CT Construction Digest Wednesday November 22, 2023
Berlin Turnpike property sold for self-storage development
Areal estate and development firm has purchased a plot of land along the Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield, with plans to build a self-storage facility.
The site, at 2180 Berlin Turnpike, was sold by the Turgeon/Spain families to BDC Holdings Inc. for $565,000 in a deal recorded Nov. 14.
Plans, which are currently before the Planning and Zoning Commission, call for an 84,920-square-foot self-storage facility at 2176-2180 Berlin Turnpike, on the Wethersfield, Newington border.
The property is nearly 12 acres of primarily vacant land in the Regional Commercial District, which is intended for large-scale business development.
The 11.94-acre parcel contains 3.75 acres of buildable land, with some wetlands in the area. The property contains one, two-story residential building.
BDC Holdings is based out of White Plains, N.Y.
The proposed development site consists of two parcels, with 7.6 acres in Wethersfield, located just south of the Route 175/Berlin Turnpike interchange along the routes 5 and 15 corridor.
The development would include a storage rental office, indoor and outdoor storage, parking areas, driveways and landscaping.
Guilford Selectmen OK $2.6M Bid for Nut Plains Road Reconstruction
Tim Leininger
GUILFORD — The Board of Selectmen has unanimously approved a nearly $2.6 million bid for the reconstruction of Nut Plains Road.
The contract was awarded to DeRita and Sons Construction Company, based out of Middletown, Town Engineer Janice Plaziak said Monday.
“We put it out to bid mid-September,” Plaziak said, but Guilford’s original budget for the project came up about $1 million short after contingencies and incidentals were included in the bids.
The town ultimately had to ask for additional money from the state’s Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program, which is fully funding the project.
The project aims to improve safety in the Goose Lane and Nut Plains Road area, turning the intersection into a T-section versus the current angled connection Goose Lane has to Nut Plains Road.
“It’s still going to be a steep decline from Nut Plains to Goose Lane,” Plaziak said. “We’ve flattened it as much as we can. We’re doing the best we can to balance that out to make it as safe as possible. You’ll come down Nut Plains straight and come to a stop sign.”
Additional improvements will be made on Nut Plains Road, extending north from the Goose Lane intersection to North Madison Road.
“We’ll be rebuilding the road,” Plaziak said. “It will include an extensive amount of drainage being added. There really isn’t any drainage on the road. There’s a few cross culverts and ditches. The road is very flat. We’ll be adding about 40 catch basins to the road, thousands of feet of pipe and also rebuilding the pavement structure. It is a big project.”
The project is expected to start either in late winter or early spring, she said, depending on the weather.
Bank’s plan in Danbury’s hands to raze YMCA, Tuxedo Junction and raise $17M office building
DANBURY — Plans by a bank to redevelop a downtown corner with a four-story office building show for the first time how the demolition of the storied former Tuxedo Junction live music venue will fit in to the overall design.
The plans by Savings Bank of Danbury being reviewed by city department heads for the $17 million office building at Main and White streets show in new renderings an open plaza with plantings opening onto Post Office Road in place of the defunct Tuxedo Junction.
“It has been a long process so far for a variety of reasons, but we hope to start demolition in the first quarter (of 2024) if we can pull it off, and start the transformation of downtown Danbury,” said Nicholas Gazetos, a retired executive vice president of the bank who is quarterbacking the application to the city.
Support for the bank’s investment in a downtown that has lagged behind the economic growth of Danbury’s east end and the city’s booming west side was tempered by some city leaders in 2022 who were hoping to keep the Tuxedo Junction, which the city bought in 2017 with grand plans to bring live entertainment back to a nightlife district that has gone dark. The venue closed amid the legal troubles of its owner, Ian Bick, who was sentenced in 2016 to three years in prison on fraud charges.
The bank said it needed to raze the old Tuxedo Junction property on Post Office Road to get access to an upgraded power source. City leaders agreed to sell the property to the bank, conceding that that if nightlife was going to come back to the Ives Street entertainment district it wasn’t going to be in the 7,000-square-foot former nightclub, which needed at least $1 million in upgrades before it could open.
Meanwhile the YMCA building at Main and White streets has been cleared out in preparation for demolition and construction, which is expected to take 14-to-18 months, Gazetos told Hearst Connecticut Media on Monday.
Progress on the new office building comes at a time when the city is studying ways to improve the downtown economy by adding housing and encouraging businesses around the train station.
A few blocks north on Main Street at the former News-Times headquarters, 149 apartments began renting earlier this year where developer Dan Bertram opened Brookview Commons West.
South of the planned bank building two other major construction projects are in the early stages of review.
One project would transform a corner where the
empty 1899 state courthouse sits with a $70 million plan to restore
the structure and build 100 workforce apartments.
Another proposal further south on Main Street calls for the conversion
of a five-story office building into apartments and the construction
of an apartment house in the parking lot.
Shelton pushes for company's gravel pit to become wildlife refuge
SHELTON — A new wildlife refuge could be coming to southern Shelton at Two Mile Island and some adjacent coastal land along the Housatonic River, long home to the Island Sand and Gravel Co.
Joseph Bienkowski, chair of the Shelton Citizens Advisory Board, sent a letter to Mayor Mark Lauretti asking the area be designated a riverfront wildlife refuge and open space. He called those 26 acres of land, made up mostly of Two Mile Island, which is truly a peninsula, a “riverfront gem.”
Bienkowski said the board feels “an excellent opportunity exists to preserve a unique and sizeable portion of our precious riverfront" and asked the city to petition for this land to become part of the Stewart B. McKinney Wildlife Foundation.
“With the unprecedented growth along our riverfront in the downtown area and the midrise multi-family apartments currently under construction or already approved along our remaining river corridor it becomes imperative that our city act to protect this valuable remaining resource,” Bienkowski wrote.
The property, which is off Hawthorne Avenue and Riverside Avenue, is owned by the Beard family and was home to Island Sand and Gravel Co., which has since closed. This prompted advisory board members, along with several neighbors, to push to preserve this open space.
Laura Lavin, a Shelton native whose family has lived on Hawthorne Avenue since the 1940s, said she was immediately on board when informed of the board's push to preserve the site. She has since started a petition alerting the public to this preservation opportunity.
"I would hate to see this land developed," Lavin said. "We need to protect this riverfront from development. Protecting this land will give the public a place where they can hike, have picnics and just enjoy nature. And getting this designated as a foundation site is perfect."
In her petition, Lavin states by establishing a wildlife refuge in Shelton along the river, "we not only protect our local biodiversity but also promote environmental education among residents."
She added it could be an outdoor classroom so students and families could learn about conservation first hand.
"This protected area would also serve as an open space for activities such as trail walking, wildlife observation, photography, kayaking and other such recreational activities," she said.
Much of the Two Mile Island property lies in a flood zone area. Its intertidal zone creates a habitat that has evolved to support species which cannot survive elsewhere, including shorebirds, shellfish and juvenile finfish. Creating a local wildlife refuge can provide these species with the necessary shelter and protection they need to thrive, Bienkowski said.
Board of Aldermen President John Anglace said the aldermen have endorsed the Citizens Advisory Board's recommendation that this property be acquired by the Stewart B. McKinney Wildlife Foundation and preserved as a wildlife refuge. He said the aldermen have asked Lauretti to forward this recommendation to Connecticut’s federal legislators for their support.
Anglace said his understanding is that if this proposal receives federal support, the foundation will seek to acquire the property.
“With federal oversight, such a project will benefit the river, the city, the county and the state of Connecticut,” Anglace said. “The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Foundation in conjunction with federal resources can make this happen.”
Anglace said the city has taken all necessary steps on the local level and now will work to gain regional, state and federal support to make this happen.
“It is a good move for all as it will preserve in perpetuity the necessary breeding grounds and ecosystems for future generations to enjoy,” Anglace added.
Two Mile Island, located off Riverside Avenue off River Road, is technically a peninsula and quarried for sand and gravel, although the banks are mostly vegetated and remain scenic from the river.
“This property contains over two miles of riverfront … making it unique as an estuarine wildlife habitat,” Bienkowski stated. “The intertidal zones create a habitat that has evolved to support species which cannot survive elsewhere such as myriad of shorebirds, shellfish and juvenile finfish. It is literally an incubator for many forms of aquatic life.”
The board states the property is unique in that it is the eastern-most point of Fairfield County and is across the river from Two Mile brook which forms the boundary of the neighboring communities of Derby and Orange. The property also sits at the most prominent bend in the Housatonic River, which spans 149 miles from its source in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts to its mouth in the neighboring estuary of Milford and Stratford.
Prior to the gravel operation, the property has also been used as a grazing pasture for dairy cattle and, most noteworthy, as Shelton’s first and only airport.
A Coast Guard chart of the Housatonic estuary in the 1960s depicted the Shelton airport on Two Mile Island as being at an elevation of six feet above mean sea level, the letter reads.
The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, is made up of 10 units stretched across 70 miles of Connecticut's coastline. It was established in 1972 and was originally called Salt Meadow National Wildlife Refuge. It is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The refuge was renamed in 1987 to honor the late U.S. Congressman Stewart B. McKinney, who was instrumental in expanding it.
The refuge presently has two locations in Norwalk, one each in Westbrook, Stratford, Milford, Branford and Greenwich, as well as Falkner Island off Guilford and several spots in New Haven which have been designated as urban refuge sites.
“Shelton’s inclusion as the 11th unit in the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge would be unique, I believe, as it would be the only unit highlighting a major river estuary experience with its distinctive resources within the refuge system,” Bienkowski stated.
The Shelton Citizens Advisory Board was founded to alert city officials when issues arise that will benefit the entire community.
“Once they identify the idea, it is the responsibility of the legislative body to evaluate and act with dispatch to test the will of the citizens and move with utmost speed to make it happen. Such is the case with the recommended Two Mile Island wildlife refuge," Anglace added.
$16B Gateway Program construction finally underway
Jen A. Miller
After years of delays and political fights, construction finally began Nov. 3 on the Hudson River Tunnel portion of the Gateway Program, a $16.1 billion group of projects that will double capacity for the Northeast Corridor rail segment connecting New Jersey and New York City. President Joe Biden in January called Gateway “one of the biggest, the most consequential projects in the country.”
The federal government in November pledged to cover 70% of the cost and gave the project $3.8 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That’s welcome news for local politicians, who warned the decaying, century-old tunnel poses a bottleneck for New Jersey commuters and Amtrak passengers.
“I’ve long cautioned the potential failure of one or both of the only two rail tunnels running under the Hudson River is one of the most pressing issues facing New York City right now, and that is why I have worked so hard to advance this project, critical and the federal funds to New York with all due speed,” U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said at a Nov. 3 press conference.
Superstorm Sandy heavily damaged the tunnel in 2012, inundating it with millions of gallons of saltwater, which led to disabled trains, signal malfunctions, and delays.
The path to increasing capacity on this stretch of railway has been a bumpy one. In 2010, work began on a similar project called Access to the Region’s Core. Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie canceled the project later that year, citing its expense. If work had gone forward, the tunnel would have cost $8.7 billion and would most likely have been open and in use by now, according to The New York Times. Former President Donald Trump killed another attempt to build the project while he was in office, but it found a supporter in Biden.
Contracts awarded for work
Overall, the Hudson River Tunnel Project will create nine miles (4.5 miles in each direction) of a new two-track rail tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey, and rehabilitate the existing North River Tunnel, which opened in 1910 and carries more than 450 Amtrak and N.J. Transit trains every day.
There are many components to the overall Gateway Project, including:
New tunnel under the Hudson River.
Rehabilitation of the existing tunnel.
New tracks and platforms at New York-Penn Station.
New Portal North and South Bridges over the Hackensack River in New Jersey.
Construction of loop tracks in Secaucus.
Sawtooth Bridges replacement.
Work is now moving on both sides of the Hudson River. The new Portal Bridge and the tunnels program are part of the first phase of the Gateway project. Tunnel digging is expected to begin in 2025, and the overall project is slated for completion in 2035.
In New York, some of the work that started in 2013 on the Hudson Yards Concrete Casing project has wrapped, with two of the three completed. The third casing will provide the connection for the Hudson River Tunnel into the new Penn Station.
This $649 million in work includes extending the casing, which will be 500 feet long, 60 feet wide and 60 feet high and made of heavily reinforced concrete and a weatherproofing membrane to cover its perimeter, to where it will link to the new tunnel. This phase should be completed by summer 2026.
Work on the New Jersey side is kicking off with the Tonnelle Avenue Bridge and Utility Relocation Project, which got the notice to proceed this month. This phase involves moving Tonnelle Avenue, a North Bergen, New Jersey, roadway that carries U.S. Routes 1 and 9 through Hudson County. The project includes utility relocation and new construction of a roadway bridge to carry the highway, to make way for the new tunnels, according to the Gateway Development Commission.
In September, the GDC awarded contracts worth $47.3 million to Naik Consulting Group for construction management and professional services, and to Conti Civil for construction to build what will be an overpass for the new tunnel. Both are based in Edison, New Jersey.
Opportunities to tackle billions in work
Five of the nine packages that make up the Hudson Tunnel portion of the project will either be under construction or procurement by the end of 2023, according to the GDC. On Nov. 20, Amtrak and N.J. Transit announced the beginning of procurement for the Sawtooth Bridges Replacement Project.
In August, firms were shortlisted for the Hudson River Ground Stabilization contract, which involves work to fortify and stabilize the New York Side of the Hudson River bottom. Proposals are due by the end of the year. Contracts for the Palisades Tunnel and Manhattan tunnel are also in procurement, and the GDC is in the RFP stage for securing a delivery partner to accelerate project planning, programming, design, management and construction management.
Stephen Sigmund, chief of public outreach for the Gateway Development Commission, said interested contractors, should be on the lookout on the ageny’s “Work With Us” page on its website, which includes procurement announcements and community engagement activities.
“It’s an opportunity to participate in [a consequential project] and be part of rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure,” Sigmund said.
First offshore wind farm to power CT homes wins final approval; will be south of Block Island
Revolution Wind, an offshore wind project to provide electricity to Connecticut and Rhode island and one of the relatively few in the northeast to emerge intact from a flurry of economic setbacks, has received final, government approval to begin construction.
It will be the first utility scale offshore wind farm serving the two states and is on track to be the second in the northeast. The project is designed to deliver 400 megawatts of electricity to Rhode Island another 304 to Connecticut, powering the equivalent of 350,000 homes and helping both states meet their aggressive carbon reduction goals.
The final approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is a rare, recent win for the capital intensive offshore wind industry, which has been nearly sunk over the last two years by a combination of inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain failures.
Revolution Wind, which will soon rise over a windy stretch of ocean south of Block Island, is a joint project of regional utility Eversource and the Danish multinational Orsted. Unlike other offshore developers, the partners locked in costs for Revolution Wind and two other projects planned for the same area — Sunrise and Southfork Wind — before inflation and interest rates shot up and the war in Ukraine created global supply chain problems.
Several other projects across the northeast have become money losers as construction and finance costs outstrip the projected profit in energy contracts drawn after power auctions by state regulators.
Spanish energy giant Avangrid has closed projects and faces cancellation penalties in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Orsted’s stock has plunged 75 percent from its 2021 high in part because of its cancellation of New Jersey- based projects. Projects are at risk in New York and Massachusetts. And Eversource has said it is selling out of the offshore wind business.
Revolution Wind is a bright spot in an otherwise bleak picture. It and the other two Eversource-Orsted projects will be built and supplied from the newly rebuilt State Pier in New London, where Orsted has been stockpiling the enormous blades, turbines and blades since early last summer.
The Eversource-Orsted partnership picked about a third of the approximately $300 million pier rebuild cost and it is committed to paying another $20 million to lease the pier as an offshore support base for the next decade.
“Today’s final federal approval from the Biden Administration clears the way for the first direct infusion of carbon-free energy via offshore wind into Connecticut and the region,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, whose second district includes New London. “The Revolution Wind project will create hundreds of good-paying jobs at the State Pier in New London.”
Gov. Ned Lamont said, “This is yet another positive development that gets us closer to Connecticut’s first offshore wind farm. Wind power remains a key part of our clean energy strategy and ensuring we provide families and businesses with clean, reliable and affordable power.”
Orsted has said that Revolution Wind will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, as well as permanent operations and maintenance jobs across both states.
The 300-foot tall towers will be shipped from New London to a government-approved location about 30 miles south of Rhode Island. They will sit on 40-foot high, 120-ton concrete foundations fabricated in Rhode Island.
Revolution Wind’s energy will reach the New England electric grid by cable to Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
Connecticut State Building Trades Council Statement on Proposed Electric Vehicles Regulation
November 20, 2023 – The Connecticut State Building Trades Council (CSBTC) releases this statement to clarify their position on the Lamont administration’s proposed regulation regarding the sale of electric vehicles.
On August 5, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order declaring that by 2030 half of all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. will be electric. At his announcement ceremony, President Biden said, “we’re going to put Americans to work modernizing our roads, our highways, our ports, our airports, rail and transit systems. That includes putting IBEW members and other union workers to work installing a national network of 500,000 charging stations along our roads and highways and at our homes and our apartments.”
“Our frustration lies in the fact that President Biden’s vision for this just transition including good union jobs simply hasn’t come to fruition here in Connecticut,” said CSBTC President Keith Brothers.
A non-union Massachusetts based company is currently installing EV charging stations at the service plazas along our I-95 corridor.
“This isn’t about placing blame. We have strong partners and allies in the administration and on both sides of the aisle in the legislature,” said CSBTC Executive Director Joe Toner. “At the very least, these projects should be awarded to responsible in-state companies who provide family-sustaining wages and access to apprenticeship and job training opportunities.”
CSBTC President Keith Brothers added, “Should the Regulation Review Committee adopt the EV regulation, we hope it’s a first step in addressing President Biden’s call for the creation of union jobs. Our members should be building the infrastructure to support the clean energy transition.”
The CSBTC represents approximately 30,000 men and women in Connecticut’s unionized construction industry.
At $6.5 billion, Connecticut rail projects reach an 'astronomical' sum, even for supporters
MILFORD — Underneath the backdrop of sleek passenger trains inching across the Devon Railroad Bridge, state and federal rail officials on Monday sought to show-off the necessity of investing billions in Connecticut’s aging railroads.
The movable bridge — which a succession of speakers noted dates to the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt — is a notorious bottleneck along the nation’s Northeast Corridor, forcing trains to slow down to 30 mph as they cross over the Housatonic River, slow enough that they’re easily passed by cars traveling along the parallel stretch of I-95.
When the bridge gets stuck, as it did in 2015, it can create a cascade of delays impacting thousands of riders as far away as Boston and Washington, D.C.
To fix the problem, officials have come up with a plan to spend nearly $150 million making interim repairs to the bridge over the five years, before embarking on a decade-long, $2.2 billion replacement of the rusting structure.
The result? Trains may one day be able to reach speeds of 70 mph on the bridge, reducing travel times by around two minutes while avoiding the risk of longer delays.
“It didn’t just dawn on us that a bridge like this needed to be replaced,” said Amtrak CEO Steven Gardner. “We’ve been trying to do this for decades.”
Similar problems with costly solutions are impacting rail travel throughout Connecticut, officials say, including a pair of aging bridges in Norwalk and Old Saybrook that are in line for their own billion-dollar replacement projects. Throw in a few hundred million for track repairs, power upgrades, capacity studies and realignments, and one begins to get a sense of the scope of the work ahead.
Altogether, the list of rail infrastructure projects under development in Connecticut is expected to cost $6.5 billion — a “dizzying” and “astronomical” sum even in the words of project supporters.
“This is one of our renaissance periods,” said Gov. Ned Lamont, describing the investment as an end to the “long pause” in the construction of major transportation projects dating back to the completion of Connecticut’s interstate highways in the 1950s.
“That pause is right now over, we’re going to be able to get you home faster to see your kids and do it safely,” the governor continued.
In addition to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, Lamont said the projects are necessary to fulfill his commitment to shave 25 minutes off of a commuter trip between New Haven and New York City by 2035. Amtrak trains, which utilize the same tracks, will see a similar boost in travel times.
Critics, however, have painted the federal grants for the Northeast Corridor as an example of wasteful spending and part of a perceived bias by President Joe Biden’s administration for projects benefiting major metro areas.
In Connecticut, the cause of bringing the state's railroads up to a state of good repair has attracted bipartisan support, with lawmakers warning of other potential consequences for continuing to delay necessary upgrades.
"Think Mianus River Bridge," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, referring to the 1983 collapse of a corroded section of interstate highway in Greenwich that killed three people and snarled traffic for months.
While the bulk of the funding for the Northeast Corridor projects is coming from the federal government, in Connecticut they are largely being overseen by the state’s Department of Transportation, which owns the rail lines west of New Haven.
Among the explanations officials have given for the eye-popping price tags on projects such as the replacement of the Devon Bridge include the need to pain-stakingly schedule construction to avoid disrupting the roughly 175 trains that utilize the corridor every day.
Cheaper alternatives, such as constructing an immovable bridge that would block river traffic, were deemed too controversial and unlikely to gain Congressional approval, according to DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto.
“You cannot shut down the river here,” Eucalitto said. “To do this project, while keeping the bridge active… it’s a very complicated project.”
Beyond Connecticut, the federal investments in rail infrastructure include multi-billion projects to build new tunnels in New York and Baltimore, as well as the replacement of bridges in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland — all of them representing major bottlenecks along the 457-mile Northeast Corridor.
By the end of the current phase of construction, officials plan on being able to introduce more service, to new stations and with quicker speeds, though introducing fully high-speed service to the corridor remains a more distant vision.
New London project will remove lead pipes from water service lines connected to homes VIDEO
NEW LONDON, Conn. (WTNH) — The City of New London is working on becoming the first municipality in the state to have lead-free water service lines that lead to homes.
“What is so awesome about this project is that it is for our children. It is for the future,” said Reonna Dyess, the New London City Council president and director of the Drop-In Learning Center in New London.
She has seen the effects of lead poisoning and praised the city’s effort to get the lead out.
“It causes stomach aches, headaches, long-term learning disability if you have chronic exposure over time,” Connecticut Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said.
The city wants to prevent those long-lasting effects of lead and has become the first in the state to start a program to remove lead service lines leading into more than 2,400 homes in New London.
“It’s good cause you know babies that drink the water, you don’t want them to get sick,” New London resident Holly Parkes said.
The city said some of those service lines are 100 years old.
“Roughly 100 years old, absolutely, yup,” said Anthony DiVirgilio, the contracts manager for Burns Construction, which will be performing the lead pipe replacement work.
City leaders said as much as 75% of the three-year project could be funded through state and federal funding, possibly through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which aims to help distressed communities.
The project is expected to cost $36 million.
Torrington school building committee seeks $5.6 million grant
TORRINGTON — Those involved with Torrington's middle-high school building project, now under construction on Besse Drive, would like to enhance fitness opportunities there for the rest of the city, and are seeking a grant from the state.
A grant from the state's Community Investment Fund, a highly competitive program, was first discussed in June with the City Council. At that time, committee co-chairmen Ed Arum and Mario Longobucco explained that they wanted to further improve what was already approved in 2021, with a scoreboard, improved fields and tennis courts at the school campus. These will provide space for softball leagues and other community sports.
""We're trying to take what will be a very good facility and improve upon it," Longobucco said.
The co-chairmen brought an updated application to the council Nov. 13, which includes a request for $5.6 million. Arum said the first round of grants for 2023 was allocated to larger towns and cities.
"The government had $875,000 going out for grants, and the first round went to larger towns," Arum said. "We learned that a number of them are coming back for more money, and we were told to reapply; the Community Investment Fund doesn't want those who got money to reapply."
The funding, according to a grant committee working with the building committee, will be used for "an enhanced state of the art Fitness Complex with turf covered Baseball, Softball and Multipurpose Fields ... Along with this durable low maintenance player friendly surface located at the school campus, two energy efficient powered scoreboards and field lights will help to increase field usage after hours."
The added lighting, Arum and Longobucco explained, will provide compliance for softball games. In addition, concrete field sidewalks made with a recycled glass component will help reduce this projects’ carbon footprint by 20 percent; the pathways will also be more accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"This shovel ready project will benefit from a partially funded local match that will support sidewalks, an additional solar powered scoreboard & two tennis courts," the committee said in its statement.
"We're putting lights on the softball field and doing scoreboards," Arum said. "We're trying to get our fair share. People have said we shouldn't go to the state for money, but we're allowed to do it. Why should this be different from other grants?"
Council members Anne Ruwet and Paul Cavagnero objected to the grant application in June, and again on Monday night. Both consider the grant application an addition to the cost of the schools project, which is $179 million. Torrington is receiving 85 percent reimbursement for the schools project, meaning the city is paying, through taxes, about $28 million of the total cost.
In 2020, residents approved building a new 310,000-square-foot middle-high school with central offices, replacing the older building on the city-owned property with a state-of-the-art facility and outdoor upgrades. The initial cost was under $159 million; in 2022, the school building committee returned to the City Council, requesting to bond another $20 million based on increased material and construction costs. Voters approved that amount in January 2022.
"The voters had two referendums for this project, and everything should have been included in the last vote," Ruwet said. "This brings the project to $185 million."
Ruwet also said she was concerned about using turf fields, based on reports that show the fields cause more injuries. "I don't know why we're not reconsidering having turf fields at all," she said.
The committee has reasoned that turf fields last much longer than grass, and because the high school's athletic fields are used by students as well as outside groups, turf would be a better option.
Longobucco and Arum said the $5.6 million grant has nothing to do with the cost of the project.
"If we turn down the funding, another district might take it instead," Arum said. "It helps both the city and the kids. If you don't want to approve this, I think it would be a mistake. We've been working on this for five years, because people use this area all the time."
Mayor Elinor Carbone reiterated the grant application process as being "highly competitive."
"There's no guarantee this will even be approved," she said. "It was denied last time."
The council voted to apply to the Community Investment Fund for the grant, with Ruwet and Cavagnero voting no, and Armand Miniccia, David Oliver and Keri Hohne voting yes.
Bridgeport schools to use $2M in COVID aid to replace Curiale School's aging HVAC system
Richard Chumney
BRIDGEPORT — Bridgeport Public Schools plans to tap nearly $2 million in federal COVID-related aid to replace the aging air conditioning and heating system at James J. Curiale School.
The new HVAC system will be installed over the summer and is expected to serve the K-8 school in the city’s West End for at least for the next two decades, according to Jorge Garcia, a district official who oversees school facilities.
In a recent school board meeting, Garcia said the existing air conditioning system at Curiale has become so outdated that maintenance officials have struggled to locate and purchase new parts to replace damaged ones.
“The units that are currently in place are actually old units that we salvaged from the old Roosevelt School,” Garcia said, referring to a building that was demolished more than a decade ago. “They're well past a useful life. We've been having issues.”
The upgrades are part of a renewed focus around improving cooling and heating systems in school buildings across the district, many of which were built decades ago and lack up-to-date equipment. Air conditioning is considered a crucial tool that allows schools to stay open during dangerous heat waves.
School leaders last year announced plans to install A/C units at Wilbur Cross and Columbus schools, and federal officials over the summer awarded the city $3 million for upgrades to the heating and cooling system and other infrastructure at Geraldine Johnson and Luis Munoz Marin schools.
Garcia said the HVAC replacement at Curiale will impact the entire school, which serves around 500 students. He described it as a state-of-the-art system that will include a new chiller, ductwork and environmental controls accessible by administrators.
The school board voted unanimously during a special meeting to approve the project. Garcia said the district plans to contract Southington-based Sav-Mor Cooling & Heating, Inc., the only company that bid on the project, to conduct the installation. He said the school system has previously worked with the company and is confident they can complete the task.
“Right now there's so much work in the state that bidding is kind of tight, so we're lucky we had a respondent on this bid,” Garcia said.
Garcia said school officials are aiming to install the new system when crews replace Curiale’s roof this summer, which he said will help the district save money on construction costs. He noted the new A/C units will be located inside the building’s “penthouse” to protect the equipment from the elements.
To fund the project, the district will use nearly $2 million in COVID aid. The last round of the about $150 million in federal pandemic relief awarded to the district is set to expire early next fall, but Garcia said the installation is scheduled to be complete by that deadline.
The aid program, known as the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER, was created in 2020 to help schools across the country address the impact of COVID-19. In Bridgeport, the funds have been used to cover the cost of after school programs, new technology and other items.
Improperly installed basins lead to repair work on Jefferson Avenue
John Penney
New London ― Construction crews on Monday were putting the finishing touches on a Jefferson Avenue repair project that became necessary after new catch basins on the busy street were installed incorrectly.
The drainage basins were originally added months ago as part of a $3.9 million state- funded project paid with Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program, or LOCIP, funds administered through the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments.
The initial work meant digging up and rebuilding roughly 2,500 linear square feet of Jefferson Avenue and construction of a “three-legged” roundabout near the high school, with new sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting and curbing.
But several weeks ago, after paving was completed, an inspection showed undulations in the road in the areas of the basins, Director of Public Works Brian Sear said.
“If you drove over them, you’d notice a wobble with some areas worse than others,” he said. “In the field, the elevation of a water main under the road wasn’t properly taken into account, which involved just fractions of inches, but meant the elevation of those basins were too high.”
Sear said he met with state Department of Transportation and SECCOG officials about three weeks ago to brainstorm a solution that wouldn’t violate LOCIP spending guidelines.
“This is a municipally administered project, but the state does audit the work,” he said. “The project language required this road to have a life of between 20 to 30 years, which it wouldn’t if we left the basins as they were.”
Kate Rattan, SECCOG’s transportation program manager, said the basin issue arose from a combination of “utility conflicts” found on and under the road, including a bicycle lane with a different slope elevation than adjacent road gutter.
“These things happen out in the field,” she said. “Luckily, we can lean on the expertise of DOT and were able to coordinate a solution. And the good news is the repairs will not mean any additional expense to the town.”
Ultimately, the tops of 12 basins were lowered by about three inches using a combination of more compactable concrete and flatter basin tops. Final sealing work on the repair job was being conducted Monday morning.That work was paid for with a pool of contingency funding included in the original funding package.
Sear praised DOT and SECCOG officials for working with the city on the repair plans.
“There’s no bad guy in this scenario,” he said. “The paving itself was excellent.”
The roundabout portion of the work was largely completed in August, though several aesthetic pieces on the center island, including a sail-shaped flag and landscaping, have not yet been placed. Final crosswalk striping of the roundabout is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
CT CONSTRUTCION DIGEST MONDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2023
CT officials lay out current, future infrastructure projects at summit
Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and local officials from across Connecticut gathered in Hartford on Friday to highlight the array of new infrastructure projects that are currently underway in the state and to discuss what other changes residents are likely to see in the next decade and beyond.
But amid the calls to boost Connecticut’s transportation and energy infrastructure, officials focused their discussions on one aspect of infrastructure growth: housing.
The gathering was billed as the first inaugural infrastructure summit, which was meant to lay out a roadmap about what investments Connecticut is likely to make between now and 2035.
The event, which was scheduled to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the passage of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, included mayors, first selectmen, state lawmakers, state agency leaders, economic development officials and private developers.
The summit featured several panels that provided an overview of the investments that were being made as a result of the federal infrastructure law, which authorized more than $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending in the United States.
Connecticut’s Democratic leaders also used the summit as a victory lap, touting their political support for the infrastructure law and highlighting the state’s efforts to capture large portions of that federal spending.
To date, more than $6 billion in federal infrastructure spending has been announced for Connecticut. Mark Boughton, the state’s commissioner of the Department of Revenue and Services and Lamont’s senior advisor on infrastructure, said the state is focusing on winning additional competitive grants from federal agencies.
“We here in Connecticut take its implementation very seriously,” Boughton said.
Murphy, who is seeking his third term in the U.S. Senate, joked that there were so many infrastructure projects under construction that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal wasn’t able to keep up.
“There are so many ribbon cuttings in Connecticut these days that Blumenthal can only make half of them,” Murphy quipped.
Even with all of the federal funding arriving in Connecticut and other states, Murphy argued that Congress needed to do even more to improve the country’s energy, water and transportation infrastructure.
Murphy noted that China was able to build a high-speed railway from Beijing to Shanghai, and he noted that the distance between those two cities is double the milage between Boston and Washington, D.C.
“This is not a moment for us to rest on our laurels,” Murphy said.
Many of the other speakers at the event, however, were focused on projects that are already in the works.
The panelists and attendees talked broadly about investing in water and sewer systems, upgrading the state’s internet connectivity, rebuilding bridges, reengineering highway exchanges, constructing new rail stations, installing electrical vehicle charging stations, speeding up the passenger rail between New Haven and New York and preparing the state for the future effects of climate change.
But the most prominent topic of discussion was housing — a vital but politically fraught issue at the moment.
Lamont, who is in his second term as governor, and many other speakers voiced the need to build new housing stock in Connecticut, a state with one of the lowest vacancy rates for apartments in the country.
Lamont and Daniel O’Keefe, the new nominee to become the commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, emphasized that housing is a vital piece of the state’s infrastructure. And they said it was a necessity for the state’s continued economic development, which is why they highlighted the millions of dollars in state funding that has gone towards new housing development.
“We are doing everything we can to build housing,” Lamont said.
Lamont, however, continued to show deference toward the Connecticut municipalities where local zoning ordinances have been used to block new housing developments in recent years.
“For the towns, we are following your lead,” Lamont said during one of the panels.
Housing advocates say those zoning laws — and the local opposition to multifamily housing developments — are likely the biggest impediment to Connecticut solving its housing crisis and boosting the number apartments and homes that are available to lower-income households.
Lamont recognized the pushback that developers have faced in many suburban municipalities when trying to build multifamily housing. He joked that in his hometown of Greenwich, he has seen yard signs suggesting that state lawmakers want to build the Empire State building on Greenwich Avenue.
The governor asked several of the panelists how they were able to plan and build more multifamily housing when faced with that type of resistance.
West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor said she’s been able advance housing developments in her town by explaining to residents that it was necessary for the town’s growth and economic development.
But Cantor said that doesn’t mean that all of the housing developments were supported by the entire community. As an example, Cantor said, she was meeting with several town residents on Friday afternoon who are opposed to one of the new housing developments that are in the planning stages in West Hartford.
Jocelyn Ayer, the director of the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity, also spoke to her experiences in trying to counter local resistance toward building new housing in Connecticut’s northwest corner.
“When we talk to towns about where they can locate new housing, they shrug,” Ayer said.
Ayer said she counters that response by pointing to old parking lots or vacant schools properties that could be developed into multifamily housing.
“We can turn those into community assets,” Ayer said.
CT highway projects grab limelight. These 10 could come sooner, ‘so people see some progress.’
Tucked in a remote corner of Hartford near Dunkin’ Park is a cage-like tower of ramps and steps leading to a pedestrian bridge over I-91 that connects downtown to Riverside Park. But the structure does little to invite use, its chain-link enclosure partly overgrown by climbing vines.
“We fondly refer to it as the ‘Shawshank Redemption‘ bridge,” iQuilt Executive Director Jackie Mandyck said, invoking the 1994 film, a prison drama. “You don’t know if you can get in, and you don’t know if you are ever going to get out once you get in.”
The iQuilt Partnership, a nonprofit promoting a more walkable city, envisions a complete makeover of the bridge, which dates to the late 1970s, with a ramp winding its way from the intersection of Market and Pleasant streets to the bridge. There would a similar ramp in Riverside Park.
The proposal, known as RiverLink, is one of dozens of lower-priced projects included in the Greater Hartford Mobility Study, a 3-year examination by the Connecticut Department of Transportation of the region’s transportation system.
The study sought to the find ways — both major and more modest — to improve driving, bus and rail riding, bicycling and walking in the region. The study seeks to reshape greater Hartford’s transportation system so all modes of travel work together better.
The big-ticket projects in the mobility study capture a lot of attention. They include relocating the I-84/1-91 interchange, a notorious bottleneck, and the lowering of the 1-84 viaduct and I-91 along the Connecticut River. The lowering of the two interstates seek to reconnect neighborhoods and restore more access to Hartford’s riverfront, projects that have been talked about for years.
But those major projects face significant hurdles, including years of study and lining up billions of dollars in federal and state funding — pushing what could be transformational transportation initiatives decades into the future.
DOT officials say the more modest projects, which the study defines as “early action,” also must pull together local, state and federal funding. But the scope is narrower and could bring significant changes years before ground is broken on the bigger highway redevelopments, perhaps in the next 3 to 5 years.
The projects include closing highway exit and entrance ramps that have outlived their usefulness or are contributing to crashes. The study also points out the need for safer pedestrian crossing near heavily-traveled highway ramps and better accommodations for bicyclists at train and CTfastrak stations. There are recommendations to either design or study the options for “Complete Streets” makeovers for Main Street in East Hartford and the Silas Deane Highway in Rocky Hill and Wethersfield.
Nilesh Patel, principal engineer in the DOT’s highway design division, said the more modest projects captured as much attention as the major highway reconstructions in neighborhood meetings that contributed to the study’s recommendations.
“In terms of trying to identify those projects that we could identify early and get a benefit out of them as soon as possible, that’s all we heard at some of the meetings, right?” Patel said. “A lot of the folks were like, ‘All right. We know about the big picture. But when is some of this going to happen?’
Looks like a prison
The existing pedestrian bridge over I-91 dates from about the late 1970s, and its makeover would be one of the more expensive among those designated as early action. The cost is pegged at as much as $25 million.
Right now, visitors to the pedestrian bridge must walk through a wide, gravel parking lot off Market Street and behind the backs of buildings to reach the stairs and ramps configured in a spiral. Mandyck said she is not overstating in saying that the structure looks like a prison.
“Any visitor to the city would not think this is how you get to the river,” Mandyck said. “I mean, we had the right idea when we went with the pedestrian walkway up and over 91 to get us to the river. We just didn’t execute it very well. So now, it’s how can we remedy that.”
The RiverLink project, proposed by iQuilt with the support of the city of Hartford, would create a pedestrian and bicycle ramp that would begin at a plaza in front of the mural at the Community Renewal Team building at 333 Market St. From there, the ramp would gently rise and curve to follow along the back of existing buildings and then straighten to connect with the bridge over I-91. A similar design is contemplated for Riverside Park.
RiverLink could become a visitor destination, Mandyck said, and is in the design tradition of the recently opened 41st Street pedestrian and bicycle bridge in Chicago.
The DOT also has a design in which the ramp would begin on Market Street but in a different location, and instead would hug the highway on both sides of I-91.
Mandyck said iQuilt’s design makes sense because the walkway would connect across Market Street to Pleasant Street. Along Pleasant Street, there is Dunkin’ Park and emerging plans to redevelop the former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute into housing and beyond that, North Crossing.
RiverLink also is a crucial component of the larger, 6-mile, Hartline pedestrian and bicycle path. Hartline seeks a future link from Hartford’s riverfront — much of it along the state-owned, single-track Griffin Line corridor — into Bloomfield. The project is a major component of the Hartford 400 plan that seeks to better balance the needs of all forms of transportation, from cars and buses to bicycles and walking.
“RiverLink starts to do something quickly, so people can see some progress,” Mandyck said. “It’s going to take some time to realize the dreams of the Greater Hartford Mobility Study, and I think small projects like this are extremely important with that.”
‘Trying to catch up’
A final report on the study’s recommendations is due by the end of the year, and DOT officials say smaller projects shouldn’t get lost in the debate over the massive highway projects.
“All these big things have to change, but there are places where people have to walk and things that we have already — bus networks that could be better supported and more functional,” Kevin J. Burnham, a supervising engineer at the DOT. “They may not have as impressive a ribbon cutting but they add to somebody’s quality of life.”
from the riverfront to Bloomfield, also filling in some gaps in the East Coast Greenway. (iQuilt Hartford 400/Suisman Urban Design)
That is especially true for neighborhoods in Hartford and East Hartford, Burnham said, where large populations of residents don’t own a motor vehicle yet access to public transportation is limited.
“So what we’re trying to do here is trying to catch up with that, in a way,” Burnham said.
For example, improvements could include changing CTTransit bus hours to include service outside of traditional commuting hours, frequency of stops or adding new routes.
Some say turning projects in the study into reality that look good on paper may present larger-than-expected challenges.
For example, improving the five-way intersection at the Albany and Main streets in Hartford — long considered a gateway area in the city — is a high-level goal, said Jay Stange, transportation coordinator for the Center for Latino Progress in Hartford.
Changes would better ensure the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists who now navigate the area at their peril, Stange said.
But the problem, Stange said, is that the area is trying to do two things that are in opposition to each other. On the one hand, the city wants to encourage a vibrant area for foot traffic to support storefronts, even as more apartments are developed. But on the other, the Albany Avenue corridor — just one example in the city — is a major commuter thoroughfare between the suburbs and downtown Hartford.
“We can’t have a design that works for both groups, for the people that live in the city, and the people who want to drive quickly through it,” Stange said.
Here are 10 near-term projects to watch that are included in the Greater Hartford Mobility Study:
1. Improve Riverlink connection across I-91 between Hartford’s Downtown North area and Riverside Park
The Problem: The existing pedestrian bridge across the highway is difficult to reach from Market Street and the spiral design of its existing ramps do not easily accommodate bicyclists.
Goals: Make a stronger connection for pedestrians and bicyclists between Downtown North and the Connecticut River.
Possible Solutions: Construct new, longer ramps leading to the pedestrian access bridge that invite bicyclist and provide more pleasant travel between downtown and Riverside Park. The project would be led or constructed in coordination with the City of Hartford and iQuilt.
Anticipated Cost: $15-$25 million
2. Make it safer for pedestrians at highway ramps
The Problem: Ramps on and off highways such as I-84, I-91, I-291, Route 2 and Route 5/15 can be tricky and difficult to navigate for pedestrians that are crossing them. Two prime examples are I-91 at Route 305 in Windsor and I-84 at Sisson Avenue in Hartford.
Goals: Make it easier, safer and more comfortable for pedestrians to navigate the areas in and around highway ramps
Possible Solutions: A total of 43 ramp locations in greater Hartford could be improved with such measures as crosswalk markings and signals; sidewalks and sidewalk ramps; curbs and medians to reduce crossing distances.
Anticipated Cost: $500,000-$1.5 million per location
3. Strengthen the bicycle network around CTfastrak and Hartford Line stations
The Problem: The local road network near of some CTfastrak and Hartford Line stations is
focused primarily on moving automotive traffic.
Goals: Encourage the development of bicycle networks around these stations.
Possible solutions: Introduce one or more improvement, including shared roadways, or “sharrows,” bike
lanes, buffered bike lanes, separated bike lanes, and side paths, primarily along nearby local streets and
connecting greenways. These initiatives will be led by the local municipality to ensure that designs meet with local needs and will accommodate all users+. Stations will evaluated for
appropriate amenities, such as bike racks or lockers.
Anticipated Cost: $500,000-$6 million per location
4. Incorporate Ramp Closures at High and Trumbull streets in Hartford
The Problem: There is traffic congestion and an elevated number of crashes tied to high traffic volumes and highway design flaws. Closely spaced on and off ramps force motorists to weave in and out of traffic.
Goals: Improve traffic flow on I-84 west of the I-91 interchange in Hartford.
Possible Solutions: Propose eliminating two ramps — I-84 east off-ramp to Trumbull Street (exit 50) and I-84 west on-ramp from Walnut and High streets — to ease the volume of vehicles entering and exiting the highway at high crash sites. The removal of Walnut and High streets ramp will allow the the extension of the existing westbound lane and eliminate the weaving that now occurs.
Anticipated Cost: $3-$5 million
5. Reconfigure Hartford’s Pulaski Circle
The Problem: Pulaski Circle has five approaches with a mix of stop and yield signs that make the area difficult and confusing to navigate.
The Whitehead Highway traffic enters the circle at high speed without a clear transition to a city road. There have been 109 crashes at this location during most recent five-year period (2018-2022) with more than half of them classified as rear-end collisions that can be attributed to navigation difficulties. The high speeds and non-traditional controls make pedestrian crossings uncomfortable and sometimes unsafe.
Goals: Address safety for all users, reduce vehicular speeds particularly from the Whitehead Highway, simplify traffic control and enhance pedestrian and bicycle connections. The solution must be sensitive to the intersection’s status as a gateway to Hartford and to Bushnell Park, the State
Capitol and the Bushnell South redevelopment area.
Possible Solutions: Reconfigure the circle into a modern roundabout with safe routes for bicyclists and improved circulating sidewalks, ramps, and markings for pedestrians.
Anticipated Cost: $15-20 million
6. Reimagine Main Street in East Hartford
The Problem: Main Street in East Hartford serves dual roles as an economic engine for the town that is lined with shops, restaurants and other businesses. But the street also is a major thoroughfare for travel in the region. High vehicle speeds make for difficult for pedestrians and bicyclists to share the roadway.
Goal: Improve safety and reduce motor vehicle speeds along Main Street by creating an environment that accommodates vehicles, public transportation, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Possible Solutions: Reconfigure Main Street — from the I-84 overpass to the railroad bridge — to incorporate a “Complete Streets” design. Those designs might include wider sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaped medians, shorter crosswalks. The Complete Streets philosophy ensures the needs of everyone using a roadway are met — including all ages and abilities — safety is improved and a stronger transportation network is created.
Anticipated Cost: $10-$15 million
7. Design improvements at the intersection of Albany Avenue and Main Street in Hartford
The Problem: The convergence of five intersecting roadways — Albany Avenue and Main, Ely, Ann Uccello and High streets — is not designed well for vehicle traffic even though the Albany-Main artery has long been heavily traveled by commuters. Wide and ill-defined crossings are uncomfortable for pedestrians in a location that is considered a gateway to both downtown and Hartford’s northside neighborhoods.
Goals: Improve safety for all users of the area and better balance the needs of motorists with pedestrians, bicyclists and public transportation riders.
Possible Solutions: Install sidewalks and sidewalk ramps; crosswalk upgrades, traffic signal and timing upgrades; better curb alignment and accommodations for bicyclists.
Anticipated Cost: $15-$20 million
8. Study potential improvements for the Silas Deane Highway in Rocky Hill and Wethersfield
The Problem: The Silas Deane Highway is a major motor vehicle thoroughfare with limited options for pedestrians and bicyclists and a high number of crashes.
Goals: Improve safety and expand options for other users beyond motorists.
Possible Solutions: Undertake a study to determine the feasibility and prepare conceptual designs for expanding bike, pedestrian, and bus amenities along the corridor. These improvements would expand the existing use of the highway to integrate an Complete Streets design. The Connecticut Department of Transportation would coordinate with Wethersfield and Rocky Hill along with the Capitol Region Council of Governments for this study.
Anticipated Cost: $750,000
9. Complete and Improve Bicycle Networks in Moderate and High Demand Areas
The Problem: Areas where there is high demand for bicycle lanes and other amenities lack continuity and connection.
Goals: Strengthen bicycle-riding networks by building better connections between existing stretches and areas where they is now demand or it is expected in the future.
Possible Solutions: Support municipal efforts to expand existing bicycle master plans of West Hartford and Hartford. Solutions could include 22 miles of shared roadway, 27 miles of bicycle lanes, 14.4 miles of buffered bicycle lanes, 4.8 miles of separated bicycle lanes, and 6 miles of side paths.
Anticipated Cost: $15-$18 million
10. Extend Evening Hours and Service Frequency in Public Transit Priority Areas
The Problem: There is a lack of reliable bus and rail options for workers employed outside of traditional commuting hours and for those looking for options other than a car for non-work related evening trips, such as social outings, shopping or health appointments.
Goals: Expand the options for disadvantage populations and those dependent on public transportation without hurting minority and low-income populations.
Possible Solutions: Perform an analysis to increase service frequency on certain routes in priority area after 6 p.m. Bus service might operate later in the day than the current schedule and some routes may be added. Service frequency also could be boosted on certain routes between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Anticipated Costs: $1 million
SOURCES: Connecticut Department of Transportation, Courant reporting
Torrington High School project progressing
TORRINGTON — The new middle-high school project is moving along now: classroom walls are covered with sheetrock, and steel beams lead visitors through hallways from one floor to the next.
On the fifth floor, a crew was busy laying red brick on the exterior walls, while inside, members of the school building committee followed staircases up from the ground floor during a tour with Brian Pracuta, O&G project manager.
Vicki Mancini, assistant library media specialist at the high school, joined a group that included Mario Longobucco and Ed Arum, co-chairmen of the building committee, for a tour of the $179 million project. She wanted to see her new space, she said. The library is on the third floor and boasts curved glass windows on the northeast side of the crescent-shaped building, office space, and plenty of room for books and study spaces.
"It's much more than I expected," Mancini said as she stood, amazed, in front of what will be a panoramic view of the middle-high school campus. "It's going to be just beautiful."
"I wanted you to see where you're going to be," Longobucco said to Mancini. "Now you have a picture in your mind."
"Just beautiful" was an exclamation heard repeatedly as the group made its way through the project. O&G, the project's construction manager, and the building committee, say the hope is to move the high school students into the new high school by Jan. 25, followed by the middle school in September.
O&G led a tour of the project in April with the SLAM Collaborative, the architectural firm chosen to design the new Torrington middle-high school. Also included were members of the American Institute of Architects' Connecticut chapter. The building was a shell then with newly poured concrete and steel structures. Now, that architecture is coming into focus.
The ground floor features the building's engineering: plumbing, heating, air conditioning and generators, electrical systems and other equipment. There are also classrooms there, where students can get their first taste of construction and engineering for future careers.
The second, or main floor, connects the building to the new performance theater, a round building that is also linked to the cafeteria and other shared spaces. Music classrooms and rehearsal spaces are also found there; the middle school is attached to this portion of the building. The third and fourth floors are filled with classrooms and the media/library center, while the top floor houses administrative and Board of Education offices, including offices for the district's new superintendent, Michael Wilson, and Assistant Superintendent Sue Fergusson.
Outside the doorway of each classroom, a bar-coded card reads "art" or "science" indicating the type of room it will become; workers can scan the code and see the plans on a computer. The classrooms can hold up to 24 students and is accessible for people with disabilities. Piles of sheetrock are ready to be installed on one floor, while on another, the rooms are already "rocked" and ready for paint and electrical work.
A new middle school gym is being constructed, and once the high school students move into their new space, the high school gym will be renovated. The old high school building will then be torn down and that space will be used for parking.
Voters approved the project in November 2020. At that time, the middle-high school plan cost $159.6 million; in 2022, the building committee held a second referendum to add $20 million to the plan, citing increased materials and construction costs. Torrington is being reimbursed for 85 percent of the total cost, leaving about $27 million to be paid by taxpayers.
The work is continuing at a healthy pace, Pracuta said and attributed the steady progress to a mild winter in 2022, which allowed the work to continue through the winter into the spring with little snow to hamper the construction crews. The project is slightly ahead of schedule: but there's still a lot of work to do.
As the group completed the tour, Pracuta stood in the entrance to the construction site, near a 5-foot-high concrete drain structure. "We're going to raise the (grounds) to go up to the top of that," he said, pointing to the concrete drain. "There's going to be a lot of fill coming in here for the new road. You won't even recognize it."
The school building committee meets monthly; its schedule is posted at torrington.org, the school district's website.
UI, Fairfield property owners take monopole plan to CT Siting Council
FAIRFIELD — Property owners would lose the right to develop parts of their own land if a United Illuminating project moves forward in Fairfield.
UI has so far resisted demands from local elected officials, neighbors and business to alter its plan to minimize the potential impacts of a proposed project that would hang transmission lines from monopoles standing as tall as 145 feet high by 2029 along the Metro-North railroad corridor. The company plans to secure rights to 19.25 acres of private property along the corridor through permanent easements, where UI would launch construction zones, build the monopoles and restrict structural modifications by the owner, according to a copy of a UI easement contract.
During an evidentiary hearing Thursday before the State Siting Council, Shawn Crosbie, UI's projects unit manager for transmission lines, refused to consider revising the design of the monopole project to avoid easements if a property could not be developed for its "highest and best use," if it couldn't be approved for a desired use or if it became non-compliant with local zoning regulations.
Crosbie responded with a simple "no" to each of those scenarios when asked about them by Attorney Mario Coppola, who is representing a group of residents opposed to the project.
The council has jurisdiction over the placement of transmission lines in the state. On the council's website, Executive Director Melanie Bachman describes the state panel as "responsible for balancing the need for adequate and reliable public utility services at the lowest reasonable cost to consumers with the need to protect the environment and ecology of the state."
The state body has scheduled another hearing for Nov. 28, and is due to deliver a final decision by March 17.
Pequot Library Executive Director Stephanie Coakley said a monopole and development restrictions would limit parking, services, programming and fundraising potential.
"Pequot Library is vehemently opposed to the application because the application as proposed will adversely affect the historic integrity, use and potential expanded use of Pequot Library's property," Coakley said in pre-filed testimony before Siting Council.
Thomas Schinella, the owner of 2190 Post Road, where a team of New York developers hope to construct a mixed-use complex at the site of the former Exide Battery plant, said his property is slated to receive a six to 21-foot easement. He said UI will be able to "veto" any construction plans for the upcoming development at the site.
"How is this fair?" Scinella said in pre-filed testimony. "Having UI's permanent presence means we, as rightful property owners, will not be able to develop our land in a manner that UI could determine (within its sole discretion) might interfere with or endanger UI's access to or facilities on our land."
In addition to the library, the company also plans to build structures on properties that house Trinity Episcopal Church, Rawley's Drive-In, DSW and the Stop and Shop location on the Kings Highway Cutoff and secure easements to other nearby properties.
A protest outside the Pequot Library on Nov. 5 rallied hundreds to call on UI to bury the transmission lines instead of elevate them, but company officials have said doing so would still require easements, though the extent remains unclear.
In response to the rally, UI spokesperson Sarah Wall Fliotsos said UI "respects and appreciates" the public's attention toward the monopole project. She said UI officials will continue working with Fairfield town government and following the Siting Council process for its proposal.
"As essential functions like transportation and home heating increasingly rely on electricity, transmission upgrades like this one are imperative if we are to meet growing demand and connect clean energy sources to residences and businesses across Fairfield and all of Connecticut, in line with the public policy goals set out by the legislature and the Lamont Administration,” Wall Fliotsos said in an email.
12 development lots proposed for new Norwich business park
Claire Bessette
Norwich ― A plan to create 12 development lots in the 384-acre, newly named Occum Industrial Center will be reviewed by the city planning commission, starting with a public hearing Tuesday.
The Commission on the City Plan will open the public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall on the proposed 12-lot commercial subdivision on the land owned by the Norwich Community Development Corp. and proposed for a second business park.
The hearing will begin with presentations by NCDC on the subdivision plan, but the commission will not vote on the plan that night, Director of Planning and Neighborhood Services Deanna Rhodes said.
NCDC’s plan to build an access road into the property from Route 97 near Interstate 395’s Exit 18 ramp was approved last year by the Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission. The wetlands commission will review modifications to the road plan at its meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at the planning office, 23 Union St. The access road plan also is under permit review by state and federal transportation agencies.
Rhodes said that along with waiting for the wetlands commission vote on the road, the planning commission might require revisions to the subdivision plan before voting on the application. In her report to the commission, Rhodes suggested if the commission wishes to conduct a site walk, it could be scheduled for noon Dec. 12.
December’s Commission on the City Plan meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 17, when the public hearing will resume.
NCDC President Kevin Brown said the agency chose the name Occum Industrial Center to provide interested developers a geographical reference point, as opposed to the previous name of Business Park North.
“Right now, if you’re an industrial developer and you Google ‘Occum,’ it’s a recognizable geographical place,” Brown said. “You are hooked in with a map.”
NCDC hopes to obtain permits to build the road by February and put the project out to bid for construction to begin in late fall.
NCDC purchased the 17 parcels that make up the proposed industrial center for $3.55 million last December. In spring, the agency obtained an $11.3 million state Community Investment Fund grant to build 2,700 feet of roadway into the property and a $500,000 grant for engineering and design work.
The proposed industrial center has been met with opposition from Occum residents, who have called the plan excessive and not in line with the rural former farmland and woodland property.
The land is zoned for business park or commercial development, but the neighborhood group, Preserving Norwich Neighborhoods LLC, has filed suit against the city’s new Plan of Conservation and Development, which recommended the area for business park development. Ten years earlier, the city’s plan of development recommended rural, low-density development there, the group pointed out.
In the subdivision application, NCDC has proposed preserving 25 acres of the property, or 7.16%, as open space, either to be transferred to the city or to a land trust organization. The area proposed for preservation is adjacent to I-395 and contains a “prominent wetland,” Rhodes wrote in her staff review of the subdivision application.
New London community center construction delay will cost $230K
John Penney
New London ― A six-month delay in breaking ground for the city’s new community center has so far increased the cost of the project by nearly $230,000.
City officials are not ruling out heading to court to determine who’ll ultimately foot that bill.
The City Council on Monday could enter into executive session to discuss the status of “pending and/or threatened litigation” by the city regarding permit delays associated with the $40 million community center project.
Several city officials, including Mayor Michael Passero, Finance Director David McBride and Felix Reyes, director of the city’s Office of Planning and Development, are slated to join the council in the closed-door session, as are representatives of Downes Construction, the company building the center.
Construction of the planned 58,000-square-foot facility on the Fort Trumbull peninsula began in July, six months after the original start date. City officials said the delay was largely due to waiting for a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection flood management certificate and a storm water and wastewater discharge permit.
Passero on Friday said the city is still investigating who involved on the project planning side was responsible for the delay and the associated cost overruns.
“But it’s certainly not going to be on the city,” he said.
Passero said the option to head into executive session, which council members could decline, was offered since any discussion on delay and cost responsibility could “potentially be part of future litigation.”
“But that doesn’t mean we’re definitely going to court; there could be a reimbursement agreement worked out,” he said. “Or we could end up in litigation.”
A Nov. 10 change order evaluation submitted by the Downes company notes three areas of additional project spending because of “DEEP Permit” delays.
Nearly $194,000 in labor, materials, tools and equipment is needed to account for anticipated winter conditions at the main work site. That money will pay for ground heaters and additives to enable concrete to be poured in low temperatures, as well as for insulating blankets and fuel.
Project site subcontractor Giordano is requesting $29,433 for new labor, material, tool and equipment costs related to upcoming foundation excavation work
“This work was not originally anticipated to occur during the winter months,” the change order document states.
Another $6,600 is needed to re-clear overgrown areas of the site that grew back during the permit approval period.
The $229,586 total of winter change orders will initially be covered by Downes.
Each of the cost descriptions ended with the same sentence: “Funding for the expense will be covered using owner’s contingency as the the team seeks compensation for costs associated with the permit-related delay.”
The change orders are not expected to delay the 2025 opening of the facility, which will boast a host of amenities, including a community lounge, classroom space for early childhood programming, a two-court gymnasium, eight-lane pool, track area and workout and game rooms.
“We’re off and running and not slowing down work because of the winter,” Passero said.
The project’s initial $30 million price tag, approved by the council in 2021, jumped by approximately $10 million as more detailed cost figures emerged, with the gap later filled with a combination of state and federal funding. The city was also awarded a $1.2 million grant through the state’s Brownfield Remediation program for pre-construction site work.
The City Council will convene at 7 p.m., Monday, at City Hall.