NEW MILFORD — The town is reviewing a number of bids that have been received for the demolition of the old Century Brass mill on Scovill Road.
Mayor Pat Murphy said Monday about seven bids were received last week with three of the bids within the town’s target price range. A $2.5 million state grant has been received toward demolition and environmental cleanup of the 320,000-square-foot mill structure.
Murphy said the town and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Department of Economic and Community Development will each review the bids. The bid is expected to be awarded on July 9 and Murphy hopes the demolition is completed by the fall.
A total of 17 contractors participated last month in the town-required walk-through of the mill.
The Housatonic Railroad line runs along the front of the property. However, Murphy said it is unknown if any of the firms that bid would use the railroad to transport demolition debris. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hospital plans major expansion, renovations
SOUTHINGTON — Hartford HealthCare announced major renovation plans Wednesday for the Bradley Memorial Campus of the Hospital of Central Connecticut, as well as planned construction of a three-level family care center at 462 Queen St.
The cost of the projects will be about $15 million, most of which will fund the Bradley renovations, said Lucille Janatka, president of HOCC and region.
A state-of–the-art Universal Care Unit will be created at Bradley by consolidating the
hospital’s second-floor emergency department with its third-floor emergency inpatient unit. The inpatient unit will be moved to the second floor. Renovations will require the building of an extension onto the hospital and construction of two new elevators, Janatka said. The universal care unit will offer “round-the-clock-care,” along with services such as ambulatory surgery, cardiac stress testing and a center for healthy living. It will have 20 beds, and all of its rooms will be private.
HHC also wants the universal care unit to incorporate “telemedicine,” which will allow offsite doctors to attend to patients via video remote, Janatka said.
Janatka said the new facility will allow the hospital to provide more flexible and efficient patient care. This model of care delivery is only being practiced in a few other parts of the country, she said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Senate panel passes 6-year highway bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to boost spending on highway projects and give state and local governments more flexibility to spend federal money on local projects.
Lawmakers, however, have yet to come up with a way to pay for it.
The federal government relies on an 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to pay for highway projects. But the tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1993, no longer generates enough money to cover federal spending, and lawmakers are reluctant to increase it.
The bipartisan bill passed Wednesday would authorize federal highway projects for the next six years. It would increase spending by an average of 3 percent a year while giving states more flexibility to spend federal money on local road and bridge projects. It would provide new funding to improve freight delivery and would set aside money for rural projects.
“Our nation’s roads and highways have suffered under too many short-term extensions, which have led to higher costs, more waste, and less capability to prioritize major modernization projects to address growing demands on our interstates,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The bill “will provide states and local communities with the certainty they deserve to plan and construct infrastructure projects efficiently,” Inhofe said.
Inhofe’s committee passed the bill without dissent. Senators will now work to come up with a way to pay for the bill before sending it to the full Senate. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Strategy employed in Hammonasset projects
Madison — Thumping louder than the crashing surf and cawing gulls, the pile driver pounding into the earth beats a rumbling rhythm for the birdwatchers, beach walkers, bicyclists and sunbathers at Hammonasset Beach State Park’s West Beach this summer.
“Boy, you can really feel the ground shaking,” Susan Whalen, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said last week, as she looked over the construction site for the new 3,430-square-foot bathhouse, first aid station, concession area and offices for the Environmental Conservation Police.
As the machine slammed another wooden support for the new building into the ground, Whalen explained how the project at the state’s most popular park has been designed with an eye both on the current needs of the public and future realities of climate change.
“This is an opportunity to demonstrate that you can design a functional and attractive coastal beach complex that meets the needs of people and acknowledges the changing environment we’re dealing with,” she said. “There was a need to acknowledge sea level rise and the increasing severity of storms with the fact that people are naturally drawn to the water.”
The $7.5 million bath house, paid for with state bond funds, is a major example of how the projections of encroaching tides and stronger hurricanes are being incorporated into Connecticut shoreline projects. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Ground breaking today for Windsor Station Apartments
WINDSOR — After years of planning, construction workers are breaking ground Thursday on a new apartment complex in Windsor Center.
Work is beginning on the new Windsor Station Apartments, a two-building, $22 million project.
"Our town council's goal is to add housing here to the town center," said Windsor Town Manager Peter Souza. "It will help business here. It will add some vitality to the area with people walking around." Once completed, Windsor Station will provide 130 units, 90 in its Ellsworth Building and 40 in its McLean Building. Most will be one-bedroom and studio apartments. Windsor Station Apartments will have a common room, a fitness center, an outdoor grilling area, charging stations for electric cars — even a dog park.The current developer, Lexington Partners LLC, has been involved in the project for roughly three years now, Souza said.
"We had some environmental cleanup that we had to get done, which added to the costs of the project," said Martin J. Kenny, project developer.
The town set aside about $350,000 from the land-sale proceeds for part of the cleanup. Kenny said the project also benefited from a low-interest, $1 million loan from the Department of Economic and Community Development. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
EAST HARTFORD — The school board has awarded bids for construction projects at two elementary schools.
Superintendent Nathan Quesnel said all three projects are expected to be completed by the start of the new school year.
"This is really exciting stuff and we worked really hard to get it in place," Quesnel said. "These projects are the result of significant grant-writing." The board awarded a $143,000 bid to Warren Brothers, a general contractor in Stafford Springs, for renovations to Hockanum School as part of an expansion of the school system's public preschool program through the state's Smart Start grant.
To accommodate 30 new preschool spots, two classrooms will be renovated to include new lavatories, ceilings, lighting, flooring, age-appropriate furniture, storage space and new finishes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
HARTFORD — After searching for three years, city school officials say they have potentially found a permanent site for Kinsella Magnet High School of Performing Arts: 275 Windsor St., the home of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Hartford campus. The board of education endorsed the location this week, allowing Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez to continue negotiations to buy the property north of downtown. Hartford has a $33 million budget for purchasing and renovating a building for Kinsella's high school grades, a long-awaited expansion of the performing arts magnet school approved through the state's Sheff v. O'Neill desegregation agreement.
But after investigating more than a dozen properties, the school system faced a June 30 deadline to identify a site or risk losing the state construction grant that will largely fund the project, board Chairman Richard Wareing said. School administrators sought a building with up to 95,000 square feet, an auditorium for 600 people and ample classroom space for 400 students. The eight-story building at 275 Windsor, a longtime educational center for working professionals, including engineers from the region's top corporations, sits on about 13 acres just east of Capital Preparatory Magnet School and north of the minor league stadium under construction. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
GLASTONBURY — The town council unanimously approved a $1.5 million project Tuesday to guard against erosion at the new Riverfront Park so the town can "protect its investment."
The town will use the money to hire a contractor that will install small- and medium-sized rocks known as riprap along the Connecticut River to shore up the slope where the park's boathouse is built. The project will begin in July and be completed sometime in September.
Shortly after the park was completed, officials noted vertical and horizontal movement in the concrete terrace west of the boathouse and in the serpentine handicapped-access ramp leading from the park to the river. Geotechnical experts said the only solution was to bring in 9,600 tons of riprap and line 200 to 300 feet of the bank with the material. The work, which will take 60 to 65 days, is designed to prevent additional movement in the slope on which the $2 million boathouse is built. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE