August 28, 2014

CT Construction Digest August 28, 2014

United Rentals expands in CT

United Rentals, the Stamford-based equipment-rental firm, has added seven new locations in the United States and one in Canada.The company has added branches in Beacon Falls, Conn.; Raleigh, N.C.; Detriot; Cincinnati; Salt Lake City; Southaven, Mo.; Mobile, Ala.; and Brantford, Ontario. United Rentals has 883 rental locations spread across 49 states and 10 provinces in Canada, according to a press release."We're continuing to implement a major expansion of our specialty lines of business, following significant growth in 2013," Paul McDonnell, senior vice president of specialty operations, said in a statement. "These eight openings are part of a broader plan for 2014 that will include additions to all of our specialty lines, including the pump network we acquired in April." The new locations will serve various areas of United Rentals' market. The Detroit, Raleigh, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City branches will offer solutions in engineered power, ventilation, heating and cooling to industrial, commercial and government customers. The Beacon Falls and Brantford locations will provide worker training, engineered excavation support and confined space entry systems, while the Southaven and Mobile branches will be involved in onsite tool management like inventory tracking and maintenance.United Rentals provides more than 3,000 classes of equipment for rentals with a total original cost of $8.42 billion, according to the release. The company employs 12,400 people across the country and has amassed a client base of construction and industrial firms, municipalities, utilities and homeowners. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "URI," United Rentals saw its stock fall 69 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $117.64 in trading Wednesday.

New Britain lands $2.7M to raze old police station

NEW BRITAIN — The state is providing $2.7 million to destroy the vacant Columbus Boulevard building that once was police headquarters. The money will also go toward cleanup of the roughly 5-acre property so that it can eventually be redeveloped, most likely for apartments.  "Demolishing and remediating this site will open the door to new commercial and residential development and will be critical in bringing new vibrancy to downtown New Britain," Mayor Erin Stewart said after the grant was announced Wednesday. "The old NBPD station occupies a critical parcel in our downtown area and is immediately adjacent to the new CTfastrak terminal." She praised Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the state's Department of Economic Development for awarding the money to the city from a brownfields remediation fund that totals just $27 million for the whole state. Malloy announced awards for 20 communities on Wednesday; only New Haven and Stratford are receiving a bigger share than New Britain's. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE

150 apartments approved in West Hartford

WEST HARTFORD — After an often-contentious public hearing that stretched into the early morning hours Wednesday, the town council approved a development plan for 150 apartment units at 243 Steele Road. Council members voted in favor of the plan 8-1, with Democrat Harry Captain casting the lone dissenting vote. Captain said Wednesday that he felt the size of the development would be more suited to a major thoroughfare, and the Steele Road area, "to me feels more neighborhood." But he added that Metro Realty Group President Geoffrey Sager, who proposed the development, "is one of the best developers around, and it was very difficult to vote no because of the quality of this firm's developments." An initial proposal for 200 units in four- to five-story buildings drew heated criticism from surrounding neighbors, so Sager presented a scaled-back plan that reduced building size to no more than three stories and cut unit totals by 25 percent. He also offered to pay for traffic-calming measures in the surrounding neighborhood, and to create parking spaces for teachers at The School for Young Children across the street. Those concessions became stipulations of the council's approval.  CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE

  Middletown officials respond to Veterans Park vandalism

MIDDLETOWN — Two recent acts of vandalism at Veterans Memorial Park have officials worried about the new Connecticut Trees of Honor Memorial currently under construction.
Sue Martucci, president of the memorial committee, said windows in two pieces of equipment have been broken at night in the last month. The memorial will include 65 trees and plaques in honor of Connecticut soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. To make sure the memorial pieces are not also damaged, the city will install lighting and cameras to deter vandals. "It's disheartening to know that kids go out and do these kinds of things," Martucci said. "It's created a little bit of a fear factor, but we're pretty confident that once cameras and lights go up it will stop."
Mayor Daniel Drew said the city will also add police patrols in the park.
"We think this was probably teenagers," Drew said. "If we have any minor vandalism incidents or any issues at all, the police will be able to use the video." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE

 West Haven gets $2M grant for clean up along West River

WEST HAVEN >> West Haven will receive a $2 million state “brownfield” grant to do environmental clean-up on two parcels slated to be part of “The Haven” upscale outlet mall on the West River Crossing site. The area is adjacent to New Haven Harbor, just on the West Haven side of the Kimberly Avenue bridge. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced the grant in Bridgeport Wednesday. It was among several grants the Department of Economic and Community Development’s Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development awarded to area communities. The Haven has been described by developers Sheldon M. Gordon and Ty Miller as a $200 million, 347,826-square-foot development of about 100 high-end retail shops and restaurants. Their partnership, The Haven Group LLC, has yet to apply or secure approvals for it. The tony waterfront development — the biggest taxable thing proposed for West Haven in decades — would be aimed at an affluent market that extends well beyond West Haven’s borders, its developers have said.  CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE

Emmett O'Brien expected to be completed in 2015

ANSONIA >> The first day of school Wednesday at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School was quite a bit different than in previous years. That’s because almost half of the 598 enrolled students hopped aboard buses minutes after attendance was taken to head to one of several sites being used this year for shop classes. Crews have been working all summer on a long-planned addition and renovations to the school, which was built in the 1960s. The construction is expected to cost $94.3 million and is slated to be completed in August 2015, Principal Laurie LeBouthillier said. An official groundbreaking ceremony will be held Sept. 22. The routine at O’Brien includes having two grades in academics and two in shop classes for a certain period of time before it alternates. On Wednesday morning, students scheduled to start shop classes off-site were transported to High Meadows, a former state Department of Children and Families residential treatment facility in Hamden; Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury; and Platt Technical High School in Milford, LeBouthillier said.High Meadows will hold the most, she said, with 203 students going there for plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, computer-aided design, health technology, machine tool and carpentry classes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE