Plan in works to dredge Bridgeport harbor
BRIDGEPORT — Federal, state and city officials are working on a plan to dredge Bridgeport Harbor, but the actual work wouldn’t take place until 2017 at the earliest.
“We’re working right now on a draft Materials Management Plan, which looks at what is in the dredged material and where it should go,” Tim Dugan spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday morning.
“The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation are working with us, and the city has input too,” Dugan said. “We hope to have the plan ready by fall.”
But the cost of the dredging itself, and the transportation of the “spoils,” as the material is called, is not in the 2016 federal budget that begins Oct. 1.
“Congress would have to appropriate the money before the dredging could start,” Dugan said.
The silt and muck from the bottom of the harbor is not exactly beach-quality sand, and so piling it onto beaches is not an option, Dugan said.
Some of the material might be deposited in a deep trench in the middle of Long Island Sound, called the Central Disposal Site, if that option is chosen and then approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Army Corps has completed work to improve the breakwaters protecting the harbor and city beaches in time for the Memorial Day weekend opening.
Hearing on Malloy's $100B transportation plan
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's short-term transportation vision came into sharper focus Monday as lawmakers in Hartford considered spending $2.8 billion over the next five years to plan and design rail, bus and highway improvements.
The money would be divided among 31 projects, including new train stations in Orange and Bridgeport, widening portions of Interstate 95 between Stamford and Bridgeport and building a rapid bus corridor between Norwalk and Stamford.
The five-year "ramp up" plan does not include electrifying Metro-North's Danbury Branch, which now uses diesel trains, or expanding the branch past Danbury, two ideas supported by area lawmakers and residents.
"This allows us to gear up," Malloy said during a morning news conference prior to a public hearing before the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee on the first installment of the governor's overall $100 billion, 30-year transportation plan.
"Metro-North ridership is up 1.6 percent over last year, to 3.9 million trips," Malloy said. "That's exciting news and tells us as we build up, the public will react positively to the investments."
The public hearing focused on a bill authorizing the state Bond Commission to sell $2.8 billion in bonds over five years to cover design and engineering costs for various projects, including improvements to state walking and hiking trails and building new bike lanes and pedestrian paths in urban areas.
State officials said further approvals would be necessary as each project progressed. But without the design money, the governor's vision cannot be implemented, the committee was told. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Downtown Norwich sewer project uncovers engineering history
Norwich – Norwich Public Utilities and sewer construction contractors got a close-up look Monday at how their predecessors more than 100 years ago ran sewage and storm water collection lines beneath the downtown streets.
A five-man crew Monday started what is expected to be a weeklong project to replace a section of a fieldstone box that runs along Bath Street and Broadway, serving as the main sewer and storm water conveyance system for the past 110 years. The fieldstone box – part mortared together and part dry-fitted, like a neat stonewall -- is topped with large, flat stones that cover the culvert.
The fieldstone culvert at the corner of Bath and Broadway had started to collapse, causing a sinkhole to form beneath a sidewalk patio to the right side of the United Congregational Church.
Bill Dewey, construction general foreman for NPU, said the $100,000 project calls for running a 30-inch diameter new plastic pipe inside the stone culvert, connecting it to a steel pipe that was installed along Bath Street in the 1980s.
The steel pipe abruptly ends near the intersection, where the stone framework has remained in use since then. Dewey said crews hope to leave much of the stonework in place, pulling off only the top stones to lay the new pipe. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NPU begins spring work early
NORWICH - Norwich Public Utilities’ first major spring project of the year actually began six months ago, when a large sink hole formed at the intersection of Bath and Chestnut streets.
It was the result of a 110-year-old stone culvert failing to divert sewer flow and runoff, prompting NPU to put its modernization at the top of its seasonal to-do list. Workers quickly patched up the site to keep it stable until the weather warmed, but addressing a long-term fix was a top priority. On Monday, crews began the week-long effort to pull out an old plastic pipe from the 1980s and replace it with 100 feet of new material that is much more durable. “There’s a stone culvert like that all the way to the other manhole,” NPU foreman Bill Dewey said. “And it’s started to cave in in spots.” The work is similar to a December project that replaced 90 feet of sewer line between 120 and 177 Broadway that had also fallen into disrepair. Unlike many other locations in the city, sewer and water systems in areas around Broadway and in Greeneville are linked. Officials said the construction not only upgrades city infrastructure, but retires the culvert before it has a chance to deteriorate any further. The site is located just in front of the Frontier Communications facility. “The biggest challenge is that you have so much infrastructure in the ground, with your main phone building being right here,” Dewey said. “This isn’t just sewer, this is drainage so if we get a good rain storm, they’re not going to be able to work. It’s too much water for them.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE