BRIDGEPORT -- The owner of the coal-fired power plant on Bridgeport Harbor -- a top city taxpayer -- is countering speculation it might abruptly shutter the facility and leave.
"Closing the plant without advance warning will not happen," said Melissa Ficuciello, a spokeswoman for PSEG. "PSEG would not walk from its investment in Bridgeport without as much notice as possible to the city."
City officials recently formed an advisory committee to examine ways to reuse the waterfront property if and when it is retired, in part over fears there will be no advance warning.
"I'm happy to hear they're not willing to just turn their backs and leave us hanging in the cold," said Onte Johnson, head of the local Sierra Club.
The organization recently successfully lobbied the City Council to pass a resolution calling on PSEG to phase out the use of coal and clean up the property for other uses.
The council, as part of that resolution, also had Mayor Bill Finch, whose administration values the tax dollars and jobs provided by PSEG, appoint the advisory committee. Finch announced the members Dec. 31.
"Let's put this plant on a retirement schedule," Johnson, a committee member, said. "Give us a heads-up so we can start prepping ourselves for the future."
PSEG is hosting a Jan. 16 community forum at 6 p.m. at City Hall. But Ficuciello said the meeting is "to discuss the status and the process" of adding a previously announced gas-fired facility to the Bridgeport operation, "not to discuss the coal unit's operations and future."
Easily recognized by the striped smokestack that towers over the city's South End, the 46-year-old plant -- the last of its kind in Connecticut -- can power up to 500,000 homes during peak electricity use.
Industry observers in recent years have speculated that the plant is on its last legs.
The nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis a year ago released a report showing steep declines in generation times and indicating earnings for the coal plant would turn it into a financial burden as of the decade's end. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Town officials upbeat about train platforms
WALLINGFORD — As work on two new train platforms in town progresses, town officials and business leaders say they’re nothing but optimistic about the changes they’ll bring.
The platforms will be built as part of a statewide expansion and update of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail line, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Thursday dubbed the “Hartford Line.”
Though construction hasn’t begun on the platforms, the areas on North Cherry and North Colony streets where they’ll stand has been cleared of trees and debris, said Tim Ryan, the town’s economic development specialist. These platforms, as well as stations in Meriden and Berlin, are expected to be complete by late 2016, when the entire rail service will be launched.
Until then, Ryan and Town Engineer John P. Thompson, as well as other town and state officials, are working on redeveloping the area to best take advantage of the new platforms and rail service.
“We’re taking a very aggressive position on development opportunities around the railroad station,” Thompson said. He noted the Transit-Oriented District that surrounded the rails in downtown Meriden as “potential opportunity” for Wallingford — something that Ryan echoed as well.
In November, the town submitted an application to the state Office of Policy and Management for funding for a transit-oriented development study — an application about which they haven’t heard back yet, Thompson said.
The department heads, town planner and other officials are set to meet with transportation planners from the South Central Regional Council of Governments) “to see what we can do around the station to increase the business and housing opportunities,” Thompson said.
“We would likely want to see higher density housing in the area, but we need to make sure we’re balancing the increased potential at the rail station with the interests of those people who already live there,” he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Group hopes new law will allow federal funds to be used to help build new Coast Guard museum in New LondonNew London —In its quest to raise $100 million for the museum that will house the 225-year-old history of the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Coast Guard Museum Association is hoping to secure $30 million in federal funding for construction purposes. The law that established New London as the site for the museum, however, prohibits federal funding for the project. The language in the federal legislation has been "a thorn in our side from the beginning," said retired Adm. James Loy, who served as 21st commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and is a member of the association's board.
A provision in the Coast Guard Maritime and Transportation Act of 2004 prohibits federal funding for "the engineering, design, or construction of any museum." The act, which authorizes appropriations for the Coast Guard, established New London as the permanent home for the museum, and was debated at a time when the Coast Guard had a backlog of about $800 million in infrastructure projects, and when other legislators were interested in having the museum in their states, primarily Cape May, N.J., and Battery Park, N.Y. This language needs to be changed in order to allow for the Coast Guard to authorize money for construction purposes.
The museum association has to raise around $50 million of the total $100 million campaign. The state has committed $20 million for the design and engineering and construction of a pedestrian bridge that will connect to the museum from Water Street, and the association is hoping the federal government will kick in another $30 million. Loy said the state's commitment "argues for a greater commitment on the part of the federal government." Without the $30 million in federal funding, the association would have to raise around $80 million in private donations. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Work progresses on 2 Walllingford train stations
WALLINGFORD >> Construction is underway on two new train stations in town that are part of the effort to develop high-speed commuter rail service between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts. The two new stations are being built less than half mile north of the town’s existing one, which is located at Quinnipiac Street and Hall Avenue. One station is being built on the east side of the tracks on North Colony Road near Holy Trinity on the site of a former car dealership, the other on a vacant lot at North Cherry and Parker streets west of the tracks. But both parcels are now vacant, having been cleared of trees, buildings, pavement and whatever else was there by Judlau Construction, the New York City firm that was awarded a $58.8 million contract in October to build new railroad stations in town as well as those in Meriden and Berlin.
The new stations in all three towns will have high-level platforms on both sides of the track, an overhead pedestrian bridge with elevators and stair towers on both sides of the track to connect the two platforms, platform snow melt systems, electric vehicle charging stations, ticket vending machines and passenger information display systems.
Connecticut Department of Transportation Project Manager John Bernick said the Walllingford stations, as well as those in the other two communities, are expected to be completed during the summer of 2016, just months before the expanded rail service is scheduled to commence. The commuter service will increase the frequency of trains stopping in Wallingford from current six a day to 17 round trips a day, with 13 of those trains providing service to Springfield.
“You bet it’s a tight schedule,” Bernick said. “But we’ve been fortunate because Amtrak has been working for months now on some of the work at the rail crossings that tends to slow these projects down." As recently as last month, Amtrak crews were seen working late into the night installing new signal equipment at the Toelles Road crossing near the intersection with Route 5 and the Wharton Brook Connector CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Bridge project greenlighted in Winsted
Despite the $643,000 price, selectmen have decided to move the West Road replacement bridge project forward and get it designed. Last week, the selectmen voted unanimously to allow the town manager to waive putting the design out to bid and let WMC Consulting Engineers design the project for no more than $78,100. The town has frequently hired WMC over the years for engineering assistance. The town had already set aside $90,000 for the design in the current budget under capital improvements. Town Manager Dale L. Martin wrote in a Jan. 5 memo to selectmen that "WMC is familiar with the (deteriorating) condition of the bridge" and, on the town's behalf, applied for state funding for the project. If awarded, the state would pay nearly half the cost, or up to $320,000.
The bridge, located over the east branch of the Naugatuck River, is in poor condition, WMC reported to Public Works Director James Rollins in a four-page letter dated Dec. 30. WMC has recommended reducing the lane width and limiting vehicular weight to 15 tons, and possibly even 10 tons, at any one time because of the deterioration beneath the bridge's surface. WMC said it inspected the bridge on Dec. 15 and found that the deterioration of the "upstream concrete parapet is continuing and very serious." WMC has recommended that the town block that side of the bridge to traffic but as of Sunday, the town had not put up any blockades.
The bridge is small — twenty five feet long — and used minimally. It is located on the outskirts of Winchester, roughly a mile from the Norfolk town line, near the Lake Winchester boat launch.
The state Department of Transportation said it has no data on when the bridge was built or how many vehicles travel on it per day. The department however did give the bridge a low sufficiency rating of 32 percent. The rating scale ranges from a low of 0 percent to a high of 100 percent. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE