No construction on major CT highways during Thanksgiving weekend except for emergencies, DOT says
There is no planned construction on major highways in
Connecticut during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to the state Department
of Transportation.
The state agency said there would be no
inspection, maintenance or construction activities on major highways from
6 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, to 6 a.m. Monday, Dec. 1.
“Only work of an emergency nature will be considered,”
according to the agency.
Work on the Interstate
91, Interstate 691 and Route 15 interchange project in Meriden also
will be halted during the holiday schedule, but will resume the morning
of Dec. 1. Work will take place during weekdays from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,
and some closures are possible throughout the week, including weekends, at
nighttime, according to the DOT.
Other projects will begin on that day, including bridge
repairs on Christian Lane over Route 9 north and south in Berlin. Repairs
on bridge joints will also begin on Interstate
95 north and south, between exits 89 and 90 in the Groton and Mystic area,
on Dec. 1, according to the DOT.
CT DOT says I-84 ‘Flex Lane’ could ease Danbury traffic — here’s what worked in other states
While rolling out plans
to bring a “Flex Lane” to a 4-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in Danbury, the
Connecticut Department of Transportation has highlighted similar projects in
three other states.
“Flex Lanes have already shown their success in states like
Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, improving traffic flow, commute times and
safety,” says a voiceover in a video released by the
Connecticut DOT last month.
The video and a DOT website explain how
such a lane between
Exits 3 and 7 on I-84 would work:
When traffic is heavy, cars — but no trucks — would be able to use the
left-side shoulder as a travel lane. When traffic dies down, the lane would
return to being a shoulder. Signs above the highway would tell drivers when the
lane is open, closed or closing soon.
The left-side shoulders in the eastbound and westbound
directions would remain separated by a median. The shoulders probably would not
be open as travel lanes at the same time. Instead, the eastbound lane would be
open during evening rush hour, and the westbound lane would be open during
morning rush hour.
It would be the first
system of its kind in the state. Construction is expected to begin in
2028 and wrap up in two to three years.
DOT has said the Flex Lane and other roadway upgrades on
I-84 will cost about
$250 million, according to preliminary estimates, but the project is still
under design.
We asked the DOTs in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio to tell us
about their Flex Lanes — also known as dynamic part-time
shoulders — and provide data about congestion and crashes. Here’s
what they said.
Beltline in Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s first Flex Lane opened in 2022 on a section of
U.S. 12/18, also known as the Madison Beltline.
It’s “one of the most heavily used routes in (South Central)
Wisconsin, with more than 120,000 vehicles per day along a 10-mile segment,”
the Wisconsin DOT said. “While a comprehensive, long-term Beltline study is
ongoing, it was imperative to develop an interim solution to address existing
traffic issues.”
Similarly, the I-84 Flex Lane is a “breakout project”
intended to ease congestion while planning continues for a series
of future changes to the Connecticut highway.
On the Madison Beltline, drivers are able to use the
Flex Lane during rush hour, on holiday weekends, when large events
take place or when maintenance work or an incident occurs that affects traffic.
WisDOT’s Traffic Management Center uses cameras and sensors to monitor
conditions on the highway and change electronic signage.
Data for the full year of 2024 shows that daily traffic
volumes were up on the corridor compared with pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers,
but average travel times during peak hours were down by up to 40% and crashes
were down by about 30%, WisDOT said.
Did Wisconsin run into any issues when implementing its Flex
Lane?
During the design phase, concerns emerged from first
responders “about the ability to effectively and safely manage traffic and
incidents using the Flex Lane,” WisDOT said, but workshops and tabletop
exercises were held to address them.
Sourcing materials amid supplier shortages and finishing
testing for software and equipment before the lane opened were also challenges,
the agency said.
Flex Routes in Michigan
The Great Lakes State has two Flex
Routes. The first, which extends 8.5 miles on U.S. 23, opened in 2017.
A Michigan
State University study, which was sponsored by Michigan’s DOT and published
in 2021, found that maximum throughput increased, average peak travel times
decreased and crashes decreased overall after the Flex Route began operating.
But the northbound and southbound lanes had different
results.
In the southbound direction, crashes went down 34% overall
and more than 50% during peak travel periods.
“In contrast, total crashes were comparable in the
northbound direction and actually increased by approximately 24% during
the peak traffic periods,” according to the study.
The study attributed much of the increase to a spot where
the northbound Flex lane ends and the number of lanes drops from three to two,
creating a bottleneck. The state plans to extend the Flex Route to an
interchange with another highway, which is expected to resolve the
problem.
A separate Flex Route on Interstate 96 opened earlier this
year.
A brochure for
Michigan’s Flex Route system includes an answer to a question some Connecticut
drivers may have: “Why not just add another lane?”
The brochure says a temporary extra lane is more cost
effective.
“Employing flex route technology increases capacity within
the existing infrastructure for less money,” it says.
Plus, experts say highway
expansions may relieve
congestion in the short term but eventually attract
more traffic that clogs
up the roadway once again.
SmartLanes in Ohio
Ohio has two SmartLanes that work similarly to the
Flex Lane that the Connecticut DOT has proposed for I-84.
The first SmartLane in the state — on an approximately
5-mile stretch of Interstate 670 eastbound from downtown Columbus to the John
Glenn Columbus International Airport and Interstate 270 — opened
in 2019, Ohio DOT press secretary Matt Bruning said.
“Before it opened, the trip from downtown Columbus to the
I-270 outerbelt would range from 10 to 20 minutes on average,” Bruning said.
“After it opened, it has been a consistent five- to six-minute trip.”
Crashes were also down, Bruning said. From 2015 through
2017, there were a total of 311 crashes in the corridor. From 2021 through 2023
— a time period that excludes construction years — there were 114 crashes
Data for the state’s other SmartLane — on Interstate 275
westbound on Cincinnati’s north side — “is not nearly as robust” because it
opened only a year-and-a-half ago, Bruning said.
But the amount of time drivers spend delayed in traffic on
the about 6-mile corridor has decreased, he said.
“We were averaging about 15,000 hours of delay (on a yearly
basis) before COVID and had rebounded to about (10,000 to) 13,000 post-COVID,”
Bruning said. “This year, we’re averaging about 4,600 delay hours, so it has
really made a difference.”
Why was the UI power line upgrade in Bridgeport and Fairfield rejected? Regulators to explain
The Connecticut Siting Council on Thursday voted to revisit United
Illuminating's denied application for a transmission line upgrade
through Fairfield and Bridgeport.
However, it appears a majority of the regulatory body is not
intent on reconsidering
that Oct. 16 decision, as the company has requested, but instead plans to
address UI's repeated concerns that those who voted "no" failed
to explain why. The group now has 90 days to act and make such additions.
“I am supporting to reopen it for the purpose of clearing up
the record, but my vote has not changed," Siting Council
member Quat Nguyen told his colleagues during the special meeting.
Lee Hoffman, the private attorney representing
Bridgeport against UI's plan, had that same interpretation of Thursday's
teleconference, as did another opponent, the neighboring town of
Fairfield.
"I believe, based on today's meeting, they're (Siting
Council members) not changing the findings of fact, the conclusions of law
or the decision document itself," Hoffman said in an interview. "The
council is going to edit the opinion."
And Lisa Clair, Fairfield's communications director, in a
statement wrote, "The Connecticut Siting Council voted to approve
UI’s petition for reconsideration...for the limited purpose of adopting a new
written opinion that conforms to their October decision denying
the...project."
UI submitted
its request for reconsideration Nov. 3. The Council then had 25 days
to act. Its last regular gathering within that window occurred last Thursday,
during which there
was a discussion about whether to add UI's appeal to the agenda. The
group utimately adjourned without taking up the company's request.
Then on Tuesday, the utility wrote the regulatory body
urging it to convene a special meeting and reiterating that the Siting
Council's failure to outline why the plan was rejected violates Connecticut
law.
At times members' discussion Thursday got a bit muddled to
the point some involved appeared unclear what they were voting on. An initial
motion was made to deny UI's reconsideration request. That failed in a 4-to-3
vote.
“Therefore, the motion to deny is denied and the motion for
reconsideration…is approved," announced Vice Chair John Morisette, who ran
the teleconference.
Before the group adjourned, Morisette concluded, "At a
future date, we will have an opportunity to review the documents…that will
reflect a (project) denial vote and will have an opportunity to vote on those
documents.”
Sarah Wall Fliotsos, UI's spokesperson, said afterward
that the utility is eager to complete its transmission line project. The
Bridgeport/Fairfield section is the last 8 miles of a 25-mile route, the rest
of which has been finished or is under construction.
“The Siting Council’s failure to offer any explanation for
their denial...on Oct. 16 is not aligned with Connecticut law. But worse, it
left us with no path forward for rebuilding our 60-year-old transmission
infrastructure," she said. "The stakes are high: to continue with
delay after delay, as some state politicians have recklessly called for, risks
a catastrophic transmission line failure that could result in a prolonged
electric outage across the state and region, as well as tumultuous rail
disruption."
If that October rejection stands, UI can either take the
matter to court or submit a revised proposal that seeks to address council
members' issues.
UI first submitted its monopole plan to the Siting
Council in 2023. The company has maintained that installing the wires on tall
poles routed along the southern side of the Metro-North Railroad train tracks
is the best and least costly to ratepayers option for upgrading the aged
equipment.
But critics, including several elected leaders of those two
municipalities, have opposed the plans, arguing the lines should instead be
buried to avoid what they claim will be adverse impacts on economic
development, the environment, and historic and religious properties.
In June, the council signaled it would turn down UI's
transmission wire upgrade during an informal vote, but then in
September reversed course in a second unofficial vote and backed the
proposed overhaul, infuriating opponents.
But then the group, after outcry from officials in Fairfield
and Bridgeport who want the transmission wires buried, and at the urging of
Gov. Ned Lamont, postponed
a final September vote to Oct. 16 for the sides to try to seek a
compromise that never materialized.
Then, during that October meeting, the regulatory body
changed its opinion again and rejected UI's project in a final vote.
Connecticut officials announce up to $121 million in quantum-technology investments
NEW HAVEN — Connecticut is committing up to $121 million to
develop quantum technology, state officials and leaders of the University of
Connecticut and Yale University announced Thursday — investments that they said
could transform the state’s economy.
The new initiatives to bolster quantum technology, which
is based on the principles of quantum mechanics, will be overseen by the
nonprofit QuantumCT. The funds include $50 million to expand the state’s
quantum infrastructure, which will complement a recently announced $10 million
allocation for QuantumCT that is part of the state’s
Innovation Clusters initiative. In addition, the state could provide an
additional allotment of up to $60 million to support potential federal
funding.
“The time to prepare our state, to lay the groundwork for
our future and to prepare our workforce is now,” Daniel O’Keefe,
commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development,
said in a news conference at Kline Tower, part of the Science Hill section of
Yale’s campus in New Haven. “And I believe Connecticut is uniquely positioned
to lead. For over a century, Connecticut has led in advanced manufacturing and
the application of advanced technologies.”
QuantumCT is the result of a UConn-Yale partnership that was
launched in response to the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation
Engines program. A QuantumCT proposal is a finalist for grant funding through
the RIE program, with winning proposals expected to be announced in the first
quarter of next year.
If the NSF selects QuantumCT’s plan, the endorsement
would unlock up to $60 million in additional state funding.
The centerpiece of QuantumCT's work is a planned
incubator that would be located in a to-be-determined, off-campus location
in New Haven. A news release about the new quantum funding describes it as a
“first-of-its-kind facility” that will “combine co-working and lab space with
engineering and materials characterization capabilities, quantum
testbeds and onsite technical expertise.”
“We have thought leadership, we have a really high density
of early adopters, we have a right to win,” said QuantumCT CEO and President
Albert M. Green. “So we’re about to get after it now.”
In addition to the previously announced $10 million
allocation for QuantumCT, New Haven has qualified for about $40 million in
other Innovation Clusters funds to support life sciences and quantum
projects.
“If you look at what has happened with life sciences and
biosciences, we're the second-largest hub in New England, we're ranked in the
top 20 cities nationwide for NIH grants, and so New Haven is clearly, clearly
on the map,” said New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. “By putting in this
investment, you're making it more likely that we are going to have a
significant federal investment that is going to drive this trajectory.”
UConn and Yale officials said that their universities are
longtime quantum supporters, citing a number of large infrastructure
investments that are separate from the new funding. They include the Science 1
building, which opened in 2023 on UConn’s main campus in Storrs, and Yale’s
underway construction of several buildings, totaling more than 600,000 gross
square feet, in its Upper Hill Science Development, that will support
quantum-science engineering and materials.
“We are so excited to be in partnership with UConn and
other schools through the state, the private sector, local leaders, community
partners and the state of Connecticut — all brought together in QuantumCT, a
really historic partnership,” said Yale President Maurie McInnis.
UConn President Radenka Maric said that, “Today, we
celebrate the partnership between our state, our educational institutions and
our companies that will advance supportive technologies to benefit our
state.”
O’Keefe said that he believed that quantum technology would
have a massive impact on Connecticut’s economy.
“If you look at our core industries, things like advanced
manufacturing in support our national defense, things like cryptography, if you
look at things like financial technology, if you look at insurance
technologies, if you look at health care, biotech, the emergence of quantum
will accelerate innovation in every single one of those
industries,” O’Keefe said.
Gov. Ned
Lamont offered a similarly bullish outlook.
“This is what we do in Connecticut,” said Lamont, whose Yale
roots go back to the master of business administration that he earned in 1980
from the university's School of Management. “We’re not the cheapest, but we’re
the best. A lot of that has to do with the incredible universities we have
here, the amazing research and development. And you see that is what is
evidenced today. And that’s why this is so important to your future and our
future, and the future, I think, of this country.”
CT rebuild of an I-95 bridge in Norwalk after fiery crash wins national award
Connecticut officials have been able to boast that the state
Department of Transportation and its contractor rebuilt
a fire-damaged bridge over Interstate 95 five months earlier than
expected and about $3 million under budget.
And now, they can say the project is a national award
winner.
A panel of industry experts picked the project — which
involved tearing
down and reconstructing the
Fairfield Avenue overpass in Norwalk after a flatbed tractor-trailer, fuel
truck and passenger car crashed in
May 2024, resulting
in a massive fire but no deaths — to receive the Grand Prize in an
annual contest founded by the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials.
Norwalk's I-95 bridge fire
“The 2025 America’s Transportation Awards competition
received the most state DOT nominations to date — highlighting this year’s most
innovative transportation projects that bolster safety, boost the economy and
improve the quality of life for everyone,” AASHTO Executive Director Jim Tymon
said in a statement.
The contest drew 113 nominations from 35 states this year,
according to a news release
from the group that represents transportation departments across the
country. Connecticut’s DOT first won a regional
award, then was up against 11
other projects for the Grand Prize, which comes with a $10,000 check.
The Connecticut DOT will donate the money to Connecticut
Foodshare and a foundation created by the family of Andrew DiDomenico, a DOT
employee who was killed by a drunk driver.
The compromised
Fairfield Avenue bridge was demolished,
and one of the busiest highways in the nation was fully reopened to
traffic within days
of the fiery 2024 collision.
It took seven
months to build and open the new bridge at a cost of about $17
million. The project was funded by state bonding, with the expectation that the
federal government would reimburse the state for about 90% of the
expenses.
Impact on Norwalk
Officials have attributed the speedy construction to good
weather, dedication and an accelerated regulatory approval process. Yonkers
Contracting Co. and nine subcontractors worked on the project.
“This was an extraordinary effort under immense pressure and
everyone delivered,” Gov. Ned Lamont said earlier this year, around
the anniversary of the crash.
In a release
this week, Connecticut DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said the project
“from unexpected start to celebratory finish showed what can be accomplished
when local, state and federal governments work together.”
Connecticut’s DOT also won AASHTO President’s Transportation
Awards for its work with Massachusetts’ DOT on a program called Empathy at the
Intersection, which “puts transportation professionals into customers’ shoes to
experience and see the street through the eyes of vulnerable users and
operators,” and for an agreement with the federal DOT to speed up reviews of
transportation projects that could affect historic properties.
A $24M expansion of a major CT arts center is to start soon. A place “great ideas’ will come from.
Think movie theaters, a cafe, performing arts, more space
for educational programs and more.
After years of planning and fundraising, Real Art Ways — the contemporary
arts center that has been a fixture in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood for
three decades — will begin construction in February on the
largest expansion in its history, after raising nearly $7 million in
individual and corporate donations.
Construction is expected to take about a year, with the
expansion calling for a major addition that will increase the size of the arts
venue by 50%. The project also includes the addition of three movie screens,
bringing the organization’s total to four. The project also calls for a
dedicated area for the performing arts, a new café and more space for
educational programs.
RAW held an indoor ceremonial groundbreaking at its Arbor
Street building. But when it came time for the actual groundbreaking, it was
non-traditional as the arts organization itself.
“Your typical groundbreaking involves dirt,” Will K.
Wilkins, RAW’s executive director, said. “We’re shoveling popcorn!”
Participants — including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Speaker
of the House Matt Ritter and Capital Region
Development Authority executive director David S. Steuber — tossed the
popped kernels into a wheelbarrow. They were cheered on by dozens of
well-wishers, many of them donors to the project.
The expansion will crown a $24 million plan that also
includes the $4.25 million purchase of 56 Arbor St in 2021. The nonprofit arts
organization had leased space in the building — a former typewriter factory
built in 1917 — for more than 30 years.
“When Will talked about this place, he didn’t talk about the
gallery, he didn’t talk about an arts center, he talked about community,”
Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said, during speeches prior to the popcorn
shoveling. “That’s what Real Art Ways has built right here at 56 Arbor. Here in
this space that’s going to be a café. Can you imagine the amount of incredible,
great ideas that are going to come out of this café right here in Parkville?”
Arulampalam said it was certainly an unusual move to add
movie screens in times when some movie theaters were closing. But RAW’s plan
demonstrated its commitment to bringing independent films to the city and the
surrounding area.
“It’s focused on the art and not the dollars,” Arulampalam
said.
Eric Ort, RAW’s capital campaign director, said the arts
organization still aims to raise another $1.7 million in donations for the
project.
The state’s investment in the project also has been
significant: $1 million for the purchase, another $3 million in 2022 for the
expansion and $9.1 million from the state’s Community Investment Fund in 2023
for a total of $13.1 million.
Bysiewicz said it is critical to make investments in arts
and cultural organizations.
“Art has the power to bring people together, especially at a
moment in our state and our country when so many people are lonely,” Bysiewicz
said. “Places like Real Art Ways bring people together and have the power to
promote social connection and so much more.”
Ritter, a Hartford Democrat and co-chair of the CIF board,
said organizations such as RAW are crucial to a combination of arts, culture,
athletics and museums that will boost vibrancy in urban centers such as
Hartford. And, Ritter said, an organization such as RAW can’t be recreated
elsewhere.
CRDA is lending $4.5 million to the project is what is known
as a “bridge loan” that will allow the project to move ahead and lock in costs.
The bridge loan avoids waiting to assemble all the funding sources and risk
construction cost inflation and loss of previously-approved grants that could
expire. The loan would bridge financing such as historic credits, federal
funds and capital pledges that will come in within the next few years,
according to CRDA.
The idea behind buying the 4-story, brick building was
grounded in diversifying the sources of the nonprofit organization’s revenue to
include rental income from tenants, many of whom have a focus of arts and
creativity that dovetail with RAW. The overall budget also includes a new roof
and elevator for the former factory.
DOTs hit pause on DBE goals to recertify firms
The Department of Transportation’s new interim final rule
for its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program has spurred state DOTs
to pause workforce contracting goals as they review certification
status of approximately 41,000 firms nationally, lawyers say.
While all participating firms must be recertified under the
new rule, the process impacts women- and minority-owned businesses the most,
according to attorneys, since they previously qualified automatically on the
basis of sex or race, but no longer do.
DBE goals in existing contracts executed prior to Oct. 3
still apply and DBE firms who won work under prior rules can’t
be removed from a contract just because the recertification process is
taking place. Firms may also appeal a decision of decertification.
Dive Insight:
On Oct. 3, DOT’s new interim final rule, which barred
the use of sex or race as a basis for certification, became effective
immediately and caused confusion for existing DBE firms that questioned whether
they would suddenly be terminated from the program. Follow
up guidance from DOT issued Oct. 24 made clear that wasn’t the
case.
However, it also emphasized that all participating firms,
including those owned by women and minorities, would need to seek
recertification and provide a personal narrative explaining what disadvantage
owners had experienced in their businesses. That narrative cannot cite sex or
race as a qualifying reason. Along with the personal narrative, owners must
also submit a personal net worth statement, which was previously capped at
$2.047 million.
In blog posts and interviews, attorneys spelled out how
those changes are taking shape approximately six weeks into the process. The
heaviest burden during recertification will fall on women- and minority-owned
firms, according to attorneys Robyn St. Hilaire and Natalie Nicole Mark of law
firm Offit Kurman.
“Female-
and minority-owned businesses will feel the most immediate impact,”
St. Hilaire and Mark wrote in a recent blog post. “Owners must now prepare a
detailed personal narrative and financial disclosure demonstrating
disadvantages based on lived experience not related to race or gender.”
While the DBE program runs nationally, state-level DOTs
handle certification via unified certification programs for agencies across
their jurisdiction. DOT’s interim final rule directed all UCPs to reevaluate
the eligibility of all existing DBEs. As that process takes place, which DOT
didn’t put a deadline on but directed to happen “as quickly as practicable,”
DBE goals going forward are effectively negated, at least temporarily.
“The DBE goals are being removed only until all existing
DBEs are recertified without using the rebuttable presumption of social
disadvantage,” Chris Slottee, an attorney at Schwabe in Anchorage, Alaska, told
Construction Dive.
Although that’s the case currently, firms should still seek
recertification, since participation goals for disadvantaged businesses in
federal contracts should eventually go back into effect.
“The goals will come back into play on future contracts once
this reevaluation process is complete,” attorney Jacqueline Unger, a partner at
PilieroMazza in Washington, D.C., told Construction Dive. “Firms should get
recertified so that they’ll be eligible to bid on that DBE work down the line.”
Several states have already taken steps to roll out the
recertification process for their UCPs, according to St. Hilaire’s and Mark’s
blog post. Attorneys recommended DBE reach out to their state’s UCP as soon as
possible for guidance and to start the process.
For many current DBE firms, the program represents the
lifeblood of their business, and recertification could become an existential
must, Danielle Dietrich, a partner at Potomac Law Group in D.C., told
Construction Dive.
“The DBE certification is the only way for many of them to
compete against the larger, private-equity backed firms,” Dietrich said. “It’s
absolutely worth the time and effort for them to put together the personal
narrative and new personal net worth statement if it means more of a chance of
keeping their business alive.”