as award recipients are East Hartford, Hartford, Killingly, Mansfield, Middletown, New Haven, New London, Norwalk, Norwich, Stamford and Windsor. Winchester is the smallest community to receive funding, he said.
State Rep. Jay Case, R-Winsted, said he wrote a letter in support of Winsted getting this grant earlier in the year.
“Winchester receiving this award shows that our town is putting its best foot forward in its grant applications, we’re applying for and receiving every last cent of state and federal money that we can, and we’re doing everything within our power to make sure Winchester and Winsted continue their upward trajectory,” Kelly said.
Winsted applied twice for the Communities Challenge Grant, “in an effort to give (the town) better odds of receiving at least some funding,” according to Kelly. The second application was for water main replacement under North Main Street and to replace the dam at Tatros Pond.
Kelly’s proposed $18.3 million road and infrastructure plan is still being discussed by the Board of Selectmen, and is intended to repair roads in five areas of town as well as drainage around Highland Lake and purchase a new vehicle for the Winsted Fire Department. A referendum on the bonding for the projects is tentatively scheduled for May 28, following a town meeting with the Board of Selectmen.
Funding for the grant is facilitated by the Department of Economic and Community Development and is intended to help municipalities upgrade essential infrastructure and business-related redevelopment initiatives.
Bridgeport library board, contractor at odds over $500K cost overruns for new branch
BRIDGEPORT — The new East End library branch has finally opened after a few years’ worth of delays.
But that milestone accomplishment is marred by an ongoing dispute involving $500,000 in alleged cost overruns between the developer, Ashlar Construction, and the city’s library board. The matter is in the hands of the municipal law department.
“They say, ‘We owe them.’ We say, ‘We don’t,’” said City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer. “We’re trying to analyze the whole situation and see if there’s something we can work out so that the city is not overcharged and that the contractor’s paid correctly.”
Owned by East End native Anthony Stewart, who made a successful career out of town and has in recent years returned to help revitalize his old neighborhood, Ashlar was chosen in 2018 to renovate and expand the shuttered Newfield library on Central Avenue. The original completion date was around late 2019 or early 2020.
But that projected dragged on, with the Newfield building open to the public earlier this month.
Over the years the budget also grew. The library board hired Ashlar to do the work for $6.2 million. But the branch, according to Stewart, wound up being $1.9 million over budget — $1.4 million of that for subcontractors, which the board has paid, plus $500,000 for Ashlar.
Over the years the budget also grew. The library board hired Ashlar to do the work for $6.2 million. But the branch, according to Stewart, wound up being $1.9 million over budget — $1.4 million of that for subcontractors, which the board has paid, plus $500,000 for Ashlar.
“We had a contract for a ‘guaranteed price,’” Jim O’Donnell, the library board’s chairman, said this week, referring to the initial $6.2 million. “We paid in excess of that price and we don’t believe any further amounts are due. But it’s being reviewed by the city (law department) and they’ll make the recommendations.”
“This is a half million dollars in ‘cost,’” Stewart said this week. “Not in profit. ... This is a half million in cost of me buying stuff, having people there doing work.”
And, he continued, even at around $8 million the city got more than its money’s worth for the “beautiful” new East End building when compared to another ongoing library project along upper East Main Street near Beardsley Park.
The tensions between the board and Ashlar over the rising price tag were evident in the minutes of a May 2021 library board meeting. At that time O’Donnell sought to dispel “rumors” in the East End that the Newfield project was held up because library officials were withholding the $1.4 million from Ashlar’s subcontractors.
“We had a contract for a ‘guaranteed price,’” Jim O’Donnell, the library board’s chairman, said this week, referring to the initial $6.2 million. “We paid in excess of that price and we don’t believe any further amounts are due. But it’s being reviewed by the city (law department) and they’ll make the recommendations.”
“This is a half million dollars in ‘cost,’” Stewart said this week. “Not in profit. ... This is a half million in cost of me buying stuff, having people there doing work.”
And, he continued, even at around $8 million the city got more than its money’s worth for the “beautiful” new East End building when compared to another ongoing library project along upper East Main Street near Beardsley Park.
The tensions between the board and Ashlar over the rising price tag were evident in the minutes of a May 2021 library board meeting. At that time O’Donnell sought to dispel “rumors” in the East End that the Newfield project was held up because library officials were withholding the $1.4 million from Ashlar’s subcontractors.
“He really worked hand-in-glove with the library staff,” she said. “He was wonderful.”
Complicating the current situation further is the fact Stewart, the library board and City Hall must, despite the Newfield dispute, maintain other business relationships.
Ashlar was chosen in 2018 by the city to redevelop a dilapidated commercial block adjacent to the Newfield branch and build a long-awaited grocery store there. Stewart has dubbed that also-delayed project Honey Locust Square, and will be providing some on-site parking there for the library.
Stewart has also been negotiating with the city to build housing and retail at the old, municipally-owned AGI Rubber site at 141 Stratford Ave. on the edge of downtown.
“I went over budget and they’re playing hardball,” Stewart said of Newfield. “I’m hoping cooler heads will prevail. That’s why I’m not making a big stink. I’m quietly trying to keep going and do the other projects. But it’s still a half million. It’s a big deal to me. I counted on it.”
CBIA, trade groups urge use of federal funds to cover unemployment debt
Industry associations and small business groups are calling on state officials to steer federal pandemic relief funding to cover Connecticut’s unemployment debt as an alternative to raising taxes on employers.
In a statement released by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and signed by organizations such as the Connecticut Restaurant Association, Connecticut Food Association and Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, the petitioners said the burden of the state’s unemployment debt — which rose dramatically as residents were thrown out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 — should not placed back on business owners and operators.
“It took six years of higher unemployment taxes on employers to pay off federal loans following the 2008-2010 recession and we can’t hold that debt over small businesses again,” said CBIA President and CEO Chris DiPentima. “State and federal unemployment taxes will jump 22% by 2026, money better invested by employers in addressing the labor force crisis, the biggest threat to Connecticut’s economic recovery.”
According to the CBIA, the state borrowed $888 million from the federal government to cover pandemic-driven unemployment compensation benefit claims after the state unemployment trust fund became insolvent.
About $425 million has been repaid, the group said, with employers paying $300 million and federal relief funds covering $125 million, in addition to $26 million in interest payments.
Employers are currently being held responsible for the remaining $463 million loan balance, CBIA said, and face four years of tax hikes, starting later this year, to cover those repayments.
CBIA and state trade groups have called for months to shift the burden of unemployment debt off of businesses, arguing higher taxes will only compound the problems employers are already facing, including inflation, supply chain issues and a continuing labor shortage. Those challenges have been particularly acute for brick-and-mortar retailers, which struggled to stay afloat even before the disruption of the pandemic, and restaurants, which saw revenues dry up as customers avoided traditional indoor dining for months.
Chewy backing away from $135M Windsor distribution center
Pet products retailer Chewy is backing away from plans for a $135 million fulfillment center in Windsor.
Even so, the developers that lined up to erect the giant e-commerce company’s planned 750,000-square-foot building said they are going to proceed with construction anyway.
The logistics market is so hot that representatives from Winstanley Enterprises and NorthPoint Development said they will build a distribution center in the Great Pond Village mixed-use development district on a speculative basis.
“The commitment from Chewy was placed on hold, but the Winstanley/NorthPoint team is very confident in the market and therefore are marching forward with building the warehouse,” Winstanley spokesperson Matthew Watkins wrote in an email to the Hartford Business Journal. “They feel that the tenant demand will be there.”
Winstanley and ABB Group — owner of the former Combustion Engineering nuclear-boiler production and testing facilities that once occupied the Great Pond site — are the master developers of the 625-acre Great Pond district, which is targeted for large-scale residential and industrial development.
Winstanley teamed with NorthPoint on the distribution center because the Montana-based developer has repeatedly built for Chewy.
Winstanley Principal Adam Winstanley said the plan is to break ground on the distribution center project in June or July. It is also possible that Chewy might revisit plans to inhabit the space, he said.
Windsor’s Town Council, on Feb. 7, granted Chewy a tax abatement and building fee waivers worth about $3.1 million.
Jim Burke, who recently retired as Windsor’s economic development director, said Chewy communicated to the town it is not prepared to move forward but didn’t go into specifics.
Chewy and Windsor Town Manager Peter Souza would have had six months to sign a deal based on the conditions agreed to Feb. 7, Burke said. In theory, this gives the company a window to return to the project.
Attempts to reach a Chewy spokesperson were not successful.
Windsor Town Planner Eric Barz said the development still needs site plan approval. He anticipates design changes based on Chewy’s withdrawal.
“Chewy is on the fence,” Barz said. “[The developers] are going to build the warehouse regardless of whether Chewy occupies it or not. I think they are still holding out hope Chewy might pull the trigger.”
Demolish historic part of Farmington High School? Here’s why that’s a question.
As Farmington residents are surveyed about what to do with the historic section of the existing high school, a retired community leader is suggesting it should become the new town hall.
Instead of demolishing the oldest section of the sprawling high school, the town should remodel it, Bea Stockwell told the town council in a letter last week.
Combining municipal offices and school administrative offices in that space would solve several problems in one move, Stockwell wrote.
“As a former chairman of the Board of Education and the Town Council, I have had the unique opportunity of working on ‘both sides of the fence’! The way to make government work efficiently and in harmony is to put them together,” Stockwell wrote.
Her suggestion is among numerous ideas that a special committee will consider this year as Farmington prepares to raze its high school and build a modern replacement.
The current high school is a sprawling patchwork of additions and enlargements built over many decades, and taxpayers agreed last year to build a replacement alongside it for up to $135.6 million. The town will put in as much as $110 million, with the state expected to contribute $26.3 million.
That plan envisions demolishing a dozen separate sections of the building constructed or remodeled between 1952 and 2003.
But there has been no decision about the original 1928 portion, which is a high-profile feature of town to passing motorists on Route 4. It stands at the top of an embankment, and its brick facade and cupola dominate the landscape.
Estimates last year were about $10 million to fully modernize it. Some residents support demolishing it along with the other 12 sections, but others are pressing to reuse it for other town needs and to preserve an iconic part of Farmington’s history.
The ad hoc committee studying what to do with it has sent a survey to all Farmington households to get public opinion.
“We’ve been getting a good response. There are about 700 replies already in — the survey company says we have a legitimate number, but we’re hoping to get more,” said C.J. Thomas, town council chairman. ‘We’re just waiting to see what the public thinks.”
The survey, administered by the Center for Research & Public Policy, asks residents whether they’d prefer to keep the 1928 section or demolish it.
Some of the options are to use it for the regional probate court, or for consolidating town social services and recreation offices.
“The probate court needs more space, and our recreation department and human services offices are spread through town,” Thomas said.
The survey notes that the town might be able to use federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for part of the renovation, and asks residents if that would change what they think about whether to tear it down instead.
The survey also asks about relocating town hall offices there, and possibly keeping the 1952 and 1978 sections of the high school to provide more community gym space, a recreation center and storage.
That plan could also generate new community meeting space, event space and room for nonprofits, art groups or possibly business incubators, according to the town.
Thomas noted that the council needs to reach a decision by early next year at the latest. The plan and zoning commission in late March approved the site plan for the new high school, and construction is to begin this fall.
That will require running drainage systems and other infrastructure work on the 1928 property, Thomas said, so contractors need to know if it is being razed or retained.
“Keeping it would be a big project but could help a lot of needs throughout the town,” Thomas said.