Controversial Stamford developer subject of complaint
STAMFORD — Developer Nagi Osta, whose controversial development on High Ridge Road prompted the creation of the website stopnagi.com, is again the target of a zoning complaint over that project.
Osta has angered residents since 2011 with his long-evolving proposal to build apartments and a day care center next to his jewelry store.
Under a zoning approval he received for the development, Osta is required to have a landscaped buffer between the mixed-use project and his jewelry store until a traffic light is installed at the intersection of High Ridge Road and Bradley Place. The buffer is required so users of the development couldn’t cut through store’s parking lot and exit onto the residential side street.
But that landscaping apparently was removed over the weekend, despite the lack of a traffic signal. Now, only a curbed buffer with weeds remains between the two properties.
Elizabeth Carlson, a city spokeswoman, said the mayor’s office received a complaint about the buffer shortly after it was removed. On Monday, a city zoning inspector visited the site and was assured the landscaping would be replaced promptly, she said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Danbury‘s Morganti wins $78m contract for Platt Tech renovation in Milford
DANBURY — Locally based Morganti Construction was awarded a $78 million contract to manage a renovation and expansion of Platt Technical High School in Milford —and is guaranteeing its price.
Robert Tripi, director of business development at Morganti, said the company won a so-called construction management at-risk contract by the state, which is increasingly relying on contractors to be involved early in a project’s design phase and guarantee a maximum price for the work.
“As the contractor we are obligated to make sure that we don’t exceed that price,” said Tripi. “It’s becoming the state’s preferred contract for any project over $20 million. The customer gets a lot of value added for having the contractor be involved early in the process. It’s become our preferred form of contracting and it works well with all kinds of projects.”
Morganti, which has more than 400 employees throughout the region, has created a niche for itself in recent years in public school construction. The company has completed more than $1.7 billion in school projects over the last decade, with 16 projects in Connecticut including renovations and expansion work at high schools in Newtown, Brookfield and Bethel.
The Platt school work involves renovation of about 208,000 square feet of the existing facility, which houses classrooms, shops, labs and offices, along with new additions totaling about 26,000 square feet. The building will be designed by Drummey, Rosane and Anderson Architects, of South Windor.
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Final closures, detours this weekend for New Haven bridge work on I-95
NEW HAVEN — The final work on the approaches to the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge will create another — hopefully last — traffic headache this weekend.
“Construction activities related to the shifting of I-95 southbound traffic onto the new pearl Harbor memorial Bridge are expected to cause significant delays during the weekend,’’ the state Department of Transportation warns.
The series of closures and detours will begin tonight and last until 6 a.m. on Monday. View all of traffic alerts and detour maps here.
The Woodward Avenue on-ramp to I-95 southbound and the Route 34 will be closed at 6 p.m. today and will reopen on Monday morning. Vehicles can travel down Woodward to Forbes Avenue and cross the Tomlinson Bridge, turning left onto Long Wharf Drive or Canal Dock Road to rejoin the highway at Sargeant Drive.
The southbound off-ramp to Route 34, at Exit 47, will close at 9 p.m. Friday and reopen at 6 a.m. on Monday. Vehicles should exit the highway at Exit 43, First Avenue in West Haven, and cross back into New Haven on Kimberly Avenue.
At the same time off-ramp from I-95 south to I-91 north, Exit 48, will be also be closed and motorists are advised to take East Street or Hamilton Street to rejoin I-91 at Exit 2.
The exit will be relocated at 6 a.m. Saturday approximately one mile north, in the area of Woodward Avenue, before opening in its final alignment at 6 a.m. on Monday at the western end of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.
The 10-lane bridge (five lanes in both directions) is the main crossing of New Haven Harbor. The bridge is the first “extradosed” bridge in the United States. The extradosed system is a hybrid design that is a combination of a concrete cable stressed girder bridge (such as the Baldwin Bridge on I-95 over the Connecticut River), and a cable stayed bridge (like the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston). It was built to last a century, engineers say. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
E. Hartford approves casino site
The East Hartford Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously approved its proposed casino site, in the hopes that the Connecticut's two Native American tribes select the city as their third location.
Silver Lane Partners has proposed turning the vacant Showcase Cinemas on Silver Lane into the third Connecticut casino and sought the planning and zoning approval to make it more attractive for the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes to put a casino there.
As a way to mitigate the losses to their Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino properties in southeastern Connecticut after Massachusetts builds out hour gaming locations in the coming years – including an MGM Grand off I-91 in Springfield – the two tribes sought and obtained approval from the Connecticut General Assembly to put a jointly-operated casino in a strategic location in the northern part of the state.
Enfield officials also have discussed enticing the tribes to build the casino in their town.
The Silver Lane proposal would cost anywhere between $140-$300 million and seek to prevent gamers from the Hartford market from driving to Massachusetts, as the MGM location would be closer than the two in southeastern Connecticut. If the tribes pick the East Hartford proposal, the developers still would need to have the build-out plan approved by the city's planning and zoning commission.
OKs in hand, Rentschler mall to start
Groundbreaking is imminent for the proposed Outlet Shoppes at Rentschler Field after East Hartford planners granted zoning approval for the 410,000-square-foot retail development, authorities say.
Chicago developer Horizon Group Properties said Thursday the planning and zoning commission's green light at its Wednesday meeting followed Monday's clearance by the town's inland wetlands/environment commission.
Horizon previously had said that, if approved, the project would break ground in October, with the outlet mall to open in late 2016 or early 2017.
"We are pleased that the Town of East Hartford has seen the value in the design of the project which complements the historical attributes of the aeronautics and aerospace industry while embracing open spaces and comforting amenities such as fountains, fireplace, and well landscaped covered walking corridors for shoppers. We are excited to start building," said Tom Rumptz, Horizon Group senior vice president of development/construction, said in a statement Thursday.
The mall is intended to anchor a development plan from United Technologies Corp., whose Pratt & Whitney Co. jet-engine division occupies a number of buildings adjacent to Rentschler.
CT $840M transportation bonds given AA rating
Fitch Ratings has given its second highest AA rating to $840 million in Connecticut's special tax obligation bonds that will be used to improve the state's transportation infrastructure.
Fitch gave the very high credit quality rating on the STO bonds because of the state's pledged revenues to cover its payments from taxes and fees on fuel, vehicle sales and licenses, as well as the bonds being part of the larger Let's Go CT! plan, which is a $30-year, $100 billion initiative to improve the state's transportation system.
Fitch also reaffirmed its AA ratings on Connecticut's $3.7 billion in outstanding senior lien bonds and $334 million in outstanding second lien bonds.
The strong credit rating will help Connecticut get more competitive interest rates for those transportation projects.
Bristol Babcock demolition begins without permit, plan
WATERBURY — Without a permit, without notifying the state and without an environmental cleanup plan, the demolition of a massive factory began this week in the city's South End.
The lack of these items concerned neighbors and at least one city environmental official. Whether it is in violation of any state regulations remains to be seen.
As a Waterbury Wrecking Co. crew knocked down walls of the former Bristol Babcock complex with a big tractor Thursday, city Environmental Control Commission Chairman Steven Schrag spent the morning calling local and state agencies.
Schrag wants an inventory of hazardous chemicals within the building. He believes property owner Norman S. Drubner should have at least completed a certified plan for asbestos.
"That's not right," Schrag said of the lack of public information. "People around that site have a lot of concern about what they've already been exposed to. And here they go with demolition and they have given no information to people in the neighborhood about how they are going to go about it."
The 310,000-square-foot Bristol Babcock factory in the city's Platts Mill neighborhood has attracted squatters, trespassers, teenagers and graffiti artists since the factory moved to Watertown in the late 1980s.
Drubner, a developer and attorney with a long history in Waterbury, bought the property for $3 million, but the building has sat vacant and decaying.
Bristol Babcock made gauges to measure electricity, heat and liquid volume. The company was also involved in making movie and sound equipment. The building is about 118 years old.
In August, a massive fire burned at the factory for days, hollowing out portions of the sprawling complex. Waterbury Wrecking Co. owner Peter Vileisis recently received the go-ahead from city Building Inspector E. Gil Graveline Jr. to begin demolition without a permit.
Graveline said Thursday he hadn't been able to issue a permit because Eversource Energy and Connecticut Water Co. had not issued shut-off notices for the gas and water service.
Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said Thursday a gas service shut-off notice was provided 10 days ago. Connecticut Water spokesman Daniel J. Meaney confirmed his company had not provided a notice. A request was received the first week of September. The company will issue the notice today and investigate why the request was not acted upon earlier, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Road being relocated for I-84 work
WATERBURY — Harpers Ferry Road will be temporarily relocated as part of the ongoing Interstate 84 reconstruction project.
A contractor for the state Department of Transportation, I-84 Constructors, is building a bypass road from lower Harpers Ferry Road, near Rede Garden Center, to the Reidville Drive intersection.
I-84 Constructors, a joint venture between Empire Paving in North Haven and Yonkers Contracting in New York, won the bid for the $298 million project, which involves eliminating an S-curve on the highway and adding a third lane to each direction.
The work, scheduled to be completed by 2020, is occurring on a 2.7-mile stretch of I-84 between Washington Street and Pierpont Road.
The highway will be moved south of its current location near Harpers Ferry Road. To accommodate the new alignment, a bridge carrying Harpers Ferry Road over I-84 will be built, and Harpers Ferry Road will be shifted slightly west of its current pathway.
The bypass will allow the bridge to be built in one stage, without interfering with traffic. Other bridges, including Hamilton Avenue and Scott Road will be demolished and rebuilt in stages, allowing them to continue carrying traffic while construction is underway.
Building a bridge in one stage whenever possible is the most cost-effective and efficient method, said Christopher Zukowski, a state DOT project engineer.
"We don't have the real estate to build all of our bridges in one stage," Zukowski said.
Workers have rough graded the new bypass road since blasting away part of a massive ledge south of Reidville Drive to create a path for it. Utility poles along Harpers Ferry Road are being moved to the bypass, which is expected to go into service by winter.
The bridge will take about two years to build. Traffic will begin using the new Harpers Ferry Road in early 2018. The relocated highway, which will pass through the former bypass route, should be finished by the end of 2018.