The state Department of Transportation is making few changes to local bus routes feeding into the CT Fastrak system in the towns surrounding New Britain.
DOT officials hope to have Fastrak, the busway that will shuttle riders between New Britain and Hartford, operational in 15 months, by February 2015. The state has opened a comment period on bus routes that service the region. Local towns hope DOT will add more bus routes or more times when buses travel through their towns, as a way to help residents connect to and from the Fastrak system.
Under the current plan, DOT will keep about the same number of buses running the same routes through Berlin and Plainville. Express buses will continue to stop once in Southington before swooping up to Hartford. Michael Sanders, DOT transit administrator who will oversee the busway once it is operational, said the CT Transit busway is about linking places together.
“The more connections we can build in the better,” he said.
Sanders said DOT has already talked about adding more feeder routes that carry passengers to CT Fastrak. However, the routes on the map currently are the routes DOT is committing to for the start of busway service, Sanders said.
A long-vacant hotel project at Norwich’s southern gateway may be revived through tax breaks that a new investment team says will finally spark construction on a planned 113-room Hampton Inn. Known as tax increment financing, or TIF, the request by Raleigh, N.C.-based Winston Hospitality Inc. seeks a 20-year abatement that would allow it to use $2.94 million it otherwise would have paid to the city in taxes to fill a funding gap currently preventing the project from moving forward.Last week, aldermen decided the concept was worthy of consideration and charged City Manager Alan Bergren, Comptroller Josh Pothier and Norwich’s legal team with reviewing the proposal and reporting its findings to the incoming council on Dec. 16.“The city will not put any money in as an outlay. It will be money we repay for a period of time. That’s a way we can get this project off the ground and under way,” company CEO Robert W. Winston III told the City Council last Monday. “The vast majority of total capital that is going to be deployed to do this project will come from financial institutions and through our own equity.”
The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Friday issued a final ruling granting approval of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's plan to add 280,000 customers to the natural gas home heating system, with total costs expected to reach $7 billion.
PURA had issued a draft decision on Nov. 6 approving the plan, and made the final ruling Friday after hearing testimony and rebuttals to that initial approval.
Friday's decision gives natural gas utilities Yankee Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas more flexibility in making customer conversions more economical, in order to meet Malloy's plan to make natural gas the home heating fuel of choice in Connecticut. Currently, more than half of the state businesses and residents heat with fuel oil.
CT DOT offering options for bridging Flower Street
After Hartford community groups panned the first set of proposals for a new Flower Street pedestrian overpass above the CTfastrak busway, state engineers are back with options ranging from a helix ramp to a set of double elevators linked by a bridge. The various options would cost anywhere from $4.36 million to $9.58 million, according to Department of Transportation estimates. Each of the five designs has a different set of advantages and drawbacks, busway designers say. Some get high marks for providing a relatively short detour for bicyclists, pedestrians and wheelchairs users, but require frequent and expensive maintenance. The costliest option requires complex construction and create a laborious route for walkers, while one of the less costly choices would require narrowing Flower Street to accommodate a lengthy pedestrian ramp, according to a DOT analysis. CTfastrak designers have begun meeting with neighborhood organizations to get reactions to the designs, and the DOT says it wants to settle on one next year so it can seek contractors' bids. The DOT hasn't set aside funding yet, but has pledged that it will pay for the project.
Regulators give final approval for natural gas
State regulators Friday gave final approval to the Malloy administration's ambitious plan to expand Connecticut's natural gas infrastructure, adding 280,000 new customers over 10 years. It targets those who are on or relatively near gas mains, as well as those farther from pipelines who can cost-effectively convert. Natural gas prices have dropped significantly in recent years as new drilling techniques, like hydraulic fracturing, have made extracting the fuel a vastly cheaper process.
In their decision, the regulators outlined premium rates for new customers and established business rules for how gas companies evaluate new pipeline construction. The plan met strong opposition from heating oil dealers in Connecticut, and an industry group said in a statement Friday night that it is considering unspecified "legal action" against the plan. Low prices in recent years have proven tough enough for the largely family-owned oil businesses. In their eyes, a state-led effort to expand the availability of the already fiercely competitive fuel was not good news.
PURA had issued a draft decision on Nov. 6 approving the plan, and made the final ruling Friday after hearing testimony and rebuttals to that initial approval.
Friday's decision gives natural gas utilities Yankee Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas more flexibility in making customer conversions more economical, in order to meet Malloy's plan to make natural gas the home heating fuel of choice in Connecticut. Currently, more than half of the state businesses and residents heat with fuel oil.
CT DOT offering options for bridging Flower Street
After Hartford community groups panned the first set of proposals for a new Flower Street pedestrian overpass above the CTfastrak busway, state engineers are back with options ranging from a helix ramp to a set of double elevators linked by a bridge. The various options would cost anywhere from $4.36 million to $9.58 million, according to Department of Transportation estimates. Each of the five designs has a different set of advantages and drawbacks, busway designers say. Some get high marks for providing a relatively short detour for bicyclists, pedestrians and wheelchairs users, but require frequent and expensive maintenance. The costliest option requires complex construction and create a laborious route for walkers, while one of the less costly choices would require narrowing Flower Street to accommodate a lengthy pedestrian ramp, according to a DOT analysis. CTfastrak designers have begun meeting with neighborhood organizations to get reactions to the designs, and the DOT says it wants to settle on one next year so it can seek contractors' bids. The DOT hasn't set aside funding yet, but has pledged that it will pay for the project.
Regulators give final approval for natural gas
State regulators Friday gave final approval to the Malloy administration's ambitious plan to expand Connecticut's natural gas infrastructure, adding 280,000 new customers over 10 years. It targets those who are on or relatively near gas mains, as well as those farther from pipelines who can cost-effectively convert. Natural gas prices have dropped significantly in recent years as new drilling techniques, like hydraulic fracturing, have made extracting the fuel a vastly cheaper process.
In their decision, the regulators outlined premium rates for new customers and established business rules for how gas companies evaluate new pipeline construction. The plan met strong opposition from heating oil dealers in Connecticut, and an industry group said in a statement Friday night that it is considering unspecified "legal action" against the plan. Low prices in recent years have proven tough enough for the largely family-owned oil businesses. In their eyes, a state-led effort to expand the availability of the already fiercely competitive fuel was not good news.