Governor Malloy touts $1.2B in road and transit work being out to bid
This fall the state will put out to bid $1.2 billion in transportation projects including the final phase of a project to replace worn out catenary wire on the New Haven Line, his office announced on Sunday.
In the announcement, Malloy’s administration estimated the $1.2 billion would equal 25,200 new construction and direct supplier jobs, or 21 jobs per $1 million.
The largest commitment in the package is $403 million for widening I-84 in Waterbury. The funding also includes $116 million for the last stretch of catenary installation on the New Haven line, and $70 million for new station construction in Wallingford, Berlin, and Meriden on the $880 million New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line.
Other projects touted in the package are:
*Road and safety improvements in Stratford-$29 million
*Replacement of four Route 8 bridges in Bridgeport, $41 million.
*Resurfacing of some 264 miles of roads around the state, $71 million
*Bus Maintenance Facility in Watertown, $85 million.
Sewer work begins in central Greenwich
Work to replace a deteriorating sewer main carrying nearly all of Greenwich's sewage to the Grass Island Treatment Plant has begun following a series of emergency funding meetings last month. But while the financial hurdles have been cleared, the physical construction is set to cause a few headaches for motorists driving in central Greenwich. Tests conducted in February confirmed Public Works officials' fears that wear on the main had reached critical levels and required immediate attention. The 50-year-old line carries almost all of the town's sewage -- some 8 million to 9 million gallons a day -- over Horseneck Brook and along Greenwich Harbor to the Grass Island Waste Water Treatment Plant. If the deteriorating pipe was to fail, Public Works officials say, millions of gallons of waste could be dumped into Long Island Sound, causing an environmental nightmare and leading to fines well in excess of the repair project's $5.6 million price tag. Barely two weeks after the RTM approved funding for the fix, work is underway, piggybacking on construction at the Shore Road Bridge over Horseneck Creek, which began Aug. 18. "The first phase is to set up all the temporary bypass pumping and piping units to intercept the flow upstream of where we're doing the work and get it downstream to the plant," said Richard Feminella, manager of the town Wastewater Division.
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Southington schools on schedule
SOUTHINGTON — The renovations to Joseph A. Depaolo and John F. Kennedy middle schools continue on schedule and on budget.
At a Town Council meeting last week, Town Manager Gary Brumback commended the Middle School Building Project Committee for a job well done. “Kudos to the entire committee,” he said. “They have managed these projects really well. Everything has remained on-budget ” Brumback said the construction crews were now working on renovating the gymnasium and classrooms. The technical education classrooms in Kennedy are still being renovated but they are completed in Depaolo school. “They are being built in a way so that even the non-complete places are student friendly.” Also discussed at the meeting was a modification to the town’s Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products Ordinance. These products must now be sold behind the counter, not placed in store windows. The new regulations will take effect in two weeks. “They will now be out of view of people who are too young to legally purchase them,” said Brumback CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NPU bringing natural gas to more and more customers
NORWICH — Most homeowners likely would react with horror at the prospect of a deep trench being cut through their property. But for almost 1,000 Norwich Public Utilities customers, that situation has been not only tolerated, but also eagerly embraced over the past year because of the payoff: Savings of almost $100 a month in energy costs because of a conversion to natural gas. “We’re so happy. You can really feel the difference in the house,” said Michel Robert, who switched his 1,200-square-foot home on Canterbury Turnpike to natural gas through NPU’s Energize Norwich program about a year ago. “I don’t have to kick out $1,000 three times a winter for heating oil.” This week marks the one-year anniversary of the initiative, a partnership between NPU, the state’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, two local lenders and the nation’s largest clean energy marketing firm, which provides special financial incentives for people to switch their heating systems away from fossil fuels. CEFIA subsidized the campaign in its first year, and it now splits costs with NPU. Bob Wall, CEFIA's associate director of outreach, said the organization's Solarize Connecticut program resembles Norwich's gas initiative, and the collaboration presented a chance to expand. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Last remnants of New Haven's Q-Bridge coming down
NEW HAVEN >> This month will mark the final demise of the first Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.
On Friday morning, drivers will get on a new ramp to exit from Interstate 95 southbound to Interstate 91 northbound. The old route ran over what was left of the old Quinnipiac bridge, and workers will start sending it to the landfill the same day. Vladimir Kaminsky, supervising engineer for the state Department of Transportation, described the new entry ramp: “This allows us to dismantle the old connection and build a temporary connection for I-95 south to I-91 north,” he said. While it’s temporary, the ramp will last about a year, he said.
Starting Friday, “We will dismantle, demolish the last piece of the Q bridge and it will be history,” Kaminsky said. Drivers in the New Haven area remember that, not long ago, Exits 48 and 47 — leading to I-91 and Route 34, respectively — left I-95 southbound as one ramp from just beyond the Q bridge and then split. Then a separate ramp to Route 34 opened. There will again be a single ramp to Exits 47 and 48, but the split will be marked by a large I-91 shield painted on the roadway, a device used in other areas but not in Connecticut until now, said John Dunham, assistant district engineer for the New Haven Harbor Crossing project. Because the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge is higher than the old, the new connection will go downhill at a 7-percent grade to meet with the I-91 bridge over Chapel Street, Kaminsky said. Late last week, the dirt and gravel roadway looked like a hill children would use for winter sledding. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Council delays vote on solar, fuel cell park in Bridgeport
BRIDGEPORT >> It will be a little while longer before city residents find out whether plans by The United Illuminating Co. to operate a renewable energy complex on the site of the community’s former landfill will be approved. The Connecticut Siting Council held a hearing Thursday night at City Hall and also toured the site where the park would be located. After spending more than two hours taking testimony, the council elected to continue the hearing Sept. 30 at the agency’s New Britain headquarters, said Melanie Bachman, the agency’s acting executive director. The Siting Council’s approval covers both a 2.8-megawatt fuel cell and a solar array with 9,000 panels on the landfill site. Bachman said that although hearing participants could have asked questions about or commented on the fuel cell portion of the projects, virtually all of the discussion at the hearing was about the solar panels. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE