FARMINGTON — Since Gov. Dannel Malloy signed his job-creation initiative in June 2011, nearly 1,700 construction jobs have been created on the campus of UConn Health Center. In the next six years, the initiative is expected to create another 3,000 construction jobs. Bioscience Connecticut is the large-scale state investment in facility upgrades, regional collaborations, and educational expansion that supports the governor’s vision of making Connecticut an international destination for health care and bioscience research.
“We’re just trying to turn the governor’s vision into a reality,” said Tom Trutter, UConn Health Center’s associate vice president for campus planning, design and construction. Seven major construction projects are ongoing on the 164-acre campus, a massive, renovation undertaking built with $500 million in state dollars. Each project has a different completion date; each varies in complexity. According to Trutter, a New Britain resident, the overall Bioscience Connecticut initiative — probably the largest of its kind in the nation — is on time and on budget. He estimates that approximately $868 million will be invested in overall construction by the completion of all campus projects. Trutter, a University of Illinois graduate with an architectural degree and a UConn MBA, has conducted similar projects in Storrs and at Yale University. If there is a theme to the renovation, it’s wider space, more light and lots of glass. The research building with wider corridors and more spacious labs will be occupied the first week in March.“To attract the best researchers you have to have the best space,” Trutter explained. The skeleton of what will be the new emergency department and operating room suite is taking shape. There will also be a patient drop-off circle on Level 2, for access to the building’s Farmington Surgery Center. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READINGNewington Town Hall plans go back to the drawing board
NEWINGTON -- Renovation of town hall and construction of a new community center were put on hold Monday after cost estimates came in about 30 percent over budget. Town Hall Renovation Committee Chairman Clarke Castelle said a hoped-for referendum in June to approve funding will have to be pushed back. He said it's unclear when the vote would take place or construction, originally slated for later this year, would begin. "We've clearly faced a setback," Castelle said. "I believe it's a problem that can be solved. I'm not discouraged." The committee sent architect Kaestle Boos back to the drawing board, asking the firm to revise town hall renovation plans to fit the budget.
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Officials make cuts from Wethersfield High School reconstruction project
WETHERSFIELD -- The school building committee chopped another $1 million-plus from the Wethersfield High School reconstruction Monday, part of the town's effort to overcome millions of dollars in cost overruns on the project. Reductions ranged from $244,000 to reduce the roof pitch from one-half to one-quarter inch to $8,000 for eliminating tack boards around white boards.
The committee cut more than $1 million dollars last month, bringing the total cost-saving changes to more than $2.1 million, Preconstruction Manager Lorel Purcell of O & G Industries said.
The reductions, reviewed and approved by engineers and school and town officials, do not fundamentally affect the building's design or quality, committee members said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING
WATERBURY — The city's plan to build a greenway on the Naugatuck River has hit a bureaucratic speed bump in Hartford, city officials say. The state Department of Transportation is taking longer to review the city greenway plans than expected, as several of its divisions comb through the preliminary proposal. That means a two- to three-month delay for the first hearing on the project, said Salvatore Porzio, the city project manager. Construction is still set to begin in 2015. "I've been told I'd been too optimistic with my timeline," he told the Board of Aldermen on Monday. "As soon as I've got a date, you will have a date." He did have tentative expenditure numbers, however. The city has spent $750,000 so far, and signed contracts worth an estimated $2.6 million, Porzio said.
Of that, $1.1 million is coming from grants, he said.
Last month, the Board of Aldermen agreed to spend more than $1 million to fund the next phase of project, which, after all grants are factored in, could cost taxpayers $8 million. The $1 million will be used to create preliminary drawings that will extend the greenway into downtown, including Freight Street, the train station and Library Park The drawings will be used to apply for a federal grant that would pay for about 80 percent of the proposed $33.7 million greenway expansion. The city hopes its 20 percent match, which could run as much as $8 million, would paid by the state, which funded city shares for other Connecticut grant recipients.
Transportation plan in works
HARWINTON — The state Department of Transportation is seeking local input as it sets out to create a long-term plan addressing transportation infrastructure in the state. A workshop was held by the DOT at Harwinton Town Hall on Tuesday to kick off the effort and drew more than two dozen municipal officials and representatives of the Northwest Connecticut Transit District and the Northwest Connecticut Economic Development Corp. According to DOT strategic planner David Elder, the agency wants to identify the transportation needs of the state and produce a plan that would meet them and result in economic development and an improved quality of life.
"The challenge is how do we get there," Elder said.
The plan DOT is developing is known as "Transform CT." Elder said the goal is to have the plan completed in 12 months. Among the transportation aspects that will be addressed by the plan are bus service, highways, rail lines, bike trails and sidewalks. Elder and two other DOT strategic planners asked participants to list their priorities, one of which was the need to improve the railroad line running through the Housatonic River valley. The line is used to transport cargo to industries in Canaan and in Massachusetts but it is in dire need of repair, according to Daniel McGuiness, the retired planning director of the former Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments.
"If the railroad isn't fixed, you will have big economic trouble in Northwest Connecticut," McGuiness said.Another priority mentioned is a centralized bus center serving Northwest Connecticut. It has been a priority of local governments for 12 years, according to Richard Lynn, planning director of the Northwest Hills Council of Elected Officials. "Somehow we need to speed up the process between when needs are established and funding is made available by the state," Lynn said.
Carol Deane, an official with the Northwest Connecticut Transit District in Torrington, said she's grown tired of talk about a centralized bus center. Funding of $2 million was pledged years ago, Deane said, but the money never materialized.
"We've been meeting with the DOT on this for 12 years and nothing has happened," Deane said. "It's been study after study and now we have another one. I'm just a little disgusted."
Martin Connor, city planner in Torrington, mentioned center turn lanes on busy roads such as East Main Street in Torrington and more rotaries as ways to improve transportation. McGuinness mentioned Portland, Ore., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., as places the DOT can refer to when developing improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians."People enjoy living there because it's not a hassle to get around, unlike Connecticut," McGuiness said. "There's nothing in Connecticut comparable to Burlington."
Of that, $1.1 million is coming from grants, he said.
Last month, the Board of Aldermen agreed to spend more than $1 million to fund the next phase of project, which, after all grants are factored in, could cost taxpayers $8 million. The $1 million will be used to create preliminary drawings that will extend the greenway into downtown, including Freight Street, the train station and Library Park The drawings will be used to apply for a federal grant that would pay for about 80 percent of the proposed $33.7 million greenway expansion. The city hopes its 20 percent match, which could run as much as $8 million, would paid by the state, which funded city shares for other Connecticut grant recipients.
Transportation plan in works
HARWINTON — The state Department of Transportation is seeking local input as it sets out to create a long-term plan addressing transportation infrastructure in the state. A workshop was held by the DOT at Harwinton Town Hall on Tuesday to kick off the effort and drew more than two dozen municipal officials and representatives of the Northwest Connecticut Transit District and the Northwest Connecticut Economic Development Corp. According to DOT strategic planner David Elder, the agency wants to identify the transportation needs of the state and produce a plan that would meet them and result in economic development and an improved quality of life.
"The challenge is how do we get there," Elder said.
The plan DOT is developing is known as "Transform CT." Elder said the goal is to have the plan completed in 12 months. Among the transportation aspects that will be addressed by the plan are bus service, highways, rail lines, bike trails and sidewalks. Elder and two other DOT strategic planners asked participants to list their priorities, one of which was the need to improve the railroad line running through the Housatonic River valley. The line is used to transport cargo to industries in Canaan and in Massachusetts but it is in dire need of repair, according to Daniel McGuiness, the retired planning director of the former Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments.
"If the railroad isn't fixed, you will have big economic trouble in Northwest Connecticut," McGuiness said.Another priority mentioned is a centralized bus center serving Northwest Connecticut. It has been a priority of local governments for 12 years, according to Richard Lynn, planning director of the Northwest Hills Council of Elected Officials. "Somehow we need to speed up the process between when needs are established and funding is made available by the state," Lynn said.
Carol Deane, an official with the Northwest Connecticut Transit District in Torrington, said she's grown tired of talk about a centralized bus center. Funding of $2 million was pledged years ago, Deane said, but the money never materialized.
"We've been meeting with the DOT on this for 12 years and nothing has happened," Deane said. "It's been study after study and now we have another one. I'm just a little disgusted."
Martin Connor, city planner in Torrington, mentioned center turn lanes on busy roads such as East Main Street in Torrington and more rotaries as ways to improve transportation. McGuinness mentioned Portland, Ore., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., as places the DOT can refer to when developing improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians."People enjoy living there because it's not a hassle to get around, unlike Connecticut," McGuiness said. "There's nothing in Connecticut comparable to Burlington."