BRIDGEPORT -- A transformative South End redevelopment is in the hands of the state.
Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust and POKO Partners LLC want Connecticut's housing officials to fund almost half of their $12 million venture to replace rundown or vacant properties on Ridge Avenue, Gregory, Walnut, Johnson and Columbia streets and Columbia Court with 52 affordable, multifamily units. "The South End is a tipping-point neighborhood," Elizabeth Torres, the nonprofit Neighborhood Trust's executive director, told the city's Zoning Board of Appeals last week.
That section of town has plenty of amenities -- Seaside Park, the University of Bridgeport and proximity to downtown. But it is also home to the aged Marina Village public housing complex, with the crime and other societal problems that have accompanied it. "The ripple effects of that have been devastating," Torres said, referring to nearby blocks of blighted or foreclosed homes.
Her plans with Port Chester-based POKO and a third team member -- the Bridgeport Housing Authority -- are intended to revitalize the neighborhood ahead of the BHA's eventual replacement of Marina Village. But to break ground, Torres and POKO need $5 million from the Connecticut Department of Housing. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New bridge will keep Pearl Harbor memory alive
Connecticut residents have an impressive reminder of the "day that will live in infamy,'' the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that happened 73 years ago Sunday. Even as the men and women who were there that day are passing from the scene, construction crews are racing to complete the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, which carries Interstate 95 over the Quinnipiac River in New Haven.
The northbound span was completed in 2012 and the southbound bridge is scheduled for completion on June 30, 2015. The bridge, designed to look like a battleship, is the centerpiece of a $2 billion highway improvement project that replaces what returning World War II veterans built in the late 1950s. The anchor piers, at the ends of the new spans, have the wording "Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge" and "December 7, 1941" in gold leaf formed onto the concrete as a memorial designation.
"The bridge is meant to remind people of the Pearl Harbor attack," said Jim Platosh, project manager for the URS Corp., at the dedication of the northbound span. "The shape of the columns recall the smokestacks of a battleship." On some holidays, including Memorial Day and Veterans Day, light cannons on the center tower legs will be illuminated, shining a shaft of light to the heavens.
But will all that be enough to remind younger state residents of the Japanese attack and the 17 Connecticut residents who died there that day? There have been other infamous days in U.S. history since then, including 9/11 that inspire the same feelings as Pearl Harbor.
There has been a concerted marketing effort to get residents to call the new bridge by its formal name. The old span was also named the Pearl Harbor Memorial, but nearly as soon as it was opened in 1958, it became "the Q'' for the motorists using it.
Traffic reporters are doing their best to get the official name into wider use. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Repairs statr today on damaged sewer line in Norwich
Norwich — Norwich Public Utilities will repair a damaged section of the city sewer system this week that could potentially cause a section of Broadway to collapse. Work will begin today and last through Friday between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Approximately 90 feet of 18-inch diameter sewer line between 120 and 177 Broadway, just north of City Hall, will be replaced and will close the street. For the duration of this project, traffic headed north on Broadway will be diverted onto Willow Street (right turn), left onto Chestnut Street, and a left onto Franklin Street, then onto McKinley Avenue.
The sewer line is located nearly 15 feet below street level and will require contractors from RW White Construction to use heavy equipment, including a 30-ton excavator. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hackett on Politics: Transportation will be the new priority
Brace yourself for sticker shock next month, and I’m not referring to the credit card bill that will arrive in January with all those Christmas purchases. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will be sworn in for a second term on Jan. 7 and in his inaugural address he is expected to begin a “frank and honest,” not to mention long overdue, discussion with the citizens of Connecticut and their elected representatives in Hartford about transportation. As the keynote speaker at a transportation forum last week, Malloy said addressing the state’s transportation needs will be a priority for him over the next four years. He did not elaborate or provide many specifics to what he will propose other than to say there are only two options: We can continue to talk about it, or we can act.
Long neglected It has long been established that Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure has been grossly neglected for decades because the funds that should have been earmarked for those projects has been consistently redirected to other, non-transportation, projects. And the price tag to make up for that neglect will be hefty. For example, completing Route 11, which involves construction of a mere eight miles of highway, would cost $1 billion in today’s dollars. Every year it gets delayed, the meter keeps running. In fact, not a single Department of Transportation designated “priority” transportation project in Eastern Connecticut is scheduled to begin anytime soon because there is no money to get them started, never mind finished — and the meter keeps running. Talk of adding a third lane to Interstate 95 from Branford to the Rhode Island border is just that – talk.
Worse, the Department of Transportation’s “priority projects” that are on the schedule are being dropped because there is not enough money. Plans to add a third lane to Interstate 84 from Danbury to Waterbury — estimated at between $3 billion and $4 billion — were taken off the schedule last week. Transportation is an economic issue. The efficient moving of goods and people is critical in maintaining a vibrant economy. How many eight-mile stretches of roadway, not including the bridges that connect them, need to be upgraded across the state? And how many billions will that take? CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Shale Gas Line to the Northeast gets Federal Nod
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Federal energy regulators have approved a $700 million pipeline project designed to bring cheap Marcellus Shale natural gas from Pennsylvania into high-priced markets in New England and New York. The project's backers said Wednesday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval means the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline could be built and operational by next winter, if it gets the remaining regulatory approvals from Pennsylvania, New York and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a timely fashion.
The project is the first to be approved out of a slew of proposals designed to bring Marcellus Shale gas to New York and New England. The lead partners are Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Partners LP and Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. Williams will operate the pipeline, while Cabot and Southwestern Energy have long-term agreements to supply the gas. Other partners include Piedmont Natural Gas Company Inc. and WGL Holdings Inc. Lindsay Schneider, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said the pipeline could bring up prices for producers like Cabot in northern Pennsylvania, while potentially bring down home heating prices in New York and New England. But calculating the effect on home heating prices would be difficult to do, she said. Meanwhile, solving the larger problem of winter energy price spikes in New England will require an additional expansion of pipeline capacity into that area for those coldest days of the year, she said.
The Marcellus Shale is the largest-known underground natural gas reservoir in Pennsylvania. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Waterbury on map for of federal rail options
WATERBURY — The Federal Railroad Administration is developing its long-term investment plan for the Northeast Corridor, its busiest passenger rail line.
One of three options under review is construction of new high-speed tracks between New York and Boston that would stop in Danbury, Waterbury, Hartford and Storrs. The agency is still in the early stages of planning, with no cost estimates, environmental assessments, or pathways for any of its proposals. Those won't come until next year. "We still have a long way to go, still deciding what will be studied further," spokesman Michael England said. "Nothing is written in stone." Waterbury is "excited to be on the map," even though the future being discussed in Washington is a long way off, said Kevin DelGobbo, top adviser to Mayor Neil M. O'Leary. The city is focusing on its immediate goals, like physical track and sign improvements to Metro-North's Waterbury line and train station renovations in the spring, he said. "But any discussion of expanding rail service is good for us," DelGobbo said. "We take it as a good sign that there is serious consideration of investment in the rail system." The 457-mile Northeast Corridor line linking Washington, New York, and Boston is one of the most heavily traveled rail corridors in the world, according to FRA. It is also congested, struggling to keep pace with current ridership demands. It will only get worse as the population of the region grows an expected 13 percent through 2040. The agency is considering three options:
Modest improvements, mostly to repair and to replace aging infrastructure, that wouldn't expand service but would likely lead to a slight increase in ridership. Expanding service by building the existing rail line out to maximum size within existing right-of-way, which would mean four or even six tracks in some spots. Significantly expanding rail service by building two new tracks the length of the corridor, which would increase speeds, decrease travel times and open up new markets. The agency is giving serious consideration to adding the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut to the passenger rail system, including it in both rail expansion options. In the second option, the agency calls for a supplemental route between New Haven, Hartford and Providence running through Meriden and Storrs. It doesn't say why. The second option, which focuses most of its funding on expanding its existing two-track to a four- or six-track system, also calls for new Hudson River and East River tunnels. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE