STAMFORD >> The owner of a New York marine construction company and a crane operator have been charged with reckless endangerment in a crane collapse in Stamford Harbor.
Nicholas Concavage, owner of Concavage Marine Contractors in Port Chester, N.Y., faces two misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment and a single charge of operating an unregistered crane, The Advocate of Stamford reported. Crane operator Richard Dufresne was charged with one count of reckless endangerment and operating a crane without a license. A phone message left Thursday morning at the company was not immediately returned. Dufresne does not have a listed number. The arrest affidavits say the crane flipped over last May, glancing a sail boat and landing on a power boat. No one was injured. A state inspector determined the crane lacked several safety devices, and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Concavage $165,200 for “willful and serious workplace safety violations” related to the missing safety devices.
The crane did not have boom stops that could keep it from flipping backward, inspection documentation, four-year flotation device inspection and other requirements, according to an arrest affidavit. A state crane inspector reported to the investigating state police officer that if any of the required devices was not in proper working order, the crane should have been taken out of service immediately, the affidavit said. The investigators also discovered that the crane was not registered for operation in Connecticut.
New Haven's $395M coiliseum still faces fight
NEW HAVEN — The fate of the biggest proposed downtown development project in New Haven’s history now rests in Hartford — where its prospects are by no means certain, according to lawmakers who’ll lead the charge on its behalf. The project is the $395 million remaking of the old New Haven Coliseum site into a busy new-urbanist mini-city of apartments, stores, offices, a hotel and a public plaza. The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Monday night to approve a land disposition agreement for the proposal, a new development to be built on the former site of the New Haven Coliseum. The developer, a Montreal-based company called LiveWorkLearnPlay, intends to build a two-phased mixed-use development in the block bounded by the block bordered by Orange, George and State streets, and Martin Luther King Boulevard.LiveWorkLearnPlay says it will spend about $363 million to develop the block. It hopes to begin construction next summer, said Max Reim, principal of the company. Before then, the project will need “state commitments,” he said. Those include approvals for new infrastructure, including from the Office of the State Traffic Administration.And lots of money — from governments facing fiscal crises. Reim said LiveWorkLearnPlay won’t build the project unless the state and federal governments come through with some $20 million on top of now-approved $12 million in city money to reconfigure Orange Street and the I-95 and I-91 exits there. The money would go toward reworking the exits so all the traffic lets out onto Orange Street, rather than onto Church Street. Then Orange Street would be reconnected to South Orange Street at grade level, eliminating that stretch of the Route 34 mini-highway-to-nowhere that the state has already starting filling in for the Alexion Pharmaceuticals tower down the road at 100 College St.
MDC partners in the effort include the Department of Economic and Community Development, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Minority Business Development Agency, the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, Capital Community College, the University of Hartford's Entrepreneurial Center and HEDCO Inc. The MDC's Clean Water Project aims to meet the standards of the federal Clean Water Act by 2020. The project's main elements include reducing sewer overflows and nitrogen levels. The state-created nonprofit provides water, sewer and waste collection services to a dozen Greater Hartford communities.
Construction Spending Hits Four-Year Peak
An unusual surge in public construction in October pushed total construction spending to its highest level since May 2009 despite a dip in both private residential and nonresidential activity, according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials urged lawmakers in Washington to make water and surface transportation investment a top federal priority. “Nearly every category of public construction increased in October, according to the preliminary Census figures, although for the first 10 months of 2013 combined, public spending continues to lag the 2012 year-to-date total,” said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. “Meanwhile, residential spending slipped for the month but still showed strong year-to-date gains, and nonresidential spending remained stuck in neutral.” Construction put in place in October totaled $908 billion, 0.8 percent higher than in September. But figures for August and July were revised down below levels that initially exceeded the current October estimate. The total for the first 10 months of 2013 was 5.0 percent above the year-to-date mark for the same months in 2012.
Public construction spending jumped 3.9 percent for the month but trailed the 2012 year-to-date total by 2.8 percent. The two largest public components were mixed: highway and street construction increased 0.6 percent in October and 0.3 percent year-to-date, while educational construction leaped 8.