UPDATED
Malloy releases $3M Walk Bridge repair plan
Gov. Dannel Malloy on Thursday released a $3 million plan to make emergency repairs on the crippled Walk Railroad Bridge over the Norwalk River.
The emergency measures will allow the span to open and close automatically, allow marine traffic to flow past the bridge again, then close to allow Metro-North trains to cross the river on the New Haven line. After it was stuck in an open position on May 29, then again on June 6, the Coast Guard called the 118-year old bridge “inoperable” and ordered it closed until it could be repaired. It is now opened and closed once a day manually, when necessary, for marine traffic.
The plan released on Thursday calls for six to nine months of repairs at a cost of $3 million that would be raised through state bonds. After the bridge breakdowns snarled traffic, Malloy held a “crisis summit” with Metro-North officials and established a "short term action team" (STAT) charged with determining the best approach to improve the mechanical reliability of the Walk Bridge. The team consisted of Connecticut Department of Transportation engineers and bridge inspectors, Metro-North engineers, and consultants. The STAT report makes a series of recommendations to modify the mechanical operations of the bridge. Some can be made over six months, others would take nine months. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Condo complex coming to Yalesville
WALLINGFORD — Construction of a 14-unit condominium complex on Main Street in Yalesville is set to begin next week. The complex, which will have three separate buildings at 404 Main St., will be built and managed by Verna Properties. Foundations will be poured next week, said Liz Verna, co-owner of the local company. Each 1,700-square-foot unit includes a two-car garage, full basement and three bedrooms. Each unit will have 3.5 bathrooms, she said. Verna thinks the condominiums will attract young, single professionals that will live together as roommates. The units will start at $269,000. “We did some market research in the area, and found that there’s still a need for condos,” Verna said. “People don’t want the maintenance.” Verna said the company recently demolished two vacant homes on the property to make room for the condominium complex. Plans are based in part on a project proposed by the property’s previous owner, Town Planner Kacie Costello said. The previous owner did not move forward and sold the land to Verna Properties. The company has made a few modifications, Costello said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
$4M state grant to kick off CT Science Center expansion
HARTFORD — Just five years after it opened, the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford is scheduled to get a $4 million state grant this week to launch an ambitious 10-year plan to expand and upgrade its exhibits and facilities. State officials said that some of the center's expansion plans include creating more educational lab space, transforming one portion of the existing building into a greenhouse and butterfly conservatory, and paying off debts related to the center's heating, cooling and ventilation systems. The money is part of a $10.5 million bond authorization for the project approved by the General Assembly. State officials say the science center's staff also expects to raise $3.5 million to $5 million to help pay for the expansion, which is intended to broaden the center's appeal and attract more visitors. "It's the first step in a longer-range plan," said Gian-Carl Casa, a spokesman for the state's Office of Policy and Management. "This is the beginning of the project," said Rie Poirier-Campbell, the science center's vice president for advancement. "We're building out the details right now." She said the biggest parts of the overall expansion involve the additional lab space for education and new exhibits to explain to young people the fields of genomics and engineering. "These new exhibits are really geared around future careers," Poirier-Campbell said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT DOT employee accused of impersonating state official
TORRINGTON >> A city man who works for the state Department of Transportation has been charged with criminal impersonation after he was accused of sending an email to a local newspaper purporting to be a state official. State police Lt. J. Paul Vance said in a press release that Brian Mercure, 52, was arrested Thursday on a warrant. He was released on $2,500 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 7 at state Superior Court in Bantam. Vance said in the release that Mercure, of 208 Oxford Way, was taken into custody without incident at his place of employment in New Haven. Mercure is the assistant director for ConnDOT’s District 3A Construction Office in New Haven, working on the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program, according to the DOT’s website. According to Vance, state police received a complaint on Dec. 4 requesting a criminal investigation into an email that had been sent to the Waterbury Republican American newspaper, in which the author claimed to be a state official. Vance said the official told investigators he didn’t send the email and it was not authorized to be sent by someone else on his behalf. Vance did not say how the official discovered the letter. Vance also declined to name the state official who made the complaint. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
More extreme rain for CT, and no way to drain it
It’s no secret that the Northeast is experiencing dramatic increases in the number of extreme storms -- and more precipitation from those storms. The change has been well documented, most recently by the National Climate Assessment, released in May, that showed a 71 percent increase since 1958 in the amount of precipitation in the heaviest one percent of precipitation events in the Northeast.
More rain isn't necessarily a bad thing, but Connecticut may be ill-equipped to handle all that extra water. Due to the ongoing use of badly outdated data, much of the drainage installed in Connecticut in the last several decades may prove to be too small to handle today’s rainwater volumes.
“We’re using very, very old data to design our infrastructure on,” said Art DeGaetano, director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center housed at Cornell University. “An update was long overdue particularly with climate change.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE