STAMFORD — The state is set to replace two bridges less than a half mile from each other on Route 1, and although the construction periods will overlap, engineers say lane closures will not.
Department of Transportation officials and private engineers and designers met recently with city residents at the Stamford Government Center to go over the latest bridge project, which will replace the span that carries Route 1 over Interstate 95.
About 500 meters to the east, the DOT also plans to replace the bridge that carries the highway over the Noroton River. The DOT predicts that project will begin in spring 2017 and take two years, while the bridge over the interstate should begin next fall and last until spring 2018.
And while both should involve lane closures, they likely will not coincide.
“There’s contractual language that tells the contractor that they have to coordinate traffic closures and lane closures,” said Sal Cugno, a project coordinator for Wethersfield-based engineering firm Close, Jensen and Miller.
“Our lane closures, our work, when we detour traffic and bypass 95, it’s only for one weekend.”
For the bridge over the interstate, at least, the construction will take place entirely on the infield surrounded by an on-ramp that takes traffic from Route 1 to the interstate’s northbound lanes.
When the lanes close, engineers will set up bypass lanes for Interstate 95, and Route 1 traffic will move to Courtland and Hamilton avenues. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Work progresses at Hub park in Meriden
MERIDEN — The Meriden Hub park is starting to look more like the park and less like a construction site.
Earlier this week, crews began installing light posts in the southeast corner of the park and the installation will continue toward the northeast corner in the coming weeks, Public Works Director Robert J. Bass said Friday.
“Basically they’re working on all the lighting east of the brook,” Bass said.
And though sidewalks are being poured, “there’s still lots of sidewalk to do,” Bass said.
The walkways are “formed and poured” up to the pedestrian bridge, Bass said. The bridge was installed in dramatic fashion at the beginning of the month. From the bridge to the park’s boundary at Mill Street, Bass said roughly 50 percent of the sidewalk work is complete.
As that continues, crews are also working to use and remove the piles of fill at the corner of the park bounded by Mill and State streets.
A large portion of fill was already removed in order to demolish and backfill a box culvert that ran under it, Bass said. That’s cleared the way for the beginning stages of construction on an amphitheater in the corner.
By the middle of this week, Bass said Clark Brook should be diverted into the new channel carved into the middle of the park, marking the first time all three brooks in the area — Clark, Jordan, and Harbor brooks — flow together through the channel.
Other work continuing at the park includes grading and forming the staircases and handicapped-accessible ramps on the bride abutments at both Pratt and State streets.
Bass said “substantial completion” of the work at the park is on track to be done by Dec. 31. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Thousands preview New Haven’s Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in preparation for Sept. 28 grand opening
One of the designers of the signature extradosed Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, he spent every working day on the site and he was there for the celebration Saturday when thousands of area residents took the opportunity to walk or bike onto the southbound lanes.
Those lanes will be opened on Sept. 28 to the 140,000 vehicles that will begin to cross it on a daily basis; the northbound span opened in 2012 with the interchange between Interstate 95 and Interstate 91 set to open next fall.
“It’s been a career project for me,” Anderson said. “It’s really a story from one end to the other” said the engineer with AECOM, a global design and construction company.
The event, which had almost 6,000 guests by 1 p.m., was twofold.
It recognized the construction of the $591 million bridge, one of seven components of the $1.9 billion I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Project.And it memorialized the more than 2,500 Americans who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Sitting in the front row was Pearl Harbor survivor, Jack A. Stoeber, 97, of Milford, who was on the USS Whitney, and Floyd Welch, 94, of East Lyme, who was on the USS Maryland that day.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the bridge, which has a 100-year lifespan, is eight months ahead of schedule and on budget.
“We should be proud we can do that in Connecticut,” he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Seymour seeks to start construction of scenic greenway trail in the spring
SEYMOUR >> Construction could get underway on the town’s first scenic greenway trail as early as next spring.
That’s according to Engineer Michael Joyce with the Cheshire firm of Milone & MacBroom, who gave the Board of Selectman an update on the much-anticipated greenway project this week.
The town hired Milone & MacBroom in 2013 after receiving a $10,000 state grant to do an engineering study and conceptual design of Phase 1 of the greenway. Those design plans have since been submitted to the state Department of Transportation for review.
Economic Development Director Fred A. Messore said the firm was the same one that designed the nearby fish bypass channel and adjoining park for the DOT, which turned out remarkable, he said.CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Norwich Public Utilities plans natural gas expansion in Occum
Norwich — Norwich Public Utilities will continue its natural gas expansion program targeting nearly 150 homes and businesses in the Occum section of the city.
NPU will be extending its natural gas main along Route 97-Taftville-Occum Road beginning in the spring of 2016. If there is sufficient interest in the adjacent neighborhoods along Route 97, NPU will extend lines to those homes as well.
The project is being scheduled to precede plans by the state Department of Transportation to repave Route 97 next year.
New natural gas customers in Occum will have to sign an agreement with NPU before Feb. 1, 2016. This schedule will allow for adequate coordination between construction and paving crews, NPU officials said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Costco expected to open in East Lyme by 2017
East Lyme — Costco, the big-box warehouse store, has signed a lease with the developers of Gateway Commons with plans to open by 2017, a representative for the developers said Thursday.
The store’s design is underway, and Costco is expected to come before the Zoning Commission for permitting “in the very near future,” said attorney Theodore Harris.
Harris presented the Zoning Commission with updates regarding the long-planned residential and commercial village near Interstate 95's Exits 73 and 74.
The developers have also been meeting with DOT officials and are applying for approval for their interim plan to locate the entrance to the commercial development south of the originally planned location.
Zoning Official Bill Mulholland said the DOT prefers the original plan for the final product, but would allow an interim driveway.
The commission approved a master development plan for the overall project several years ago, prior to the economic recession.
Recently, the developers finished constructing 280 rental units for the residential section near Exit 73.
The developers have yet to present a final site plan for the commercial phase, which is closer to Exit 74. The developers have permission for 425,000 square feet of retail space with one big-box anchor store and up to five "junior anchor stores."
Thursday's meeting served as a pre-application review for the Simon Konover Development Corp. of West Hartford and KGI Properties of Providence.
Harris told the commission Thursday that he expects construction on Costco to attract other stores to the site and serve as "the catalyst to start the rest of the development."
Siting Council OKs development plans for power plant
OXFORD — The state Siting Council approved development plans for a proposed 785-megawatt power plant Thursday, leaving just one more regulatory hurdle for CPV Towantic to clear with another state agency. The Siting Council approved all but one piece of CPV's Development and Management Plan at a meeting on Sept. 3. The council tabled a decision on the erosion and sedimentation control plan, requesting more information from the applicant.
On Thursday, the council approved the plan, based on CPV's responses to questions filed on Sept. 10.
Approval of the Development and Management Plan marks CPV's last stop at the Siting Council, which gave initial approval to the power plant in May.
"I'm pleased with the Connecticut Siting Council that they've conducted a thorough and complete review of the application and ultimately, after a lengthy and detailed process of working with them, we came to a final project design that works very well for them and for us," said Braith Kelly, senior vice president for external affairs at CPV.
The last step in the application process is for CPV to obtain air permits from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The agency held a hearing Thursday on the air permits, which dozens of opponents attended. They fear the power plant will cause pollution and make residents sick.
Kelly said CPV is in the final stages of completing the air permitting process.
"After that, the remaining steps are for us are to complete the financing of the project, which is well underway, and then somewhere in there begin some construction activities," Kelly said.
He wouldn't say when construction will begin, but said it's "imminent."
CPV also has obtained an approval it needed from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding obstruction to air navigation.
The 785-megawatt power plant, called CPV Towantic Energy Center, will be built on a 26-acre site north of the intersection of Prokop Road and Towantic Hill Road, not far from Waterbury-Oxford Airport. It will use natural gas as its primary fuel source. When natural gas is unavailable, which CPV says will occur roughly 30 days a year, it will use oil as its backup.
The electricity generated by the power plant will be sold into the wholesale energy market in Connecticut. A power plant has been proposed at the same location for more than a decade. In 1999, the Siting Council approved a 512-megawatt power plant proposed by Towantic Energy. In 2007, the council approved an extension for the project to be completed by June 1, 2016.
In 2012, CPV acquired Towantic Energy. CPV Towantic asked the council in November 2014 to reopen the 1999 approval to allow a 785-megawatt facility, citing a need for new electric capacity in New England's grid.