November 24, 2015
CT Construction Digest November 24, 2015
TRIP will be releasing the “Connecticut Top Transportation Issues” Report at 11am, TODAY Tuesday, November 24, 2015 in room 1B at the State Legislative Office Building in Hartford. TRIP will be joined by Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff and others for the release.
Pipeline developer seeks FERC okay
Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline filed its formal application for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of the Northeast Energy Direct Project, a $5 billion pipeline that would expand the supply of natural gas to Connecticut and New England from shale gas fields in Pennsylvania.
Tennessee Gas plans to build a 133-mile pipeline from northern Pennsylvania to Wright, N.Y., and a 188-mile pipeline from there to Dracut, Mass. with one 15-mile loop south into the Hartford area.
Tennessee Gas hopes to begin construction in January 2017 with service initiation dates between November 2018 and November 2019.
Bridgeport set to take on Remington Arms site
Bridgeport is poised to take possession of the former Remington Arms factory, including the iconic shot tower, on Barnum Avenue after reaching a settlement on a longstanding bankruptcy proceeding.
The century-old buildings on the site are adjacent to the property planned for the city’s second train station, and are considered vital to Bridgeport’s transit-oriented development plans.
The settlement in U.S. bankruptcy court last week was awaiting a judge’s final approval and, because of the pending change in city government, will require assent from the City Council.
Environmental coalition opposing natural gas transmission line
A coalition of Connecticut environmental groups is opposing the construction of a new natural gas transmission line that would bring natural gas from Pennsylvania to New England, because part the project would go through watershed lands owned by the Metropolitan District Commission, which provides drinking water to Hartford and surrounding communities.
The eight environmental groups announced their opposition to Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct pipeline on Monday, after the Houston-based energy infrastructure company filed its plans for the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
“The Northeast Energy Direct pipeline would set a terrible precedent by trampling on our state’s most important drinking water protections, while increasing our long term dependence on dirty gas,” Lou Burch of Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), said in a statement. “This ill-conceived proposal not only threatens our drinking water, it delays Connecticut from meeting its clean energy goals and should be denied without delay.”
Friday’s filing by Kinder Morgan for its $5 billion project was more than 20,000 pages, said Richard Wheatley, a spokesman for the company. A decision by FERC on the company’s application for the project is expected to come during the fourth quarter of 2016, Wheatley said.
“There is a very extensive environmental review that will take place with this project, one that we feel is necessary for all stakeholders, including environmental groups,” he said. “We are going to great lengths to make sure that this project will be done in harmony with the environment. Quite frankly, that’s part of the reason that our FERC filing is so lengthy.”
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Environmental group seeks to block Eversource’s Northern Pass project
A New Hampshire environmental group is going to court to block a major Eversource Energy transmission project designed to bring hydroelectric power into New England from Quebec. Attorneys representing the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests filed a lawsuit last week in Coos Country Superior Court in New Hampshire against Eversource Energy and its Northern Pass transmission project. The lawsuit contends that Eversource Energy is making an unauthorized attempt to use land the group controls to build part of the regional utility company’s 192-mile transmission project.
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests contends its owns the land under less than a quarter-mile of U.S. Route 3 near the Canadian border. That stretch of the road is where Eversource Energy wants to bury a portion of the Northern Pass transmission line.
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests owns the land on either side of that section of the highway.
“Northern Pass cannot show that it has the property rights it would need to build the facility it is looking to permit through the Site Evaluation Committee,” Jane Difley, president of the environmental group, said in a statement. “Nor does Northern Pass, as a merchant transmission project, have the ability to use any form of eminent domain to acquire those rights.”
The lawsuit also seeks to have the court issue a permanent injunction that would keep the Northern Pass line from being buried under the road without the Forest Society’s permission. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford public works project helped national construction figures
A $153 million expansion to a sewage treatment plant in Hartford helped drive a growth in public-works construction nationwide in October. Overall, new construction starts in October advanced 13 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $591.1 billion.
According to the Dodge Data & Analytics monthly construction report, the increase follows the lackluster performance for construction starts during August and September, when activity fell to the lowest levels reported so far in 2015. Much of October's gain for total construction was due to a sharp rebound by non-residential building, with additional support coming from a moderate uptick for housing as a result of further strengthening by multifamily housing.
The public works categories in October grew 4 percent, showing further improvement after September's slight 1 percent gain, which followed double-digit declines in July and August.
Wright-Pierce Project Wins Best Regional Project Award
The Mattabassett Water Pollution Control Facility in Cromwell recently won recognition as Engineering News Record's Best Regional Project of 2015.
Wright-Pierce, a Middletown wastewater and infrastructure firm, was the design engineer for the $100 million project.
The facility upgrades contributed to the clean-up of Long Island Sound by reducing the facility's nitrogen levels below state and federal compliance mandates, while increasing treatment capacity with energy-efficient design components that qualified for more than $1 million in incentive rebates from Connecticut Light & Power.