MERIDEN — A portion of State Street from Mill Street to East Main Street will be closed during the construction of a new train station, expected to begin early next month. During construction, bus service will move from State Street to Pratt Street near Mill Street, said John Bernick, state Department of Transportation assistant rail administrator. “It was an issue we went over with the city a while ago,” Bernick said of closing State Street, one of the city main downtown thoroughfares.
Bernick didn’t elaborate on why State Street would need to be closed during construction. Last week, Public Works Director Robert J. Bass said the state DOT wanted to close the street to “accelerate construction” of the new station, which is part of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail project. The project includes improving 63 miles of railroad, new train stations and updated rail cars. Work is expected to begin in early November. Bernick said a contractor has been selected to construct new stations in Meriden, Wallingford and Berlin. He said he couldn’t disclose the name of the contractor. Bass wasn’t available for comment Monday. During a City-Meriden Housing Authority Joint Planning Group meeting last week, Bass said the idea of closing State Street wasn’t final. “I’m guessing it will be a week or two until a final answer is provided from the state,” he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Visible, too, are attributes of the 19-acre site: its ½-mile of frontage on, and pristine views, of the Farmington River — most of any city or town in the state; and the old ax factory's central location in Collinsville, the section of Canton named for factory-founder Sam Collins. Now, nearly a half-century after the factory closed, a development partnership consisting of the property's current owner and area investors envision salvaging and rebuilding its sturdiest structures and razing the rest to create The Axe Factory — $56 million worth of luxury single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums, a "boutique" hotel and retail space, and office space. "We're finally looking forward to having that develop into something meaningful,'' said Canton resident Don Scott, president of the Canton Historical Museum next door to the factory, which houses many significant artifacts from its history. If their vision fully flowers, development partner Michael Goman says The Axe Factory could become a regional bohemian- and recreational-lifestyle getaway — Canton already is popular with kayakers, bikers and hikers whose spending supports the local economy, locals say — for people as far off as Boston, New York and New Jersey. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford Hospital embarks on $150M expansion
HARTFORD — Hartford Hospital plans to break ground Tuesday on an architecturally dramatic, $150 million Bone and Joint Institute, the first new patient building on its campus in decades.
Renderings show two white buildings with curvy exterior walls and rounded edges, which from the sky could almost pass for bones themselves, connected by a ligament. The ligament is a third-story skywalk over Seymour Street linking outpatient ambulatory care on the west side of the road with inpatient hospital care on the east side. The project, planned for two vacant lots on Retreat Avenue, next to a parking garage, is a significant part of Hartford Hospital's 10-year master plan. The plan calls for creating more space for intensive care unit beds in existing buildings and a new facility to integrate bone and joint medical services. The hospital said the five-story inpatient building will cost $110 million and have 130,000 square feet of space, including 10 operating rooms; 60 inpatient beds with the capability to expand to nearly 80 beds; diagnostic services; and orthopedic urgent care.
On the other side of Seymour Street, a $40 million ambulatory-and-medical building will have three floors and 35,000 square feet with offices for orthopedics, rheumatology, neurosciences and five ambulatory surgery rooms. A penthouse will have educational space, mechanical space and a rooftop garden. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT has best month for hiring in 20 years
Connecticut businesses in September had the hottest month for hiring in 20 years, according to statistics compiled by the federal government and released Monday by the state Department of Labor.
Businesses added 10,100 jobs, public schools and towns added 900, and the state and federal government added 500 jobs, for a total of 11,500 new jobs in one month. Over the year, the new data show, the state's employers added 26,000 jobs. Anything over 20,000 jobs is a strong year. The state broke the 20,000 mark in 1999 and 2006, and Connecticut employers last added more than 25,000 jobs in 1997. The numbers are preliminary. They are based on surveys of employers, and are revised as more information comes in, first next month, and again next year, once 100 percent reporting of unemployment taxes is available. For instance, initially, the Department of Labor said 3,600 jobs disappeared in August; now it says it was a drop of 1,200 jobs.
"Reality is nowhere near as volatile as these numbers," cautioned Nick Perna, an economist who has followed Connecticut's economy for decades. "Talk about wonky or weird. Last month looked like the world was coming to the end, now we've got an unbridled boom?" CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE