WASHINGTON (AP) — More jobs and cheaper gasoline come with a big, honking downside: U.S. roads are more clogged than ever now that the recession is in the rearview mirror.
Commuters in Washington, D.C., suffer the most, losing an average of 82 hours a year to rush-hour slowdowns, a new study finds. Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York come next on the list of urban areas with the longest delays.
But the pain reaches across the nation.
Overall, American motorists are stuck in traffic about 5 percent more than they were in 2007, the pre-recession peak, says the report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX Inc., which analyzes traffic data.
Four out of five cities have now surpassed their 2007 congestion.
Rounding out the Top 10 worst commuting cities are San Jose, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Houston and Riverside-San Bernardino.
Cities with fast-growing economies and the most job growth are the most plagued by traffic. Other factors: Urban populations are increasing and lower fuel prices are making driving less expensive, so more people are taking to city roads.
Congestion increased in 61 of the nation's 101 largest cities from 2012 to 2013, the data showed. The following year, nearly all cities — 95 out of 101 — experienced greater congestion.
The findings are based on federal data about how many cars are on the roads and on traffic speed data collected by INRIX on 1.3 million miles of urban streets and highways.
The growth is outpacing the nation's ability to build the roads, bridges, trains and other infrastructure to handle all these people on the move. Congress has kept federal transportation programs teetering on the edge of insolvency for nearly eight years because lawmakers have been unwilling to raise the federal gas tax and haven't found a politically palatable alternative to pay for needed improvements. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — Progress to rebuild a collapsed wall at 72-80 E. Main St. continues slowly but surely, officials say.
The building’s rear wall was roughly halfway rebuilt on Tuesday, but Building Official David Zwick said it still a long way to go.
“They haven’t gotten to the point yet where we can call it stabilized,” Zwick said.
The back wall partially collapsed in January 2014, forcing residents in 30 units and several business to evacuate. The following June, another smaller collapse occurred. The building, deemed structurally unsafe, remains empty.
Zwick said the owner, Nue Vuksanaj, and construction crews have been following designs created by an engineer to ensure that the wall is rebuilt properly.
The engineer, Troy Dixon of the locally-based DeCarlo and Doll, Inc., said crews need to “build the foundations to put the wall on, put the wall up,” and anchor the wall.
“Engineers are overseeing the placement of the concrete, how the cement blocks are intertwining with the corners — they have to establish a bond with the old building,” Zwick said. “Once they get to that last (western-most) corner, that’s when we can say they have four good corners and four walls established. “
Crews are adding reinforcing bar, or rebar, to the rear wall as well. “That’s a major improvement to strengthen the wall,” Zwick said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — A construction trade training facility recently opened on Center Street, with organizers hoping to capitalize on the city’s many building projects.
The Construction Workforce Initiative 2 opened at 547 Center St. at the end of July. The non-profit partners with unions to provide pre-apprenticeship training to prospective laborers in New Haven county.
Originally based in New Haven, the program was attracting mostly New Haven residents, said the organization’s board secretary Nichole Jefferson. State funding requires a broader spectrum of county residents.
“Meriden is more centrally located,” Jefferson said.
The organization, founded in 2003, is funded through the state Department of Labor and New Haven county building trade unions. Teachers for the training programs come from the labor unions,
Since the goal is to funnel workers to job sites, Jefferson said Meriden made sense.
“Meriden has a lot of construction work going on right now, between the (Meriden) Housing Authority projects, work at the train station, and project-labor agreements with the schools, we’re hoping this will be a good avenue for us,” she said.
The MHA is spearheading the construction of a residential and retail building at 24 Colony St. that will include a state parking garage. The housing authority is also in the early stages of a 100,000-square-foot mixed-use building project at 143 W. Main St.
Also, the state is building a new train station on State Street as part of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail project.
The city is also planning to develop housing and retail on five properties in downtown.
Elsewhere, both the city’s public schools are in the midst of multi-million dollar updates. When the projects were approved, councilors passed project labor agreements that set goals that 30 percent of the total hours on each project would be worked by Meriden residents, 10 percent by minorities, 5 percent by women, and 5 percent by veterans. The agreement also stipulates that the hiring be done through union referrals.
To date, the Meriden residency goal hasn’t been met at either school, though Jefferson hopes the CWI2 program can help.
“This is union-based training. Folks trained through us are generally the first taken in through building trades, and the unions get first choice for our candidates,” she said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group said Tuesday it has applied for a zoning change to allow for development of Hartford Premium Outlets on Old Country Road, near the intersection of Route 20 and I-91.
No development pricetag was listed. If approved, construction would begin next fall, with an opening slated for the fourth quarter of 2017.
The first phase will consist of 350,000 square feet of retail space, a food court and a pair of restaurants on the property's perimeter, Simon officials said. It also will feature pedestrian promenades, with fountains, art, a children's play area, and an outdoor fireplace.
"We are tremendously excited to bring the world's most recognized and popular brand of upscale outlet shopping to the Hartford area," said Mark Silvestri, chief operating officer for Simon Premium Outlets division. "We are off to a solid start – the Town of Windsor Locks has been very supportive and welcoming. This will be a great development."
The architectural style of the center will be inspired by Classic Colonial and Connecticut rural architecture, so that the village-like setting will be reminiscent of a Windsor Locks community.
"This project will allow Simon Property Group to create retail space that will lead to hundreds of new jobs for area residents, attract visitors, and boost the overall economic development base for the region," Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement accompanying Simon's announcement.
Among Simon's 85 Premium Outlets nationwide, its other shopping centers nearest Connecticut include Wrentham Village Premium Outlets in Wrentham, Mass., and Lee Premium Outlets in Lee, Mass. Simon also owns Waterford's Crystal Mall.
Storrs Center's condos break ground
Site work is underway on 42 luxury condominiums, the latest — and perhaps final phase — of the mega Storrs Center development adjacent to UConn's campus.
Westchester, N.Y., developer LeylandAlliance LLP just recently sealed the deal for construction of the Main Street Homes project with its announcement of a $6 million credit line for its Main Street Homes-Storrs LLC unit from Rhode Island's Washington Trust.
LeylandAlliance CEO Howard Kaufman said demand already is outpacing its ability to ramp up construction of the first units, due to be ready for occupancy by early 2016. All 42 units are slated to be built and sold by late that same year.
"This is the first for-sale residential product at Storrs Center,'' said Kaufman, whose firm is a minority partner with Centerplan Development in recasting Harford's Downtown North, or "DoNo,'' section into a mix of office, retail and apartments/condos, anchored by the new Dunkin' Donuts ballpark under construction for opening next spring.
Twenty-three of Main Street Homes' floor plans are pre-sold, Kaufman said. Prices for units ranging from one- to three-bedroom flats and townhouses start at $269,000 to as high as $530,000, Kaufman said.
It is, he said, more confirmation that Mansfield's residents, business and college-student body have fully embraced Storrs Center. To date, he said, the mixed-use development's approximately 600 apartments are occupied, and most of its 166,000 square feet of retail space is leased.
"It's a huge success,'' Kaufman said.
The $220 million project has involved a massive private-public partnership, two separate development companies, a financing package that mixes taxpayer money with private equity and bank loans, a relocation of a small business cluster and redevelopment around wetlands.
Moreover, the project was assembled throughout the 2008 financial crisis, which led to the nation's worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
All of the condominium units, Kaufman said, will be contained in eight separate buildings on four acres that architect Union Studio, of Providence, R.I., has designed. The units will average 1,510 square feet in size.
A ninth structure, a three-story mid-rise to be called The Leyland Building, will house 10 flats that residents can access through garages and elevators at the building's rear, Kaufman said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Waterbury factory building demolished and salvaged
WATERBURY — Pulling down a 125,543-square-foot brick building is no small feat, especially when carefully preserving building materials for reuse or recycling.
Waterbury Wrecking Co. began taking apart the century-old Berbecker & Rowland Manufacturing Co. factory at the corner of Thomaston and Huntingdon avenues two weeks ago. One wing of the building has already been turned into large piles of brick. The crew is now working on the original three-story building.
Waterbury Wrecking owner Peter Vileisis expects to have the job done in another two weeks.
Vileisis couldn't share his fee or cost for pulling down the massive building, but he did say money from recyclables in the building will allow him to charge about half what he would otherwise expect. He began his company 55 years ago as a teenager, pulling down houses by hand to make way for new doctors' offices. Today he uses heavy tractors.
Cheshire-based developers Robert Roscoe and Robert Oris paid $800,000 for the property in April, according to city records. They plan to demolish the factory and put up three buildings, each around 4,000 square feet. These will be for a bank, a restaurant and a Cumberland Farms convenience store, according to the City Planning office.
Vileisis and his five-man crew are careful to sort metal, bricks and huge wooden beams that might be sold for scrap or recycled building materials. Workers could be seen pulling bolts from metal supports and tossing them in five-gallon buckets Tuesday. "Every little nut and bolt gets picked up," Vileisis said.
The metal will go to local scrap yards, the brick to Wethersfield Building Supply. Vileisis expects to salvage 1,000 heavy beams, to be shipped to Japan by a Spanish company.
The beams are about 15 inches wide and tall. Some are 22 feet long. Some are 42 feet. "Today you've got to recycle," Vileisis said. "If you don't recycle, you may as well go out of business."
The building is in an industrial zone, so the proposed uses are allowed, City Planner James Sequin said Tuesday.
Roscoe and Ortis plan to build the Cumberland Farms right away, but will have to wait to secure a special permit for the other buildings.
That's because the additional construction will push excavation past the 500-cubic-yard-per-acre threshold that is automatically allowed, Sequin said.
Waterbury Wrecking owner Peter Vileisis expects to have the job done in another two weeks.
Vileisis couldn't share his fee or cost for pulling down the massive building, but he did say money from recyclables in the building will allow him to charge about half what he would otherwise expect. He began his company 55 years ago as a teenager, pulling down houses by hand to make way for new doctors' offices. Today he uses heavy tractors.
Cheshire-based developers Robert Roscoe and Robert Oris paid $800,000 for the property in April, according to city records. They plan to demolish the factory and put up three buildings, each around 4,000 square feet. These will be for a bank, a restaurant and a Cumberland Farms convenience store, according to the City Planning office.
Vileisis and his five-man crew are careful to sort metal, bricks and huge wooden beams that might be sold for scrap or recycled building materials. Workers could be seen pulling bolts from metal supports and tossing them in five-gallon buckets Tuesday. "Every little nut and bolt gets picked up," Vileisis said.
The metal will go to local scrap yards, the brick to Wethersfield Building Supply. Vileisis expects to salvage 1,000 heavy beams, to be shipped to Japan by a Spanish company.
The beams are about 15 inches wide and tall. Some are 22 feet long. Some are 42 feet. "Today you've got to recycle," Vileisis said. "If you don't recycle, you may as well go out of business."
The building is in an industrial zone, so the proposed uses are allowed, City Planner James Sequin said Tuesday.
Roscoe and Ortis plan to build the Cumberland Farms right away, but will have to wait to secure a special permit for the other buildings.
That's because the additional construction will push excavation past the 500-cubic-yard-per-acre threshold that is automatically allowed, Sequin said.