As the high school renovation process nears its halfway mark the project remains on schedule.
Work on the $51 million project began in November 2014 and is scheduled to be completed in May 2017. By month’s end, six more revitalized classrooms will open. The classrooms “look fantastic,” project manager Charles E. “Chuck” Warrington told members of the School Building Committee on Thursday. The committee held its monthly meeting with the project architects, the general contractor, the project manager and Superintendent of Schools Paul Smith. “The smart boards are up, the bathrooms are finished,” Warrington said.
The wing that contains the classrooms “looks very good and we are looking forward to opening that up,” he added. Shortly after that, work will begin on the classrooms in the front of the school between the new science wing and the main entrance, he said.
The next phase of the project will also involve renovating the cafeteria kitchen and the school administration offices, Warrington said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New East Hampton town offices price tag could reach $28 million
EAST HAMPTON >> The Town Council was presented Tuesday with a series of options for reusing the Center School that range in cost from $18 million to as much as $28 million.
The choices were laid out for the council by representatives from Friar Associates, an architectural/engineering firm that has conducted two analyses in the past 10 years of the potential use of the school as a combination town hall/police station.
As the council began its workshop, Council Chairwoman Patience R. Anderson said it was her intent to find “the most viable option.” To do so, “I want to be sure we are doing our due diligence,” Anderson said. With that, the council sat back to listen to a presentation from Friar vice president Michael A. Soriano and Alicia Wakefield, the firm’s architectural project leader.
Two councilors were absent: Pete Brown, who was unavailable, and Melissa Engel, who could not get to the meeting because of trees and power lines that were brought down by the storm that swept through the region earlier in the day. Soriano said his projections involved determining if the school could accommodate the space needs of the town offices, the police department, and possibly the school administration offices which are now housed in a 19th-century building.
To gauge those needs, Soriano said he met individually with town staff to see what their space needs were. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Sheldon Road bridge repairs could take up to four years, Griswold officials say
GRISWOLD- The Sheldon Road bridge could be closed for up to four years, town officials said.
”There is no guarantee it won’t be longer,” First Selectman Kevin Skulczyck said. “People should be prepared for the long haul.”
Sheldon Road runs between routes 138 and 165, two of the town’s main state roads. Many people use the road to cross between one road and the other.
The bridge, which carries the road over Glasgo Pond, was abruptly closed Feb. 2 because an inspection showed the foundation was severely eroded making it unsafe for motorists and pedestrians. Town officials said the cost of repairs could be as high as $1.5 million. It is a town bridge, so taxpayers will have to foot the bill. Skulczyck said the drawdown of Glasgo Pond, which began last summer, is being blamed for the bridge’s severe erosion. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has drawn down the water in the pond in order to repair the pond’s dam. “The pressure the water placed on the bridge held the bridge material up,” Skulczyck said, “but when the water was drawn down, the pressure wasn’t in the same place and the foundation began to fall apart.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Report: More than 350 CT bridges ‘structurally deficient’
Washington – A transportation builders' association says 357 bridges in Connecticut are “structurally deficient,” meaning one or more key elements, such as the deck or substructure, are considered to be in “poor” condition – or worse.
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association report, which is based on U.S. Department of Transportation ratings, is one of several studies that come out every year on the nation’s infrastructure. They all agree the nation’s roads and bridges need a massive infusion of help.
The U.S. DOT’s rating of a bridge as “structurally deficient” does not mean it’s in danger of collapse. Local or state officials shut down a bridges that are in danger of collapse. And although there have been disastrous collapses – like 1983 collapse of the I-95 bridge over the Mianus River in Greenwich that killed three people -- they are very rare.
But the bridges on the structurally deficient list are in need of repair and may be subject to weight restrictions.
“It is important to note that these bridges are safe,” said Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman Judd Everhart. “Our bridges are inspected at least every two years and those that are in lesser condition are inspected more frequently. If we determined that any bridge is unsafe, we would close it immediately and keep it closed until repairs can be made or the bridge replaced.”
The good news for the nation about the ARTBA’s latest report is that there are about 2,500 fewer structurally deficient bridges in the United States than there were a year ago. Still, nearly 59,000 bridges are officially classified as structurally deficient by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The good news for Connecticut is that it’s not at the top of the list of states with the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges. Those are Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Iowa, were more than 20 percent of bridges were in poor shape or worse.
With 8 percent of the state’s 4,225 bridges deemed structurally deficient, Connecticut ranked 26 among all 50 states and the District of Columbia CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Construction Firms Add 18,000 Workers in January
Construction firms added 18,000 workers in January, as the industry's unemployment rate declined to a 17-year low of 8.5 percent, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that the number of construction jobs added in January was down compared to the last three months of 2015 and could reflect either a slowdown in nonresidential construction activity or an inability of contractors to find qualified workers.
“While the construction industry continues to add jobs, the January figures mark a significant decline in the rate of growth compared to the end of last year,” said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. “It will take a few months to evaluate whether firms are running out of people to hire or if broader economic uncertainty is leading to a decline in demand for many types of construction services.”
Construction employment totaled 6.6 million in January, the most since December 2008, and is up by 264,000 jobs compared to a year ago, a 4.2 percent increase. Residential construction increased by 20,100 in January and by 149,500, or 6.2 percent, compared to a year ago. Nonresidential construction employment declined by 2,300 jobs for the month but was up 115,000 jobs compared to last January, a 2.9 percent increase.
The number of unemployed jobseekers in January who last worked in construction totaled 729,000. The unemployment rate for such workers was 8.5 percent. Both the number and the rate were the lowest January figures since the series were introduced in 2000. Meanwhile, Census Bureau data released on February 1 showed that construction spending experienced only slight growth between November and December, and has been limited to residential building. Nonresidential construction spending by both the private and public sectors has been flat or declining since July 2015. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE