Uconn president previews master plan for thr school
HARTFORD — University of Connecticut President Susan Herbst on Thursday gave the school community a preview of the university’s new master plan, which she says will recreate the Storrs campus into unique districts and concentrate growth in areas where development already exists.
Herbst outlined highlights of the plan during her annual state of the school address. It will be presented in its entirety to the school’s Board of Trustees in December. The idea of the plan is to create over two decades a more cohesive and aesthetically pleasing campus, where like buildings are located together and compliment the school’s academic mission. For example, science buildings would be located in one section of campus, while student services and entertainment would be located in another. “The master plan will put an end to decades of treating construction and renovation projects as stand-alone undertakings, done without considering a building’s place in the larger campus,” Herbst said. The plan includes new residence halls, labs, classroom space, parking facilities and athletic venues for soccer, hockey baseball and softball. It also includes closing Hillside and Gilbert Roads to most traffic to create new pedestrian walkways, and adding new roads to help traffic flow, Herbst said. The plan is being devised as construction under the Next Generation Connecticut initiative and plans for the UConn Tech Park are expected to add 3.5 million gross square feet of space to the Storrs campus. Many of the changes had already been announced, but some were new, such as a fitness path around Horsebarn Hill designed to give students, faculty and staff a safe place to run and exercise. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Building trades ready to step up for stadium
n response to Dan Haar’s column “Stadium Labor Deals In Flux” [Oct. 14, Page 1]. The Connecticut Building Trades are hopeful that come 2016 there will be a new stadium in Hartford, a new residential community and many new jobs. New stimulus in the Hartford region needs to be embraced or we risk stagnating.
We are also hopeful that the construction work is done under a Project Labor Agreement. Large, complex developments with government support, like this one, operate best when there are construction terms in place to establish rules for pay, skilled hiring, quality standards, safety and minority hiring. PLAs set working standards for both union and nonunion workers, and set competitive rates based on the labor market.
Most important, a PLA can ensure that local labor is used and the financial benefits stay locally. It is Hartford citizens that are helping to pay for this project, they deserve for their money to stay locally.
Dam a long time coming
LITCHFIELD — Progress toward construction of a new dam on the Bantam River outlet has been slow as lawyers representing the towns of Litchfield and Morris, and Connecticut Light & Power, review a legal agreement. The agreement has language protecting CL&P from legal claims in case environmental hazards, such as arsenic, are unearthed when the dam is constructed using property owned by CL&P, according to Jack Healy, Litchfield's director of public works. Healy on Wednesday briefed an advisory committee of Litchfield and Morris representatives on the status of the agreement and expressed hope that it would be approved by all parties soon. Once the agreement is in place, Litchfield and Morris could begin seeking permits for the construction project and put it out to bid. The towns have secured $405,000 in state and local grants for the project. The dam, which would help maintain the water level on Bantam Lake and replace an antiquated dam known as the Jambs, would be built between two bridge abutments owned by CL&P. The abutments once supported a bridge owned by the extinct Shepaug Railroad. Healy, who serves on the advisory committee, said railroads often used arsenic to defoliate the sides of railroad tracks. He said he's not concerned about arsenic being dug up as the dam is being built. "Work will be going on in the river between the abutments, not on the railroad bed," he said, "so there's really nothing to worry about."
The legal agreement will allow access to the abutments and, in its current stage, has been approved by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Healy said. DEEP will release $380,000 in state grants once the agreement is finalized, Healy said. The new dam will feature a hydraulic gate that would be raised and lowered using manual controls. It will be designed to keep water in Bantam Lake during the summer season; it will not prevent flooding along the shores of the lake after heavy rain. The Jambs are about 100 yards to the west of the abutments and have been in operation since 1934. Long boards are manually placed between concrete structures to hold the river back. Concern about the safety of Bantam Lake Authority members maintaining the boards led Litchfield and Morris officials to propose a new dam. The first state grant for the project was approved in 2005, but the project was delayed when it was decided the new dam would be built between the bridge abutments. Healy informed the committee that a plan to install a walkway over the bridge is in jeopardy because the town's insurance company won't cover it. A committee proposing a 4-mile greenway using the railroad bed might be able to come up with funding for a walkway, Healy said.