NEW HAVEN >> Park New Haven will launch a major repair and improvement project to the exterior of the historic Union Station Transportation Center and the adjacent Union Station garage, the management company and Connecticut Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
Park New Haven manages Union Station on behalf of the building’s owner, the state DOT.
The $2.3 million renovation project will be managed by Turner Construction, one of the largest construction management companies in the U.S., and work will be performed by General Contractors, Frank Capasso & Sons, Inc. of North Branford. Desman Associates of Rocky Hill will design the project. General repairs and improvements will include replacement of expansion joints, concrete and brick masonry restorations, waterproofing, installing a new fire standpipe system and painting, as well as exterior repairs to the facade and roof, waterproofing at the Front Plaza, repainting and recaulking windows, and sidewalk restorations. Union Station Transportation Center and its adjacent garage will remain open and fully operational throughout the construction project, with no obstructions to existing entrances or exits. The work will require scaffolding around the exterior, as well as wrapping the scaffolding in a blue debris safety mesh during the project. Scaffolding has begun to be set up, and is scheduled for removal this December. Repair work is set to begin in the next two weeks and should be completed next spring. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
Banned contractor back on UCONN Basketball facility site
A contractor ordered by state officials last month to stop work on UConn's $32 million basketball practice facility for using undocumented workers is back on the job. Intext Building Systems Inc. of Glastonbury returned to the job site this week after providing proper documentation to the state Department of Labor for at least eight workers. "Intext was originally under a stop work order but provided a worker's comp policy for the eight workers they employed and they were released (from the order)," said Gary Pechie, the labor department's director of wage and workplace standards.
Pechie said JV Construction of East Hartford, the second contractor who was issued a cease and desist order on Feb. 23, is still barred from working at the facility and has been billed $368,000 for back wages it owes employees. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
WALLINGFORD >> A North Carolina-based developer and the town are closing in on an agreement that would formalize additional concessions that local officials agreed to in order to restart a long-dormant hotel project off Interstate 91. Winston Hospitality Managing Director Jay Davies said in a letter to Town Council members Wednesday that he and Wallingford Corporation Counsel Janis Small have exchanged correspondence over the past week formalizing a compromise on additional incentives the company was seeking. The incentives Winston Hospitality was seeking are beyond those normally available to developers in the town’s I-5 zone, which includes a corridor along the highway. The hotel project is proposed for the east side of the Exit 15 interchange of I-91.
“Winston is optimistic that these negotiations will come to an amicable resolution in the near term,” Davies wrote in his letter. Winston had proposed a plan to the council that would have brought the town $670,000 in tax revenue for the property over seven years. But the developer agreed during a March 18 meeting to a compromise that gives the town $816,000 over the same period. The town is getting more money up front, but Winston is still paying less than the full taxes that the company would normally be required to pay over the seven-year period. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
Huge crane awaits NY bridge job
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - Billed as one of the world's largest floating cranes, the Left Coast Lifter will be going to work this spring on a new span that will replace the Tappan Zee Bridge on the Hudson River north of New York City. Here are five things to know about it:
SIZE: The crane's boom is 328 feet, and the barge it sits on is 356 feet long. The crane can lift 1,900 tons, or nearly 13 times the weight of the Statue of Liberty. The construction manager says that capacity won't be tested, however, because the bridge sections it's expected to handle will top out at 1,100 tons. Counterweights and the natural buoyancy of water support the weight.
SAVINGS: Builders say the crane's ability to handle large loads will end up saving millions of dollars on the $3.9 billion project. Without it, crews would have to load smaller sections using a series of smaller cranes.
LAST JOB: The $50 million Lifter was built in 2009 with a specific task in mind - replacing the earthquake-damaged section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. That was finished last year. While in San Francisco Bay, the crane also lifted an old sunken tugboat from the bay bottom, helping to end an oil spill.
TRANSPORTATION: For all the crane's lifting power, it has no means of propulsion, so it was towed by a tugboat 6,000 miles from California to New York after being shrink-wrapped for protection. It paid a reported $70,000 in tolls at the Panama Canal.
NAME: New York officials are calling the crane "I Lift NY," playing off the "I Love New York" tourism slogan. But a spokeswoman for the builders says the craft "is registered with the Coast Guard as the Left Coast Lifter and that will not change."
“Winston is optimistic that these negotiations will come to an amicable resolution in the near term,” Davies wrote in his letter. Winston had proposed a plan to the council that would have brought the town $670,000 in tax revenue for the property over seven years. But the developer agreed during a March 18 meeting to a compromise that gives the town $816,000 over the same period. The town is getting more money up front, but Winston is still paying less than the full taxes that the company would normally be required to pay over the seven-year period. CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE
Huge crane awaits NY bridge job
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - Billed as one of the world's largest floating cranes, the Left Coast Lifter will be going to work this spring on a new span that will replace the Tappan Zee Bridge on the Hudson River north of New York City. Here are five things to know about it:
SIZE: The crane's boom is 328 feet, and the barge it sits on is 356 feet long. The crane can lift 1,900 tons, or nearly 13 times the weight of the Statue of Liberty. The construction manager says that capacity won't be tested, however, because the bridge sections it's expected to handle will top out at 1,100 tons. Counterweights and the natural buoyancy of water support the weight.
SAVINGS: Builders say the crane's ability to handle large loads will end up saving millions of dollars on the $3.9 billion project. Without it, crews would have to load smaller sections using a series of smaller cranes.
LAST JOB: The $50 million Lifter was built in 2009 with a specific task in mind - replacing the earthquake-damaged section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. That was finished last year. While in San Francisco Bay, the crane also lifted an old sunken tugboat from the bay bottom, helping to end an oil spill.
TRANSPORTATION: For all the crane's lifting power, it has no means of propulsion, so it was towed by a tugboat 6,000 miles from California to New York after being shrink-wrapped for protection. It paid a reported $70,000 in tolls at the Panama Canal.
NAME: New York officials are calling the crane "I Lift NY," playing off the "I Love New York" tourism slogan. But a spokeswoman for the builders says the craft "is registered with the Coast Guard as the Left Coast Lifter and that will not change."