Development hits new heights in downtown Danbury
DANBURY — Efforts to revitalize the city’s center are gaining momentum this summer with more than $100 million worth of investments being made along Main Street.
The construction of several projects along Main Street, including an $80 million luxury apartment complex, marks an unprecedented amount of activity for the downtown as bulldozers and workers can be seen from one end of the corridor to the other.
“This is by far the most projects at any one given time that I can ever remember on Main Street, and I’ve been around for more than 50 years,” said Joseph DaSilva Jr., a major downtown land owner. “The downtown has been left out of the development circles for the last 20 years, but our time has finally come. What’s going on today on Main Street is monumental.”
Besides the Kennedy Flats housing complex under construction on the north end of Main Street, other projects in the city’s core include a new four-story health care center set to start construction this month, a new medical building under construction by the Optimum Medical group and an anticipated expansion of Naugatuck Valley Community College, which hopes to triple its downtown presence in the next year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Construction leads state job growth
Connecticut’s construction industry added an estimated 2,400 jobs in May, the fastest growth the sector has seen dating back to 1990, which is as far back as the state Department of Labor posts industry data online.
Including the construction sector’s gains, Connecticut added an estimated 6,400 jobs in May, according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Labor, dropping the unemployment rate to 6.0 percent from an adjusted 6.2 percent in April.
The Labor Department reported the figures hours before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was scheduled to visit the new Stamford headquarters of Vineyard Vines, which plans to maintain a workforce of 200 people at Shippan Landing, also running retail stores in Greenwich and Westport.
“We had a fantastic month,” Malloy said. “What you’re seeing is a continuation of a trend that began four years ago, and that is very active and robust job growth here in Connecticut — and, let me point out, on a sustained basis.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Out with the old lines around New Britain
NEW BRITAIN — Connecticut Natural Gas crews are ripping up 4 1/2 miles of road in the city to replace aging, outdated pipes. The cast-iron pipes are being removed and replaced in 15 locations, including the downtown and Broad Street areas, Booth, Gold and Silver streets and the mile-plus length of Allen Street. The Broad Street work began in November 2014 and is expected to be done later this summer, and the Allen Street work began last spring and has a target completion date of December.
CNG crews are replacing the 6-inch pipes with cheaper and more durable 2-inch polyethylene plastic pipes with an estimated lifespan of 100 years.
While there have been some traffic disruptions, CNG officials said the work has important long-term benefits.
“There is less of a chance of leakage because of the work we are doing,” said Rick Dion, manager of construction for the gas company. In addition, he said, in most cases the gas meters will be moved from inside the home or business to outside. “We do not need to go inside their home. It also makes it easier for residents who might want to refinish their basement and not have a gas meter in the way.”
Over the long term, Dion said, there will be “a reduction of the costs incorporated into the rates.”
Crews are now working on Rosyln Drive, Kenwood Drive and Birch Hill Drive in the city’s west end.
CNG, which covers 22 communities in the Hartford/New Britain area, notifies residents and business owners by mail of gas line work two weeks ahead. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
East Hampton High School construction begins in earnest
EAST HAMPTON >> The entire high school campus will be off-limits to the public through Aug. 28. That prohibition applies to access to all the school fields and also to the track, school officials said. The ban on residents’ use of the school property comes as work crews seek to take advantage of the summer’s closure of school to expedite a renovation and expansion project. Not only is the public barred from the property, but so are school personnel, including the administration, office and guidance staff. All are being relocated to Memorial School for the summer months, officials said
To ensure that residents get the message, Downes Construction, the general contractor for the school project, is posting “no trespassing” signs on the school grounds. Workers on the project have been told to call the police if they see people coming onto the property, a Downes representative told the School Building Committee on Thursday. “I want to make it abundantly clear that both the track and the fields are off-limits,” Building Committee Chairwoman Sharon Smith said during Thursday’s meeting. Meanwhile, both Downes’ representative Steve Smith and a representative of project manager Colliers International said there is an ambitious program of construction set to begin next week. Crews fell behind schedule earlier this year to due to the severe winter weather.
Construction officials told the School Building Committee earlier this month the crews are hoping to use the summer to get back on schedule. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NPU to replace gas pipeline on Washington Street
NORWICH - This weekend, Norwich Public Utilities will begin work on
a five-week, half-a-million dollar project to replace 1,400 feet of natural gas
line underneath one of the city’s most used intersections. Starting Sunday night, NPU crews will lift out a 106-year-old cast
iron pipe on Washington Street in front of The William W. Backus Hospital and
install a polyethylene one that enhances the line’s durability.
Because of high traffic volume in the area, NPU will work from 6
p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, starting Sunday and running through July
10., with a four-day break, July 3-6, to accommodate the Independence Day
holiday. “While we recognize this may cause an inconvenience for some of our
neighbors, NPU crews are able to work in a much more efficient manner during the
overnight hours, when there is far less traffic on Washington Street,” spokesman
Chris Riley said.
During the final two weeks of the project, work will take place
between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Officials said the time frame is critical, because equipment and
pipes in the area have started to show signs of failure. In addition to
installing the new length of pipe, officials are putting in a new regulator that
can be controlled and adjusted from NPU’s control room. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
State must mend Waterbury Mixmaster before replacing it
WATERBURY - Before the nightmarish "mixmaster" on the Waterbury stretch of I-84 can be replaced, it will have to be repaired, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday.
The mixmaster is the name given to the overlapping stretches of highway, and related exits and entrances, where I-84 and Route 8 meet.
Malloy, along with Waterbury Mayor Neil M. O'Leary and representatives of the state Department of Transportation, held a press conference to provide updates on the I-84 Waterbury Project. "What I'm announcing today is that we'll undertake the repairs necessary to stretch the useful life [of the current mixmaster] for a few more years," Malloy said.
According to the governor, there is no concrete design in place yet for what the newly designed interchange will look like or how it will be built. He said the state will first need to invest money in extending the life of the current mixmaster before fully replacing it.
"We can't have it fall down on us," Malloy said.