CT Construction Digest November 21, 2013

Press Release from Senator Dante Bartolomeo

Bartolomeo: State-of-the-Art Training Will Create Jobs and Energy Opportunities for Connecticut

Senator Bartolomeo is given a demonstration of pipeline construction equipment led by Bill Richards of Henkels & McCoy Construction. A $4 million investment from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 has allowed for the creation of a training program in Meriden that will teach unemployed and underemployed construction workers to work on the expansion of Connecticut’s natural gas pipeline, which Senator Bartolomeo supported during the 2013 legislative session.

MERIDEN, CT—New jobs and affordable energy solutions are coming to Connecticut as the result of the Comprehensive Energy Strategy passed this year by the General Assembly and backed by Governor Dannel P. Malloy. Senator Danté Bartolomeo backed this ambitious strategy when it came before the legislature during the 2013 session, and welcomed the recent announcement of $4 million in funding from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 to train unemployed and underemployed workers at their Meriden facility.


Pine Valley lots , bowling plans approved

SOUTHINGTON — The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a special permit use application to transform nine of the 18 holes at Pine Valley Golf Course into a residential subdivision. It also at its meeting Tuesday night approved a site plan to renovate a former distribution warehouse on Spring Street into a bowling alley and restaurant. Ninety-four lots would eliminate half of the holes at Pine Valley Golf Course on Welch Road. The subdivision is planned to be single-family homes priced from $470,000 to $600,000. It could take up to five years to complete. Plans for the development, proposed by Lovely Development Inc., include keeping 70 acres of the 138-acre property for open space.  Residents were concerned during the public hearing on Nov. 6 that there would be a lot of construction traffic on West Pines Drive. After hearing some complaints, David Lavallee, the acting town planner, said the applicant “reached out to some of the neighboring properties” and decided to use an alternate entrance for construction traffic.

“I’m delighted the applicant had the opportunity to reach out to some of the residents,” said Michael DelSanto, the chairman of the commission. Commission members were excited about the development.  “I think this is a win all around,” said Paul Chaplinsky, the vice chairman of the commission. “I think the developers put together a good plan.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition,” DelSanto said.

 

Two plans being considered for athletic complex

 

WALLINGFORD — After receiving details on two different plans for Lyman Hall High School’s athletic complex on Monday, Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Marc Deptula is hopeful the Board of Education will approve one during a meeting next week to move the project forward.

“We’ll know more after they meet in executive session with how the board wants me to move this thing,” Deptula said. “Hopefully they have something favorable to tell me. I’d like to move forward.”

The school system has been trying to build a new athletic complex at Lyman Hall that would consist of a new track, all-weather turf field and lighting system. However, numerous factors have delayed the project — mainly issues with funding.  During an operations committee meeting Monday night, an architect presented a brief overview of the two plans for the athletic complex. Both plans consists of two phases needed to complete the project, both of which would be done during the summer.

The largest difference between the two plans is the size of the new track, according to Deptula. One plan consists of an eight-lane track, the other a six-lane track with an eight lane straightaway, Deptula said. Administrators made it a priority in the past to upgrade the track, install new lights and a lighting system, and add handicapped-accessible bathrooms. The phases of each plan may not consist of those things in that order, Deptula said, because the focus is being put on the track and field.

 

Paving work begins on Thames Street in Groton

 

Workers began paving Thames Street from the end of Bridge Street to Latham Street Wednesday, and will put on a second coat of asphalt today. The road will be closed from Bridge Street to Latham Street while the paving is done during the day, but businesses and homes will be accessible via side streets. Thames Street will be open by evening, said Gary Parker, of Milone & MacBroom, the design and construction administrator for the project. "It is heavily congested during work hours, so if people have alternative routes, we'd advise them to take them," he said. Voters passed a $6.37 million bond referendum in May 2011 to reconstruct the street, and after some waiting, the work started in July. Parker said the project is on budget. The company finished drainage improvements from Bridge Street to School Street earlier this year and has installed new sidewalks and granite curbing along about two-thirds of the road. Once paving is completed, workers will finish some driveway paving and cleanup work next week. "It's going to be nice when it gets done," said Penny Kormylo, who works at Circle Auto Body on Bridge Street. The second phase of road reconstruction will add off-street parking near a portion of city-owned land on the river side near Garbo's Lobster Co., along with the basic improvements, Parker said. Work on that section of Thames Street will be done in the spring. Milone & MacBroom had been working with a crew of about a dozen, but had 20 on the project Wednesday. Parker said the company had hoped to reach Fort Street, but AT&T still has utility poles to relocate, so the paving will end about 100 feet short of that goal. 

Water tank contract awarded

The Board of Selectmen has approved two contracts totaling $108,213 for the purchase and installation of a 30,000-gallon fire protection water storage tank in North Madison. The tank will be the latest installation of the town and North Madison Volunteer Fire Department program to provide fire protection water supply sources in the northern portion of town. The town received three bids for the 30,000-gallon, single-wall, glass-fiber, reinforced plastic storage tank. The selectmen accepted the lowest bid for $43,333 from Wildco Petroleum Equipment Sales of Bloomfield. The other bids were $47,925 from Chemswap.com and $49,500 from Blake Equipment Company, Inc. There were also three bids for the installation and associated construction of the water storage tank. The selectmen selected the low bid of $64,880 from Schumack Engineered Construction of Clinton. The other bids were from Machnik Brothers, Inc., for $67,600 and from Venuti Enterprises, Inc., for $83,000. This storage tank will be placed on Country Way near the intersection of Inwood Road and near St. Francis Wood, First Selectman Fillmore McPherson said. The site was chosen by the chief of the North Madison Fire Department. The North Madison Department, Town Engineer Mike Ott said, has a long-term plan laid out for this and future installations. The funding for this program is set up through a reserve fund with the town contributing $50,000 annually to the reserve. "The North Madison Department would like to install a tank every other year," Ott said. The last tank installed, however, was in the summer of 2008, Ott added. Funding, he said, was not the major issue, but instead the need to select sites and acquire easements to install the 30,000-gallon tanks on people's property.

Norwich lights the way as CT starts to push gas heat 

Norwich - Paul Blanchard’s heating system is purring like a kitten. OK, a very large kitten.
But to him, it's the sound of music. Before last winter that same system ran on oil. Now a new burner attached to his boiler runs on natural gas. “It’s the best thing we ever did,” said the retired banker, who added that he didn’t miss the smell of the oil that inevitably dripped in his basement. And the $1,200 to $1,300 he typically paid for oil: “I paid less than half of that last year with natural gas,” he said. Blanchard’s conversion happened through a program run by Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) -- one of a handful of municipal utilities in the state. The rest of the state, most of which gets power from the major utility companies, will have its own gas expansion program - slated to be finalized today by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.  That program is part of the state’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy, which calls for converting 280,000 homes and businesses to gas heat from oil and other fuels in the next 10 years. The goal is to take advantage of a fuel that, while not renewable, is cleaner than other traditional energy sources such as oil -- the most widely used fuel in Connecticut.  New domestic and Canadian reserves of natural gas have also made it significantly cheaper than oil in the last few years -– though prices have increased steadily since last winter and are forecast to continue rising. New England natural gas prices are predicted to remain, the highest in the nation, as they've been for decades. While pricing concerns and continued reliance on a fossil fuel have spurred in criticism from those who think the state is too focused on natural gas, the program is going ahead.  And some are thinking Norwich’s program -- Energize Norwich -- could become a model for the state program. But while Energize Norwich offers lessons on community outreach and collaboration for getting new gas customers, one of its key financial underpinnings is not likely to be replicated.