Canton holds referendum on $4.78M highway garage
CANTON — After years of setbacks, town officials are hoping they can clear the way to build a new highway garage in a referendum that will be on Tuesday. Residents will go to the polls on that day to decide the fate of a $4.78 million plan for a new garage at 325 Commerce Drive. This will be the third time that residents have voted on a proposal for a new highway garage since 2010. In both of those previous referendums the proposals town officials presented were defeated by wide margins. The existing highway garage is off River Road. Town officials say it is dilapidated and too small to support the public works department's operations. Officials said at a town meeting on Oct. 22 that the facility is so small that the department's vehicles must be stored outdoors, which exposes them to the elements and shortens their lifespan. There is also insufficient space to store salt that is put on the roads during winter storms and so it must be brought in from Burlington. Reaction by the public to the plan has varied. A few speakers at the town meeting said they opposed previous plans but are getting behind this one. Many agree that a new garage is needed but still question the cost. Others have questioned putting the garage on Commerce Drive, a site the town has to buy and was originally planned for economic development. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State expected to provide $20.5M for New Haven downtown project
new haven >> New Haven has two major projects on its wish list where it needs the state as a partner.
Five days before the Nov. 4 election, there will be only one left. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is coming here Thursday morning, and is expected to announce an agreement to provide $20.5 million in funds to connect Orange Street to the Hill, across the quickly disappearing Route 34 connector. In the afternoon, first lady Michelle Obama will be at Wilbur Cross High School in the city, campaigning for Malloy as he looks for a second term,. Malloy has been in New Haven virtually on a weekly basis — more recently multiple times a week — as he looks to Democrats here to produce a big turnout as they did in 2010 when he won the governor’s race by only 6,404 votes over Republican Tom Foley.
The pair are in a repeat contest that is tied, according to several polls, where some $29.4 million is expected to have been spent by Tuesday, a figure that includes $13.5 million in public funds alloted to the candidates themselves and $15.9 million in independent Super PACs. The road funds will allow Max Reim, co-managing partner and founding principal of the Montreal firm LiveWorkLearnPlay, to build a $400 million development on the former Veterans Memorial Coliseum site, adjacent to the Ninth Square. Reim plans to construct a new neighborhood of 719 apartments, stores, offices and a hotel, as well as a public plaza, on the 4.5-acre site bound by George, Orange and State streets and the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Development of the prime land, just off the confluence of Interstates 91 and 95, will be the largest private project in the city. Reim, who already has gotten the necessary regulatory approvals, has said he needs a commitment on the complex road construction in order to move forward. Malloy said he wants to see a 4½-star hotel on the site in phase one in order for the state to come through with the money. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Highway lanes to shift for construction work on Newtown bridge
NEWTOWN -- Commuters from Greater Waterbury on Thursday morning will notice a new traffic pattern over a bridge on Interstate 84 just past the Southbury town line that has been under construction since early last year. Workers for Manafort Brothers Inc., the contractor performing work on the bridge over Center Street, will shift the westbound lanes over the span beginning at 7 p.m. today. The new alignment will be in place by 6 a.m. Thursday, in time for the morning commute. Tonight's work will involve relocation of the concrete barriers that have kept traffic away from a construction zone since last year. Pavement markings will be removed, and new markings will be put on the road. Workers had to rebuild both the westbound and eastbound bridges, but only the traffic pattern on the westbound side will change for now. The bridges are just west of the Housatonic River. Work on both sides of the highway is scheduled to be completed in April. The project is estimated to cost $5.91 million. The bridges were built in 1977 and 1978, and were supposed to last an estimated 75 years, however cracks were discovered in the concrete beams during an inspection two years ago. Steel I-beams are being used to support the new bridges.