STAMFORD -- A platoon of protesters who oppose what they said is UBS' support of destructive mining operations in Appalachia descended on the city Monday, climbing a downtown construction crane to hang a huge banner, while others got into the financial giant's Stamford headquarters and chained themselves to a railing and the front door. The protesters created havoc for police, who closed streets and rounded up members of the group during the late morning and early afternoon. They arrested 14 people in connection with the protests.The events began when the protesters climbed the crane before dawn Monday morning at the site of a 15-story building under construction next to the Majestic movie theater on Summer Street. Three people went out on the crane boom 20 stories above the ground, while two of those hanging below the boom on ropes unfurled a 40-foot by 60-foot banner that said "UBS Stop Funding Mountaintop Removal." For a time in the gusty winds, the two men hanging at each of the lower corners of the banner appeared to be in some danger. The boom was blowing with the wind and with the banner acting like a sail, it swung the boom and blew one of the protesters into the building. The bottom right corner of the banner was cut when it got snagged on a metal girder.
OSHA cites firm in Stamford crane crash
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Concavage Marine Construction for “willful and serious workplace safety violations” following a May 22 crane collapse at the Avalon Bay Marina in Stamford. The marine construction contractor, based in Port Chester, N.Y., had been hired to replace and repair storm-damaged pilings at the marina and faces $165,200 in proposed fines following an inspection by OSHA’s Bridgeport Area Office.
While installing pilings, the 80-foot boom of the barge-mounted crane fell over backward, bouncing off the stays of a sailboat and landing on top of a yacht. OSHA’s inspection found that the crane lacked boom stops and a boom hoist limiting device, necessary safety devices that would have prevented the boom from falling backward. The crane had not been inspected by a competent person who could have identified these and other hazards, according to OSHA, which said the hazards resulted in two willful citations carrying $98,000 in fines. A willful violation is one committed with intentional disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.
$20M makeover for vacant Hartford apartment building
Downtown Hartford is getting a lot of attention for its housing conversions, but there is work being done in the city's North End too: a $20 million makeover for a row of nine historic apartment buildings on Vine Street at a pivotal corner off Albany Avenue.
The Horace Bushnell Apartments, built between 1922 and 1925, have long been an eyesore, the majority of the buildings boarded up and vacant for several years.Now, workers are gutting the interiors and reconfiguring apartment layouts with modern open-floor plans, said Daniel O. Mérida, executive director of Sheldon Oak Central Inc., a non-profit developer of housing in city neighborhoods. The building closest to the corner of Vine Street and Albany Avenue will be outfitted with a first-floor community center for tenants' use.
Norteast Utilities finishes greater Springfield reliability project under budget
Northeast Utilities has completed the last few transmission components of its Greater Springfield Reliability Project, which the company hailed as coming in on-time and under-budget even as the project dealt with the major storms of recent years.The upgrade — finished late last week and announced Monday — will increase the flow of power around Springfield and north-central Connecticut, much like adding more lanes and more ramps to a highway would improve how traffic moves around a congested area."This improves the flow of power to the street system," said utility spokesman Frank Poirot. The utility, whose divisions include Connecticut Light & Power and Yankee Gas, upgraded 39 miles of transmission lines from Bloomfield to Ludlow, Mass., adding hundreds of tall steel transmission structures and improved substations and switching stations along the way.