BRISTOL — The community is getting an unexpected financial boost.
The State Bond Commission is slated to give the city $260,000 Tuesday to help pay for a $600,000 renovation of the Mix Street firehouse needed in part so it can accommodate female firefighters.
Mayor Ken Cockayne said the allocation will reduce the amount the city has to spend on the project.
Cockayne said the overhaul of the Engine 5 station will add sleeping quarters and showers so that women can easily serve in the traditionally male crew.
The mayor said three state representatives — Betty Boukus, a Plainville Democrat, and Bristol Republicans Cara Pavalock and Whit Betts — were successful in corralling the state cash.
He said Boukus, who heads a key bonding committee, played a crucial role even though her 22nd District no longer includes any Bristol voters. Even so, the mayor said, she “is always good to Bristol and has been outstanding to work with.”
The renovations include repairs to the roof, exterior walls, the interior and more, including the heating system that’s been in place since the building was erected in 1964.
Officials agreed to spend almost $200,000 extra to make sure the building could accommodate women. But they turned down plans to also add an additional truck bay that would have added another $140,000 to the project total. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Ideal Forging almost completely raised
SOUTHINGTON — The former factory that dominated lower Center Street is now mostly piles of bricks, steel and wood.
Construction crews have brought down nearly all the buildings at the Ideal Forging site on Center Street during demolition this year. There is still debris cleanup and the removal of slabs on the property but owner Howard Schlesinger said the progress has been excellent.
“We’re in great shape,” he said Thursday. “We’re closing in on it.”
On Thursday, only a portion of the main Center Street building remained containing a stone block inscribed with “1926.”
John Smigel, the town’s chief building official, said the main building on Center Street by the linear trail is about 80 percent demolished.
“It should only be getting cleaner from here on out,” he said.
Asbestos abatement has been completed, Smigel said, but the environmental company Stantech is still monitoring the air quality during the work. Police are also on hand to close the road if demolition needs to take place along the street.
Smigel and other town officials meet with representatives from Standard Demolition and Stantech every other week.
Ideal Forging is a former metal etching company.
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. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
In addition, they had a surprise for former Water Pollution Control Authority Director Harold Storrs, announcing that the upgrade would be dedicated to him and a plaque would be placed at the plant in honor of his 17 years of service to the town, much of which involved planning the project. Storrs retired just before construction began.
“We, as a board, thought the honor should be his as a lasting memory of not just what he did for us as a board but for the town,” WPCA Chairman James Sisk said. “He devoted 17 years of his life to the Town of Stonington.”
In November 2010, voters approved $18.3 million in bonding to pay for rehabilitating and replacing the equipment in the Mystic plant and installing a Biomag system to remove nitrogen from sewage to meet state standards.
While most of the money was spent on improvements at the Mystic plant, systems at the borough and Pawcatuck plants also were replaced, resulting in less chlorine being discharged into the Pawcatuck River and Stonington Harbor. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
FedEx Ground proposes regional hub at former Aetna site in Middletown
MIDDLETOWN — FedEx Ground has proposed building a 500,000-square-foot facility with more than 500 employees at the old Aetna site.
The company is planning to build a regional hub for New England deliveries, and would receive packages at the facility that would then be sent to smaller facilities for home delivery.
"We've been looking for a new hub in New England," said Andrew MacDonald, a real estate project specialist for FedEx Ground. "We've determined this is our priority site we're working on."
FedEx Ground has applied for a special exception to build the hub and has applied for a four-lot subdivision of the Aetna property. The company will buy all but a 22-acre parcel, one of the four proposed lots that Aetna will retain for a data center it owns there.
Of the remaining three lots, the facility will be built on lot A and lots B and C will remain undeveloped, said Dorian Famiglietti, an attorney representing FedEx ground for the zoning application. She said the company has no current plans for the smaller lots. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Heavy duty bridge prep
WATERBURY — A red crane visible from Interstate 84 west of Harpers Ferry Road isn't just being used to lift equipment from one place to another as part of the ongoing highway reconstruction project.
It also carries a vibratory hammer capable of pressing 1,000-pound metal sheets into the ground.
"It's delicate work and yet it's heavy duty," said Project Engineer Christopher J. Zukowski, of the state Department of Transportation. "You have to finesse the sheets in, even though they're very heavy sheets."
Before a new bridge can be built carrying a realigned portion of I-84 over the Mad River, contractors working on the state DOT project are building a cofferdam to isolate the area from water.
The cofferdam, which will take another two to three months to construct, will consist of more than 200 interlocked steel sheets that form a frame around the excavation site for a bridge footing.
Each sheet is 25 feet tall and weighs half a ton. Workers use a vibratory hammer suspended from a crane to push the sheets about 24 feet into the ground.
The hammer rotates rapidly to create an eccentric force that jostles each sheet into place.
On Thursday morning, the device took about 10 minutes to push one sheet into the ground.
The cofferdam will keep the area dry and hold back the stream, allowing workers to excavate the area and install a concrete footing for one of the bridge abutments.
The footing will be supported by 125 H-shaped beams that sit against the bedrock underground.
The new bridge over the Mad River is part of the highway widening project between Washington Street and Pierpont Road, which began in April and is scheduled to be finished by 2020. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE