Manchester school board hears update on Bennet-Cheney project
MANCHESTER — The school board heard an update Monday on the planned fifth- and sixth-grade school, which the project architect said is on schedule to be completed by the summer of 2017.
Construction on the Bennet-Cheney project is expected to begin early next year, principal architect Randall Luther of Tai Soo Kim Partners told the board.
The new campus will combine Bennet Academy with the Cheney Building, a former trade school, and its adjacent boiler building. The work is part of an $84.2 million school modernization plan that voters approved in November. The Bennet-Cheney project is estimated to cost $17.9 million, with local taxpayers responsible for about $7 million after state reimbursement.
The planning and zoning boards recently approved the project, along with local and state historic preservation organizations.
The Cheney and boiler buildings will retain their historic facades. The two buildings will be connected and include 21 fifth-grade classrooms, special education and English Language Learners classrooms, a main office and a nurse's office.
The project also includes additional music and art rooms on the Bennet side and an expanded cafeteria to accommodate about 1,000 students in three lunch waves, Luther said.
The campus now has 83 marked parking spaces, but specifications call for at least 160, Luther said. The Bennet-Cheney school will have a total of 183 spaces, and most of the new spaces will be in a lot that is now an open playing field adjacent to Bennet Academy, Luther said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Spectra Energy holds open house about pipeline expansion
Recently, Spectra Energy outlined its plan for expansion of parts of the existing Algonquin Natural Gas Pipeline, with a project titled "Access Northeast," at a series of open house events.
One of these open houses took place in Glastonbury -- which is crossed by the pipeline -- on Aug. 18.
Several residents attended to ask questions or to express concerns, and others came in protest of the plan and the pipelining of natural gas in general.
Arthur Diestel, Stakeholder Outreach Manager, was one of about 30 representatives from Spectra and its affiliates on hand at the open house event
Diestel said that while there are other projects to expand the Algonquin pipeline -- at various stages of development (including the apparently-now-defunct Atlantic Bridge Project) -- Access Northeast is being developed by Spectra, as well as Eversource and National Grid, to serve power generation in New England.
The project will cover 125 miles of pipeline expansion and new market area storage facilities, and will provide up to 1 million cubic feet per day. The pipeline currently serves approximately 60 percent of the gas power generators in New England and the expansion will increase that load to approximately 70 percent.
Diestel said the project includes "looping," or adding an additional pipeline, in several areas. In some places in Connecticut, it will also replace pipelines with larger ones. It also includes the construction of some new segments in Massachusetts. He added that the construction will make use of existing rights-of-way, and will have minimal environmental impact.
The project is in the "initial project evaluation" stage.
"We have not engaged any regulatory bodies or agencies at this point," Dietsel said. "We want to reach out to stakeholders. We want to understand what's going on in these communities."
The plan is to enter the pre-file process later this year, with the filing of formal certificates about a year later. The construction start date is targeted for the second quarter of 2018.
At the open house, residents were able to input their address on computers, which then displayed a map of their neighborhood and the proximity to the pipeline and its proposed expansion. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE