HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ascended the Travelers Tower on Monday to detail for employees there his $100 billion transportation plan to update Connecticut's roads, rails and bridges.
Highways need to be widened. Bridges, repaired. And rail stations, constructed. Malloy told a conference room of employees that there are billions and billions waiting to be spent.
But those major projects, like widening I-95 or lowering I-84 in Hartford, have substantial amounts of planning and organization before they could come close to breaking ground.
"We don't have the talent. We don't have the projects designed," Malloy said, adding that when he took office, "I went to the medicine cabinet of transportation, and there was nothing there."That's not to say the plan, worked up by the Department of Transportation, is running on fumes. Smaller projects are likely to have a faster impact for Connecticut, Malloy told the employees.
"Buses, rail and bikeways are easier to spend [money on] and faster spends than some longer-term big road projects," Malloy said. "We can see some early benefits much more rapidly than people think." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NEW HAVEN >> Mayor Toni Harp and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., have sent a letter to neighbors of Tweed New Haven Regional Airport seeking support for Tweed’s proposal to pave the grassy runway safety areas at either end of the main runway to try to land additional air service.
Harp began talking about the possibility of paving the 5,600-foot main runway soon early last year and the city’s legislators in Hartford raised a bill that ultimately did not pass. The letter appears to be an effort to open up the conversation and move that agenda forward.
Any plan to pave the runway safety areas would require the approval of the state General Assembly as a result of a 2009 memorandum of agreement signed by the then-mayors of New Haven and East Haven, the then-chairman of the authority and five members of the legislature.
Part of the agreement, which resulted in East Haven dropping its objections to creation of the runway safety areas, along with litigation related to those objections, was a provision and subsequent change to state statutes that set the length of the runway at 5,600 feet, essentially prohibiting the safety areas from being paved. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Bridgeport Hospital's outpatient site placers final beam
TRUMBULL -- Placing the final steel beam on a structure is a critical juncture in a construction schedule.
Bridgeport Hospital's new outpatient center on Park Avenue recently reached that point, despite a harsh winter that dumped several feet of snow in the area and brought frigid temperatures.
"We lost virtually no time related to the weather, which was incredible," said Brad Bevers, executive director for facilities, design and construction for the Yale-New Haven Health System, with which Bridgeport Hospital is affiliated. "It was a very tough winter. There were times we were trying to get the foundation and the steel in, and we were sitting here with three feet of snow."
Construction on the facility at 5520 Park Ave. began in September, at the same time the 450-space parking garage was opened over the border in Bridgeport.
"This is really a celebration for the contractors as much as anybody," Bevers said. "It's a significant piece of progress."
The building is being constructed by Gilbane Building Co., which has its state office in Glastonbury. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Work begins on Old Greenwich train bridges
It's begun.
Workers closed off several dozen parking spaces at the Old Greenwich train station Monday to set up a staging area for the upcoming major repairs of two railroad bridges. Utility crews were on the scene relocating power lines. Trailers and portable toilets were installed at the site.
The construction project is expected to include inconvenience and traffic disruptions for years.
A visit to Old Greenwich Monday showed the work was only affecting commuters at this stage; lane-closures on Sound Beach Avenue and Tomac Avenue have not commenced.
Monday's immediate loss of parking will require regular permit-holders who typically park on the south side to head to the north side, where more permit parking spaces have been made available, taken from the allotment of daily spaces.
"There's plenty of spaces on the other side, more than enough," said the town parking director, Rita Azrelyant. She said the town's parking enforcement officers would be "a little bit lenient" for the next few weeks as the process unfolds -- as long as motorists put their vehicles in a true parking space, and not block traffic or cause safety issues.
The parking authority mailed out information to its Old Greenwich permit holders, advising them of the new layout. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Plainville residents to vote on $5M road plan
PLAINVILLE — Residents can vote June 16 on a proposed five-year, $5 million road repair.
ADomenick Moschini, public works director, said he has collected 25 years worth of data to complete the project as effectively as possible. The goal is to make the roads last for another 25 years.
"Our major challenge will be people switching from oil heating to gas and digging into the roads," he said. "We may need to address this with a moratorium on particular roads during particular periods or a new permit ordinance. We don’t want the investment the town is making into the roads to be wasted."
Moschini said the roads will be repaired in three different ways. The least damaged roads will see simple crack fills. Moderately damaged roads will see milling and overlays. The worst condition roads, with ruined catch basins, will be completely rebuilt.
"We will take each road on a strictly case by case basis, and do whatever needs to be done," he said.
"I’m just hoping I don’t have to wait five years to get my road fixed," said resident Domenick D’Onofrio.
Robert E. Lee, town manager, said the Board of Education had appointed Rocky Hill-based engineers Weston and Sampson to provide a hazardous materials removal inspection at the old Linden Street School at 69 Linden St. prior to its demolition. They will meet with the State Department of Education May 13. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
SOUTHINGTON — Demolition crews removed asbestos from an Ideal Forging building near the linear trail on Monday but town officials say the hazardous material likely won’t get into the air.
The former factory buildings on Center Street are being torn down to make way for a housing and retail center called Greenway Commons.
At least one linear trail user reported seeing dust and men in hazardous-material suits working on the site Monday and raised the question in a popular Facebook forum if walking through the area was advisable.
Most of the removal of hazardous materials occurred in 2013. Weston Solutions Inc., an environmental consultant and redevelopment company, supervised the removal of manufacturing chemicals, oils, acids and fluorescent light ballasts from the Ideal Forging site. Groundwater cleanup was done the same year.
John Smigel, the town’s chief building official, said some asbestos couldn’t be removed then due to damage to one of the buildings near Center and High streets.
To obtain a demolition permit, a company must show that the asbestos has been removed from the building. Smigel said in this case, the demolition company received permission from the state to demolish while removing the pieces of asbestos that couldn’t be reached safely.
Asbestos tiles were removed without breaking them, Smigel said, to keep asbestos particles from getting into the air. The material is harmful when ground into dust and breathed.
“They’re supposed to try to bring (the pieces) down in the same state,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, workers in white plastic suits, hard hats and breathing masks pulled windows out from a building at the corner of High and Center streets. They worked from cherry pickers to cut the windows out and drop them on the ground below. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
OUTH WINDSOR — Plans to build a new Orchard Hill Elementary School are moving forward, with the project on track to break ground in February 2016.
The Board of Education received a project update at its meeting April 28 on the $33.5 million plan, with an estimated state reimbursement of $11.26 million. Once completed, the project will create a 72,000-square-foot school to replace the existing school. It was approved by voters at referendum last spring.
The referendum was the first of a three-phase, 10-year plan to replace and upgrade four of the town's five elementary schools.
About 560 students would attend the new school. Students would draw from the existing Orchard Hill, a portion of the Wapping Elementary and the South Windsor pre-kindergarten program, currently located at Eli Terry Elementary School.
Scott Wooden of Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc., an architecture firm with a studio in South Windsor, presented 3-D renderings to the board to illustrate interior spaces, such as the library, gymnasium and cafeteria. He also discussed exterior design, which included materials in shades of white and gray, pale green and barn red. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Straw poll of Siting Council members show support for Oxford power plant
OXFORD -- It appears the proposed 805-megawatt dual-fuel power plant in Oxford is close to being approved by the Connecticut Siting Council. In a non-binding straw poll, the council voted 5-2 to approve the project, said Melanie Bachman, acting executive director for the council, which has jurisdiction over placement and approval of proposed public utility facilities.
The council is scheduled to meet May 14 and May 28 at its New Britain headquarters and will likely vote at one of those meetings. The council has until May 29 to render a decision on the project, which has been proposed by Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures. "Obviously we're pleased with the straw vote, and we're confident it's a good project for Connecticut, the locality and the region," said Braith Kelly Jr., senior vice president for external affairs at CPV. "We think the Siting Council recognizes the value it brings and that was reflected in their straw vote."
If the Siting Council votes in favor of the project, there are still a couple of hurdles for CPV to clear to start construction.
First, the Federal Aviation Administration needs to give its blessing. The FAA is drafting a report that will discuss the potential impact of the power plant on Waterbury Oxford-Airport, which is less than a mile from the proposed project on Woodruff Hill Road. The Siting Council could make its approval conditional upon a favorable review from the FAA, as it did in 1999 when the council first approved a smaller version of the project, Bachman said. That plan has since been modified.
The FAA is looking specifically at two proposed smokestacks for the plant and whether the plumes they emit would obstruct flight patterns. Also, CPV needs an air permit and a stormwater permit from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Kelly is confident those will be approved. "This is the second time the project has been through the process with the FAA, and the first time they (were) in favor of the project," Kelly said. "Subsequent to this application to the Siting Council, we have dramatically improved the interaction with the airport. We have also been in regular communication with the DEEP."
He said DEEP's comments during the Siting Council's hearings were favorable. Oxford resident Wayne McCormack, leader of an opposition group called Stop Towantic Power, said he believes it is premature for the Siting Council to vote. He said there is no FAA report yet and it's unclear when that will come. Additionally, he said, the Connecticut Airport Authority has not issued a report about the project's impact on the local airport. "They have no contract with Heritage Water to my knowledge, and there are some questions about the ability to get natural gas" necessary to run the plant, he said. "So I think those questions need to be answered before a ruling is made."