Major Cleanup at Stratford Army Plant Site Raises Questions About Future Use

Nick Sambides Jr

STRATFORD — The town’s harbor managers are welcoming a private developer’s $40 million dredging project to remove decades-old toxins from the Housatonic River —- but they want to know what comes next once the cleanup is complete.

As part of a $100 million-plus plan to revitalize the historic former Stratford Army Engine Plant site, dredging will begin in May to remove 233,000 tons of PCB-contaminated sediment and restore tidal flats near the plant’s 550 Main St. site, developer Jim Cabrera of Point Stratford Renewal LLC said during a presentation at Baldwin Center on Monday. 

Point Stratford, a group of developers selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2012 to redevelop the 77-acre property, purchased the site for $1 last year. Once home to the world’s first successful helicopter flight, the engine plant was among Stratford’s biggest employers from World War II through the 1980s, but has been vacant since.

Raymond Frigon, director of the Remediation Division of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the restoration of the tidal flats, located on the former plant’s east and west bays, is “a massive undertaking.”

The plant and tidal flats are all part of “a significantly blighted property. It has taken literally decades to find the right entity to purchase the property, to remediate the property in accordance with Connecticut standards and to work with the United States Army,” Frigon told CT Examiner. “It’s been a tremendous effort by all entities involved with this project to get it to this point.”

Despite the progress, however, harbor officials say they need more clarity on the long-term future of the tidal flats. 

State and Point Stratford officials should provide a clearer plan for the area, said Bill Rock, chairman of the Waterfront and Harbor Management Commission. 

He said he regretted DEEP’s decision in February to exclude the remediation plan from further review that might shed light on Point Stratford’s plans. 

“We have, from the very beginning, been concerned about the most effective and efficient use of land for water-dependent use and how best to enhance that,” Rock said after the meeting. “Originally we had thought about ideas that were going to be more conducive to the usage of that [tidal flats area] as a tourist attraction. Now that’s been seemingly ruled out at this point.”

Over the years, Stratford has worked to revitalize the historic site and its waterfront. With its access to Long Island Sound and adjacency to the Birdseye Street Boat Launch, HarbourWoods Marina, Mac’s Harbor Landing Site and Housatonic Boat Club, the commission wants to see the harbor’s recreational and historic value fully leveraged, Rock said.

“I’d like to see a channel dug while they’re doing the remediation to allow boats to be able to get to docks and so forth. There’s a whole bunch of things that could be there,” he said.

Cabrera sympathized with the waterfront commission’s concerns about a lack of details regarding what will be built on the site when it’s cleaned.

“We don’t know what we’re building yet. That’s kind of what everyone wants to know. And we do too,” he said. “We’re just not 100% certain.”

The cleanup of the flats, which are held in public trust by Connecticut, is the result of a complex deal struck between DEEP, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and Point Stratford. 

Point Stratford is allowing the U.S. Department of Defense and the Army to use the plant site for remediation work and is helping the Army manage the project. Both selected Entact, an Illinois-based site-remediation specialist, through a competitive bidding process.

Only about 10% of the contaminated sediments are toxic enough to warrant shipment to landfill, Entact project manager Jon Intrieri said, so Point Stratford is permitting the Army to store lightly contaminated sediments on the site under an engineered cap, 

Keeping the bulk of the sediments on site will save Main Street the more than 10,000 truck trips that would normally be required for shipping all the contaminated soil.

Entact has started prepping the site by building retaining walls in the flats to hold water. This setup will enable work to continue during both low and high tides using floating platforms that will support three massive, custom-built excavators equipped with environmentally sealed buckets to remove the sediment, Intrieri said.

The dredging is expected to be completed in June 2026. The restoration of the salt marsh will start a month later, and the dredged materials will be replaced to within a foot of its previous height.

This will make the water in the area a foot deeper — much more safe and accessible to non-motorized recreation, Rock said.

Entact’s dredging is expected to last about six months before landfill capping begins. Since the tidal flats are located hundreds of feet from the river channel, the work will not disrupt river traffic, Intrieri said.

Point Stratford also obtained permits in August to begin removing toxic materials from the site and razing 89 buildings, totaling about 1.5 million square feet. Several buildings have been demolished so far, Cabrera said. The demolition work should take 18 months to complete.

Entact was awarded the cleanup contract through a bidding process managed by the Army Corps and Point Stratford, while NorthStar is overseeing the demolition of the buildings, Cabrera said.

CT town begins ‘major infrastructure project’ in center. Here’s what to expect

A major infrastructure project has started in Connecticut town center, according to the town.

The West Hartford project is expected to “create a more efficient, pedestrian-friendly, and visually appealing environment,” according to the town. “The work will include roadway resurfacing, new granite curbing, widened concrete sidewalks, decorative street lighting, traffic signal modifications, landscaping with engineered tree pits, raised crosswalks, and site furniture/amenities.”

Additionally, trees in poor condition will be replaced by native species using eco-friendly soil cell technology, and shrubbery will be planted to improve the cityscape, according to the town.

Businesses will remain open through construction, according to a statement. The project is expected to maintain pedestrian access and keep traffic moving smoothly.

Parking will be available in the Town Center garage, available from LaSalle road, according to the town. Additional lots off Farmington Avenue, Brace Road, and Town Hall will be available as well. Fees apply at all locations.

Readers can email CenterConstruction@westhartfordct.gov with questions, according to the town. Additional details can be found at www.westhartfordct.gov/WHCenter.

See what the new Westhill High School – now cheaper by $15 million – would look like

Ignacio Laguarda

STAMFORD — The budget to build a new Westhill High School has been reduced by $15 million, but school and local officials now need the state General Assembly to give the project the green light.

Director of Operations Matthew Quinones said savings were found by reducing the size of the proposed building by roughly 10,000 gross square feet, among other adjustments.

"There may be additional opportunities to further reduce costs but that’s the current cost estimate," Quinones said in a telephone interview.

The district also recently unveiled new renderings of the planned school, including images of the proposed cafeteria, library, gym and pool, as well as interior drawings of classrooms. 

The plan to rebuild the city's largest high school had previously received state approval in 2022 for an 80% reimbursement rate for eligible costs, meaning the city would be on the hook for the rest. The estimated budget at the time, however, was $301 million.

That amount ballooned to $461 million by 2024, mostly due to inflation.

The most recent estimate for the work — which would tear down the 1971 building and construct a brand new building — is $446 million. The figure was presented at a School Construction Planning Committee meeting on March 25.

One aspect of the project that has not changed is the addition of a swimming pool, or "natatorium" as it appears in the plans. The existing Westhill has a swimming pool that is used for physical education classes and is also utilized by the girls and boys swim teams, both of which include diving teams. Each squad draws members from all three high schools — Westhill, Stamford High School and the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering.

The proposed new pool has been a sticking point for members of the city's Board of Finance in the past since it is not reimbursed at the 80% rate of the entire building. Instead, the state would cover 40% of the total cost, which is estimated to be roughly $20 million. That would mean the city would have to cover $12 million of the work. 

City officials had hoped that a plan to buy the former downtown YMCA facility, which includes a swimming pool, would have allowed them to take out the pool planned for Westhill by offering residents another alternative. However, the Board of Finance voted that down due to concerns about the cost to renovate and maintain the facility.

Quinones said he expects to know if the funding for the Westhill project will be reauthorized by the state by May or June.

"I'm encouraged by the conversations we’ve had with our state delegation," he said. "They’ve been supportive of the project."

If it does receive the go-ahead, the next step would be seeking approval from local boards for the reauthorized amount.

Assuming all goes well, the project could go out to bid between November and January of 2026, at which point the city will receive a "guaranteed maximum price," which will need to be approved by both the Board of Finance and Board of Representatives.

Quinones emphasized that the current $446 million budget is only tentative.

"This isn’t a final budget," he said. "This is an update to the cost estimate."

One factor to take into account going forward, Quinones said, is the impact any new tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump could have on the costs of materials for the work.  

If the Westhill project receives all the necessary approvals, construction could begin as soon as next year, and the work is still expected to be completed in 2029.

In the short term, the project team is hoping to get city approvals to construct a "haul road" this summer between Long Ridge Road and the Westhill site so that all construction traffic can travel on the road and not affect school operations.